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POTA with a Peregrine! San Bruno Mountain State Park

 In our last ham radio POTA at San Bruno Mountain State Park, I got to eat lunch with a Peregrine Falcon while I listened for QSOs!




Park:

San Bruno Mountain State Park (K-1196)


Radio Details:

Rockmite 20 meters using a Hamgadgets PicoKeyer. The halfwave dipole was about 12 feet up, but I feel like I frequently oversestimate these sorts of things. As far as where the radio felt like it was, well... There's quite a slope headed over the edege of the mountain:




  


QSO/RBN spot map:

Green lines are QSOs, blue lines are Reverse Beacon Network Spots. See 'Happenings' for explanations of the circles around the station.


Happenings of Interest 

I got to eat lunch with a peregrine falcon!!! The raptor perched on one of the two trees that was supporting the antenna as I was making calls. It hung out, scanning the hillside below us, paying me no mind at all. Ultimately, it got a mouse! We had lunch together, although separated by about 10 meters. Also, we didn't trade food. Later, it caught one more mouse while hunting from the other antenna support tree.

Looking at the contact map above, I think we may have been able to see the various skip zones of the radio. Note that there are contacts made directly across the Bay. I'm assuming those are ground wave. After that, the rest of the QSOs seem to clump into a few different, regularly spaced distances.

QSO Log

Callsignrx RSTtx RSTTime (GMT)Frequency
K7UOU55957918:4414058.3
KE7JHA44959918:4914058.3
KJ7DT55959918:5914058.3
VA7JCF57955918:5214058.3
K9ARI55959919:4614058.3
N6PF55959919:4814058.3
NA7C55955919:5014058.3
W6RK59955919:5514058.3
WV6X55955919:5114058.3
WV7H55955920:0014058.3
K7GUD52959920:0614058.3
NZ7Q59959920:0914058.3
K7KVH55959920:1114058.3
KN6RDY57958920:2414058.3
KE7MFW57959920:3014058.3
K9EX55955920:4114058.3
K6SDW55959920:4514058.3
NA7US55958921:2514058.3
K6PB55959922:2514058.3
AI7QG58955922:4014058.3

Unschooling Highlights

Meanwhile, the 12, 10, and 8 year old gang were up the hill having a picnic with their buddies. They planned it out, hauled the stuff up the hill after I got there, and hauled everything back afterwards. Public transit rocks!


tx QSL




rx QSL Album



References

POTA (Parks on the Air)


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