On September 1st, 2026 I activated the Petaluma Adobe State Historic Park as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA) program. I logged 48 contacts using FT8 on 20M, 17M and 15M using a small end fed long wire antenna strung up between two trees. It was not a bad little outing based on those results alone.
What was particularly interesting about this trip was one of those contacts. I heard RI1FJL in Franz Josef Land in the Arctic Ocean calling CQ. Because of its separation from mainland Russia it counts as a separate country in the DXCC program. There was a large DXpedition there and lots of stations have been making contacts with them, including me. But my previous contacts with them were made through remotely controlled, large stations.
I thought the chances of me working them with this portable setup was 0%. But I figured it would not cost me anything to try. I was absolutely shocked when they came back to me. Not just that, but they also gave me a signal report of -07!
I logged the contact, half expecting this to be a pirate or something else that would make it invalid. But in about a day the updated RI1FJL logs appeared on ClubLog and my contact was in there! This makes it one of the most surprising QSOs I’ve ever made.
