I made the short drive to Sonoma State Historic Park on June 22nd, 2026 to activate the park as part of the Parks on the Air program (POTA).
In the end I logged 39 contacts on 20M, 17M and 15M using FT8 and FT4. I worked stations in the US, Canada, Japan and China. At least three of the contacts were with other POTA activations and one was with a Summits on the Air (SOTA) station.
Bruce (KB6ZA) worked me and gave me an impressive +40 signal report. The highest signal strength report I’ve ever received. Of course, he lives in town, so that explains a lot. A little later he drove up into the park and stopped by to say hello. So I effectively logged both an on-the-air and an eyeball QSO.
I used a fiberglass pushup pole gifted to me by Ed (W1EJ) some time ago. It greatly eased getting part of my end fed antenna higher into the air than would have been possible by trying to sling the wire over tree branches.
This is the third park I’ve activated and I hope to add to that number in the near future.