POTA Success at Eldorado Canyon State Park

I had to redeem myself. The POTA attempt I tried with LARC a few weeks ago wasn’t successful. I tried to activate on 30 meters and then 20 meters on FT4 and FT8. Only got 9 QSO’s.

QRP/10 watts is hard, esp with power lines and mountains around you.

Today I went back and successfully activated the park. Still have to upload my logs but here’s the map from levinecentral.

Eldo POTA QSO map

Interesting that I got nothing northeast of me. I was surrounded by mountains but used 2 antennas – a vertical which should be omnidirectional and then a EFHW which is broadside but I wasn’t sure which way it was oriented. Hmm.

I definitely need to get my MX-P50M amp going so I can rocket my IC705 to 35 watts which should be good enough for SSB and FT4/8.

Of course when I’ve activated Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge, I’ve had no problems on SSB, so I’m sure its the taller mountains at Eldo that are blocking/bouncing my 20 meter signal. Who knows.

73,

AE0RS

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