After a string of several very rainy days, the morning of September 30th saw the sky stop dripping just in the nick of time, allowing W2ZQ to set up two portable stations atop the 400’ Bowman’s Hill on the Northern edge of Upper Makefield Township in Pennsylvania. We set up two radios in a field on the opposite side of the parking lot serving the landmark 100’ high Bowman’s Hill Tower, a stone tower erected in the 1930s near the top of the Hill.
These grounds are thought to have served as a lookout point for General Washington just before his famous crossing of the Delaware River on Christmas 1776, and is considered part of PA’s Washington Crossing Historic Park, designated as “Park K-6432” by the Parks On The Air (POTA) organization which encourages and manages completed Amateur Radio contacts into portable stations set up by Radio Amateurs on the grounds of State and Federal parks in the U.S. and around the world.
Greg KC2POL brought his transceiver, computer for digital communications and deployed his portable home made “Delta Loop” designed to work on several HF bands. Bob KB3BB brought his Icom 7300 and Bob K3EDP’s portable wire antenna and used baseballs and fishing line flung high over some ideally positioned tree branches to deploy Bob‘s excellent 40-20-15 meter Fan Dipole, which surprisingly tuned on 12 and 10 meters as well as the expected 40-20-15, using the 7300’s internal antenna tuner.
W2ZQ’s “activation” of this park was well attended, attracting more than a dozen DVRA members and friends. More than 200 radio contacts were completed by five station operators on six bands during a span of about three hours, with each operator now expecting to receive credit for a “successful activation”, meeting the requirement of completing at least ten radio contacts each. Official statistics are yet to be compiled, but renowned POTA star Tobi Massano AD2CD will almost certainly land atop the leader board, with several dozen completed contacts.
In summary, at great time was had by all at a very radio-friendly and historic location. Watch for the next W2ZQ POTA activation to be announced, and join us for another great time with our wonderful hobby in the great outdoors!
