SCRC Pota Activation

On Monday May 6th, 2024 a few members of the Suffolk County Radio Club ventured out in an attempt to activate a state park. Ed, N2XDD, John, N3JWM, and Brian, NG2S, gathered at Brookhaven State Park, US-2019, for the event. Gary, KE2YK, VP of the Peconic Amateur Radio Club stopped by to attend and lend some much needed support. Eric, KD2HCU, also came by to show his support. We also debuted the new club banner!

Anytime you use your radio gear it is a test. Our test on Monday did not go as planned. We tried 3 different antennas, Antenna tuner, no tuner, long coax, short coax. All to no avail. I am sure the recent solar storms, flares and CMEs didn’t help the situation, Band conditions were terrible. Our test proved we needed to up our club game. The attempted POTA activation of US-2019 was not a failure at all. No test ever is. If nothing else you learn what needs improvement. We are working on a new club antenna as well as a new ATU instead of a manual tuner. We also found the speaker in the radio box didn’t work very well. That speaker has since been repaired. We did manage to make 2 contacts during the 4 hour event. Brian, NG2S, in his relentless pursuit of a contact, regardless of the conditions, was able to have 2 QSOs with W9IMS. W9IMS is the call sign for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Amateur Radio Club. May 6th happened to be the start of the 1st of 3 Special Events they do per year. The week of May 6th was a Special Event for the Indianapolis Grand Prix race. The IMSARC has special QSL cards for their events and a special certificate for anyone who sweeps all 3 special events. Brian operating as W2DQ as well as NG2S was able to make the 2 contacts about 7 minutes apart. We are looking forward to try and Sweep the IMSARC 2024 Special Event!

Thank you goes out to all who participated and lent a helping hand for this successful event, N2XDD, N3JWM, KE2YK, KD2HUC and NG2S. Besides calling CQ for hours with no response, twisting and turning many knobs and pushing many buttons we got together, had fun and made some new friends. We all look forward to the next “POTA Activation”!