[MCARC] NPOTA

[Dave Crawford]

For those of you who were not at the meeting last night or not familiar with NPOTA, this is  the 100th anniversary of the National Park System.  To celebrate, ARRL is sponsoring a National Parks On The Air event that lasts all year.  The concept is that hams operate from one of 483 National Park Administrative Units (59 National Parks, Historic Battlefields, Scenic Trails, Historic Trails, Recreational Areas, National Monuments, Scenic Waterway and Seashores, etc) and other hams contact them (there are activators and chasers).  The Oregon, California, Pony Express, and Sante Fe Trails in KS are all National Historic Trails that can be activated.  Three of those trails exist in Marshall County.

From the beginning I have planned to do an activation from Alcove Springs, either as an individual or club activity or both.  It was a very nice day out today so Kathy and I went up to Alcove Springs to look around.  If you are familiar with the pasture used as a parking area for the Orchestra on the Oregon Trail event, the trail crosses from east to west pretty much at the crest of that hill.  Farren had pointed this out at the meeting last night so I was delighted to find the signs he referred to marking the trail.  An activation must be within 100 ft of the trail which would be very easy to do.  According to Google Earth the elevation there is 1262 ft.  Just for comparison, the elevation at Sue Rowland’s Annex (Field Day site) is 1282 ft.

Activating from this site would actually be what is referred to as a twofer b/c it is both the Oregon and California Trails.

There were 77,000 NPOTA QSOs during the month of January and ARRL expects the total for the year to top 1 million easily.

I have already obtained permission to activate from Alcove Springs but need to check on getting access to the north pasture via a locked gate.  My plan for now is to figure out a time when I can do a test run so to speak using a mobile antenna (it will be an actual activation) to see how well everything works and then report back to the club.  At the meeting we also discussed other locations for possible activations.

I will send out an email letting everyone know when I plan to do my test run.

Dave, KØKSI