On Our Way!
Once we all met up, we climbed on to the boat. Lake Erie was still a bit choppy but not too bad. It took us about 30 minutes to get to North Bass Island. As we were on the boat we discussed our activation options. It was decided that I would set up at the picnic table near the dock, and Kevin was going to hike down the road and set up there.
The North Bass Island POTA Setup
After we disembarked from the boat, our first goal was to make a Park to Park QSO with Nate, N8NI, who was on Pelee Island Park, which is on the Canadian side of Lake Erie, but only 7 miles away from North Bass Island. Kevin’s HT wasn’t able to make it. Fortunately, I brought along my 2 meter go-box that has a 40 watt amplifier and a 5/8 wave antenna which gave us enough power to get the Park To Park with N8NI. And of course, Kevin and I also made a 2 meter QSO so we both could get a Park to Park credit for North Bass Island.
After that, Kevin hiked up the road a couple hundred yards and set up. I set up the QCX Mini at the picnic table along with my 20 / 30 / 40 meter shortened vertical. Since it was the afternoon, I started out on 20 meters which is typically better for contacts than 40 meters. However there was a solar storm that was causing propagation havoc and 20 meters was unusually poor for me. I was unable to work anyone on 20 so I switched to 30 meters and I was able to snag 5 QSOs. When I wasn’t getting anywhere on 30, I switched to 40 meters which gave me 7 more QSO’s.
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