30m CW Parks on the Air in Fundy

 This past Saturday, my wife and I camped overnight in Fundy national park's Lake Tracey campsite, a 5km hike from the Bennett Lake parking lot. It was the perfect length of hike because we were bringing along our 8 month old puppy and our things like tents and sleeping pads weren't exactly hiking-weight. There was nevertheless just enough space to bring along the IC-705 and a 10m carbon fibre pole to put up a 30m EFHW antenna in an inverted vee and call a few CQs.


The first station was ON6MG, and in the next 1.5h I added three more from the USA. Great fun. Without cell phone service, I couldn't spot myself, and 30m wasn't exactly on fire. I think if, in the future, I'm concerned about getting the 10 POTA contacts for an official activation, I should always include 20m among the bands I work and ensure I'm self-spotted. But as I see it, the POTA program means you can call 'CQ POTA' and it energizes folks on the other end, even if your signal is weak, something like 'CQ VE9QR/QRP' back in the 90's. 

The antenna was up among the close-packed spruce trees, and they were interacting enough to pull the SWR to something like 1.5:1; in an open field this antenna is 1:1. I could have moved things to the lakeside pebble beach, but then I'd have abandoned my wife to puppy duty for who knows how long.

Now that we're back, I've configured Sotamat, which might have been a help for self-spotting, though again I'm not sure if 30m is the right band to get a message through on FT-8.

As we left around noon on Sunday morning, the trail gate was wrapped with yellow caution tape. The risk of fires from extremely dry conditions had caused them to close all trails. Indeed, the province strongly requests that everyone stay out of the forests until we get some rain. We felt badly for the thong of disappointed arrivals at the Information Centre, especially those who had travelled from the United States.

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