La Coupe Dry Dock National Historic Site: Bicycle Mobile POTA Activation

 

The POTA hunters sure know how to make someone feel like an old pro very fast. This second activation had a lovely familiarity to it: the easy rolling gravel roads of the Tantramar Marsh, the assembly of the antenna and station, and the continual flow of QSOs on 20m CW. Here, though, the mosquitos were more ever-present despite the grass being cut for hay. 

The Tintramarre Wildlife Site of two weeks ago is a product of 1970's conservation with friendly support from Ducks Unlimited. (It seems Hunters from south of the border are looking for what comes from the marsh, either on the airwaves or in the air!) 

In contrast, the La Coupe Dry Dock site purports to be a 17th century set of dykes and control gates that furnished a place for boats to be stored in the winter and to be worked on in dry conditions. At least that was the view of Webster, who studied the site in 1933. Barka's survey published in 1970 is far less certain: he's pretty sure we can't know either when the pickets were built or what they were for. It's fitting then, for a site whose historicity is diminishing with time that the cairn memorializing it has lost its plaque decades ago. 

I only forgot one component of the station: the small stakes that hold the radials in place. So, as can be seen in the picture, I had drooping radials, and thus maybe a touch more ground loss. The 20m QSOs came regularly, but required a fair bit of calling between them. I was glad I waited for one last one because it turned out to be WA7RAR from Oregon. No European stations were worked this time. 

A 10m tall carbon fibre mast arrived in the mail along with 200m of antenna wire. Maybe a multi-band activation is in my future!

Here's the cycling side of the effort:

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