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Great Propagation from Cibola National Forest Near Albuquerque

 I made a run to New Mexico a few weeks ago. I took the chance to attempt POTA activations from Ciblola National Forest, Lincoln National Forest, and a few other places I'll talk about later this week. My first activation in Cibloa National Forest the day I arrived in Albuquerque was by far my most successful in terms of raw QSO count.



Having just arrived in town, I of course made my way to Blake's Lottaburger for a green chili cheeseburger. I've been trying to reduce my food intake a bit so I ordered an itsaburger as opposed to a lottaburger. (Seriously. It's an excellent naming scheme, no pun intended.)

Next, I made my way out to Simms Park. The park is operated by the city of Albuquerque, but it's completely contained within the boundaries of Cibola National Forest, US-4514, so voila.



I taped the Project TouCan's vertical antenna on its carbon fiber support mast to a wooden railing post and got to work. I've found several references warning not to use carbon fiber masts as a direct part of an antenna structure, but I've had great luck so far. I tape the antenna wire to the mast at two points, and then the place the rig below the mast. The connections for the vertical and the counter poise wires are both made with Anderson Power Poles. I do believe that if you're not running QRP then a carbon fiber rod could be an issue. The entire discussion hinges around the fact that carbon fiber conducts at RF frequencies.


Once I got Project TouCans running well, propagation, throughout the US was pretty wonderful. See the map below. (there's also an interactive map at the end of this post.) At that point, the Bluetooth audio transmitter on the rig was still chugging along, so I do  have a recording of the audio on most of the QSOs. I'll try to post video QSLs for them as time allows. 



I wrapped up my activation with 36 qsos as the sun was setting and headed into town to have dinner with friends at Cervantes.


The food was excellent! More green chili! What else can I say.

The next day, I was headed towards Las Cruces, NM at the southern corner of the state near El Paso, TX.

Here's the QSO map. You can play the view the QSOs in order using the controls in the lower left-hand corner of the map.


If you worked this activation (or you’re curious about carbon-fiber masts + verticals), drop your call in the comments—and keep an eye out for the upcoming video QSL clips from the recorded QSOs.
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