Myrtle Park

Ralph and I quite enjoy heading out to activate new parks. When weather permits, exploring a new park is a fun adventure and not only gets us out in the fresh air but we see and learn about new areas of our community as well. Our previous new park adventure was also in the Deep Cove area of North Vancouver. Myrtle Park is even closer to the actual cove than Cates. After this one the next closest is moving out of the Deep Cove though still close.

Ralph arrived at my place around 10:40 and we quickly loaded the car and set out for a coffee, Ralph wanted a Tim Horton Coffee today so checking the map we saw the easiest one for us was in the same mall as the Starbucks we often visited. So, no major detour needed for the coffee. Once endowed with the caffeine beverages we set out for Deep Cove. The drive was a bit slower than last time as the traffic was more congested and there were a few delays though the HOV lane we were using passed most of the slowness. We soon arrived on the north shore and exited onto Seymour Parkway heading for the cove.

We had no further delays except for a few uncooperative traffic lights and soon found ourselves pulling into the smaller of the two parking areas for Myrtle Park. The lot had only a few cars and we picked a spot and parked. A small bushy area surrounded the lot and we walked through it to a wide grassy area. In front of us were several ball fields. We followed the path on the right side(west) and walked alongside the first field. The path forked with one path leading up slope to the road we drove along earlier. The other wandered around the fields. We back tracked and wandered past the water park and then a fenced dog area. The path on this side continued through a forested area. We followed it along hoping it would open up on another grassy space but it was following a ravine and there was a treed rise to the south of the paved walkway. Not a good location for an antenna down here.

We turned back to the main field area. The southern most was being used by high schoolers and though the others were empty we felt they may get used while we were there so setting up on a field would not be wise. After discussing our options, we decided on our operating locations and returned to the car for our gear. The park is almost entirely playing fields and dog yard, though there is a nice forested trail to enjoy and a kids water park, 0there isn’t much for picnicking or sun bathing. Once we had our gear loaded into the cart, we walked to a bench we saw in the small grass area before the first field. There I unloaded my gear and Ralph continued along the first walkway we traveled to the spot he had selected. It was alongside the second field.

I set up my mast and started to raise my antenna but it got tangled in itself some how. After fighting that I got it in the air but as I was setting up the radio the mast fell backward landing in a tree which was behind me. It was fortunate as it stopped it from falling completely over. I was able to set it back upright without lowering the mast first. I was finally ready. I called Ralph on the handheld; he was almost ready as well. Our first part of the activation was to work each other over 10 different bands like we did in Cates Park. This time my UHF radio worked well and we quickly had the 10 different bands logged. I moved to the 15m band where I found only one other park activator that I could hear. I responded to his call and we made our contact. He was in South Dakota so the band seemed to be decent.

After a few minutes of calling with no response I finally had a Georgia station come back to me and then another almost immediately from Arizona.  Stations were coming by a bit faster now but the rate was not as fast as some days. After around 15 minutes things stopped again. I decided to try the 12m band and see if I could rustle up a few stations there. Here the responses we slow but steady, I worked stations in Wisconsin, Montana, Illinois, Louisianna, and Arizona. After which things quieted down again. I checked in with Ralph, he wanted a couple more contacts and so we agreed to continue for another 15 minutes. I used the break to switch to the 17m band and there I started calling. Things seemed a bit faster on this band and I soon had stations from Virginia, Tennessee, Oklahoma and New York in the log. With 31 contacts, I had more than enough and I shutdown.

During my operating time I had a good number of people and students stop by to ask about my activity, they all seemed quite amazed at the places I was reaching. One local woman was quite interested in the parks I had been to. We soon talked about the crowding Deep Cove sees on week-ends. She was happy I was there mid-week and not adding to the crowds. On week-end crowding the city had designated her street as over-flow parking, not a nice situation for her and her neighbours. I said I was from White Rock and she knew about the crowding the water front faces there as well. I mentioned that Crescent Beach can get so bad on summer week-ends that the police block off access.

I finished packing up the station just as Ralph arrived with the cart. I loaded my stuff into it and we continued back to the car. Our next stop was – wait for it – Starbucks of course. I guess one can’t have toooo much coffee. Before arriving, we thought we would visit the same store as our previous time out here. But with us just a bit further north, the navcom had us retrace our route along Mount Seymour Parkway and so we elected to visit the Starbuck along that route. It was a Safeway embedded store but they still had the same drinks and so we stopped in for a quick purchase before heading back to the traffic. The drive home was a bit slower than coming but not too bad as we joined the throng just before the bridge thus avoiding most of the backup. The drive on the highway was slow to the Boundary Road area but then the HOV lane started; taking it got us moving along quickly. We arrived home one minute later than the initial estimate! 3:34pm. It was a pleasant day in the sun and fresh air, the bands worked well enough and we both left having a successful activation.