A number of club members met at Kwomais Park for a day of operating. We met in the parking lot at 11am and after reviewing the options of where to set up, we chose a grassy area just to the north side of the parking lot. It is an ideal location as it is a bit out of the main flow of visitors and provides a nice sized area of grass to spread out in and is a short distance from the parking lot and washrooms. Eric brought his regular POTA go-kit and set up his mast and Spiderbeam OCF antenna. Jim erected his day tent and an older radio he was testing.

As we were setting up Eric turned on his hand-held to the calling frequency and immediately heard Gabor, a Vancouver Island ham who was activating a summit near Duncan. He responded to him and we had our first contact for the day. Eric passed the radio to Joe, a ham who recently came across Eric at Campbell Valley Park and wanted to participate with the club. He also made a contact with Gabor. Meanwhile Ken arrived and called out on 2m as well, another new member Jeff responded and we had our first three contacts.

By now the station was operational and Jim was busy hunting park activators and other contesters on 20m. He managed one contact on 20m and then a couple more on 15m. After hunting for close to an hour he finished and  Eric took over; first he got his KX3 radio operational and then he selected a 17m frequency to call on. He managed a single contact out of California but after a while moved to the 20m band. 20m was also quite slow until about 1:30, then stations started coming by at a faster rate and he was able to get 20 more contacts closing down at 2:30. It wasn’t the fastest day for getting contacts but we finished with 30 in the log and those who came out enjoyed the social time and learned a few things about setting up in a portable situation. Everyone made at least one contact.

The location in the park also gave us opportunity to talk with a number of the public who came by and were interested in the activity. The tall antenna mast always catches the eye of people wandering by.