Copasetic Flow

 I made a livestream of my POTA activation from US-4571, Juan Bautista National Historic Trail in San Francisco on YouTube last night! It was pretty fun although the audio mostly didn't work out great. I'll be making notes here and in the video's comments on the QSOs in the vieo over time. (One of the things I learned was that there's no editing or even downloading of YouTube livestreams after the fact.) Here's the video, scroll for more details and, eventually, a map of the QSOs.  Park Details Here's a look at the QTH. The vertical antenna is taped to a carbon fiber mast that is in turn supported in a tree with electrical tape. You can see the rig on the ground by the tree. Happenings When a touchdown was scored in the SuperBowl at one point, there was a seven minute delay till the  next QSO. QSO Map: By moving the animation slider all the way to the left, you can see all the QSOs at once. Clicking on play will play the QSOs in order as grey line moves along as...

  US-4571 at City College San Francisco, around sunset is one of the best propagation spots in the city for Project TouCans and a Stick. I discovered this a few months back when I had a little time to kill before Cantonese class. Given, TouCans isn't quite as compact as a KH-1, but it's not much bigger than some people's water bottles, and therefore pretty easy to carry around for just-in-case POTA activations. I haven't made any calls to Europe or Sweden from this QTH yet, but I did wind up with two QSOs to Maine in my log from my latest afternoon POTA activation.  I hit the park, quite unintentionally, at the sweet spot for racking up activations. The first activation ran from about 2300 UTC till midnight. The second one started immediately afterwards and lasted about another hour. Park Details: Getting to the park is a piece of cake since it sits near five different transit routes, specifically, the 29 , 43 , 49 , K-train , and the 8 , not to mention the Balboa Park ...

 The second time TouCans Vertical activated Juan Bautista Trail, US-4571, it was from near the top of Russian Hill in San Francisco. The longest, (distance-wise), QSO was to Alaska which became a bit of a thing last week. The Park and My Forgetful Journey to It: For this activation I was in a city park within the POTA Park. To be specific, I was perched on the side of Russian Hll in George Sterling Park at 10 in the morning. I'd intended to be at the park much earlier in the morning, but I had.. well... I forgot to pick up the radio in my hurry to get to the bus stop. So, I finished my early swim at Hyde Street Pier as intended. The area is gorgeous seated just below and to the East of Ghirardelli Square. And then, I headed back to the house for the rig. In a testament to the public transit around here, I was back up on Russian Hill a mere hour later after taking the MUNI 30 to Powell St. BART station, then the BART back into Excelsior, taking another bus to the house, grabbing t...

 Through a timing miscalculation, I found myself arriving early to my Cantonese class at City College San Francisco. I'd taken my time getting there, even stopping for dinner on Mission at the Recovery Room, where some of the customers were carrying on about elections while others at the other end of the bar were avidly watching sports. Me? I was studying for my upcoming Cantonese quiz. However, after taking time for a nice dinner, I still found myself on campus at 01:10 UTC. I studied for a bit, then decided I needed a break. I'd been out all day carrying TouCans around town in a tote sack with its new carbon fiber pole compacted down to two and a half feet or so. Then, it occurred to me! Inspired by K4SWL 's many Ham Radio Work Bench tales of activating parks while out running errands as well as W6CSN 's treatises on activating parks in San Francisco with a KH1 and a vertical, I looked up the map for Juan Bautista National Historical Trail. Sure enough, it was locate...