Campbell Valley Park at 40

As I have mentioned before, I have been returning to the park on a regular basis, setting up my radio equipment and making contacts with other amateurs. Writing a story for each visit would become quite repetitive and so I decided to only post a story for more notable visits. Today is one of those milestones. It is my fortieth activation of the park. At this number one receives the ‘Fox Den’ Award. It is the second level of the repeat offender award series with the next one being at 60! I will likely keep going as I do enjoy my time at the park making contacts.

Today’s adventure began as most of my recent trips with me leaving the house around noon. I arrived at the park to find the lot more filled than normal. Not a big concern as it is a large park. I then found a stall for my car and loaded my gear into the cart. As I started for the covered picnic area I heard a noisy crowd of kids in the distance. Sure enough, they had infested the covered area with their parents! It seems that some unreserved event was taking place and the entire group of tables had been claimed by the many parents who were casually watching their pre-schoolers as they discussed the worlds’ troubles. I could tell that my activity would not fit in with theirs so I turned back and made for the open area air picnic area.

The day was partially cloudy with the sun peeking out occasionally, so the open tables would not be an issue. As I rounded the bend which brought the tables into view, I could see that none of them were occupied. I selected one near the walkway which has open space next to it where I could erect the mast. After gathering a few photos, I went about setting up the antenna. Once it is up and reaching almost 40 feet into the air, it becomes an interesting spectacle to people walking the pathway, and sure enough people started coming by to ask about the monstrosity littering their scenic spot. Everyone seemed quite interested in my adventure and thought the idea of talking to people on the east coast and Europe from my picnic table was amazing.

Between visitors I finished setting up my radio and was ready to start when another walker out for exercise came by. He was a newer ham and had some questions about my set up. He said he would drop by after his walk. After reviewing the propagation conditions on a web site out of Australia, I selected the 15m band as the ideal one for the day. The higher bands were not looking as open today with the solar flux quite a bit lower than it has been lately. I heard one other park activator on the band, I responded to his call and we both logged our park-to-park contact. Seeing no others on the list I found an open frequency and began my own calling. It took a couple of minutes for my first response but a chap all the way across town to Aldergrove heard me and we chatted. Now that may sound like a given him being so close but with HF radio often the closer stations are the ones that you can’t hear as their location depends on a line-of-sight ground wave which can be easily blocked, the distant stations work off a wave reflected by the ionosphere and so they don’t get blocked though the reflection works in skip zones with some regions passed over.

After the local contact, I started getting responses from distant operators – Massachusetts, Illinois, Arizona, New Mexico, Virginia … Then I heard an interesting young voice. He was a 7-year-old operating under his father’s supervision. I spent some time with him asking questions and chitchatting over various items. His father came on and thanked me for taking the time with his son. I of course loved the opportunity to encourage a young person with the hobby. He said his older son is rewriting his test this week-end for his license. He is 12! Soon all three will be sharing the hobby. Moving on, I continued my calls and made contact with a chap in Puerto Rico. A few more east coast and west coast stations came by, the band was working well for me. I also had a few other park activators respond giving me a few more park-to-park contacts. Then I was called by a chap in Vienna Austria. A nice exotic for the day, it was the second time I worked him from this park, the first time being on March 29th. Shortly after that one,  I had another young chap on the air and spent some time with him as well. His father also thanking me for the effort. The next contact was also listening in and he also thanked me for taking time to chat with a young person rather than just moving on to the next contact for the log book. As the whole idea of radio is to talk to people, I am surprised that some are so focused on making many contacts that they don’t take time to actually talk with the distant station. Frankly, I think those contacts are the more enjoyable ones. True, I am here to make enough to activate but that only takes 10 and I am already well past that so I can just enjoy each one rather than rush for numbers.

About the time I finished with the second youngster the chap I talked to earlier returned and we began chatting. My fellow club member Jim also came by and the three of us talked about radio. I wasn’t making many more contacts now as we were chatting rather than calling. Since they were here and both hams I handed them my spare hand held and told them to wander off a bit so we could log a 2m meter contact between us. And so, I logged a final two contacts to round out the day. It was also good being able to show a new ham how a portable station can be set up and operated, he learned about a number of interesting activities he can do with his radio and will hopefully join our club and participate in a wider range of activities.

Operating in the open area proved to be a fun change. It exposed my activity to more passers-by and perhaps helped a new ham to get more out of his new hobby. Some change is always pleasant if only for a short time, I still think I will be back to the covered area next visit. Yes, I do plan to continue and work towards the 60 level, but meanwhile I will be going with Ralph to new parks as well. Having visited over 100 of them, I still have 1100 more in the province! Seeing the sights at new parks is very rewarding especially the more scenic ones. It will be back to North Vancouver for my next adventure.