Mary KU5Z, Jason KS5TX, Richard N5YPJ and Erik K5WW went to Amistad National Recreation Area (aka. “Amistad Lake”) to participate in the National Parks on The Air event and had loads of fun, this past Saturday!
Photo taken during Jason’s pre-visit on January 29, 2016.
Our wonderful President, always 3 steps ahead of everyone else, spent the night in Del Rio (at an undisclosed location), just so he could be in the park at the crack of dawn. And he was!
KS5TX says “good morning, Amistad!”
Yawn!! Too early for most other Texans; but that (among many other reasons) is why Jason’s the President! 😉
Here’s a picture of the poor fishermen below our position:
All about that bass (but no Meghan Trainor in sight!)
Jason decided to change our operating location at the very last minute; because the spot he had picked the day before, upon arrival, was occupied by a big Bud RV, there for the fishing tournament. Thanks, Bud, for parking in our spot. After all these years you still aren’t any “Wiser”, are you…?
But: nothing wrong with the new location Jason picked! A few hundred feet downhill, roof over our heads, great view of the lake!
Wherever we went, there we were.
That’s almost half the CARC shack, right there!
Unable to wait for the crowd to arrive Jason set up everything by himself, in no time at all. Barely an hour later he had set up two radios and two antennas, interfaced the laptops and made sure the weenies were on ice:
You’ll see the HF vertical in one of the next photos.
And he also made this photo, just to make sure everyone knows how much stuff he hauled around and unloaded:
That’s a lot of stuff! (food and drinks not pictured)
A little after 10 AM and the first visitor shows up. Richard N5YPJ – without a jacket! 😉
And one HF vertical, hiding in the back.
By lunch time Jason had already made several dozen QSOs on 40 SSB! Soon after that these two showed up:
Mary KU5Z (l) and Erik K5WW (r).
Actually, that was after a brief intermezzo of watching fish getting counted and weighed. Somebody won big bucks that day (no, they’re not really “poor” fishermen); but nobody bothered to clean up the wet spot!
It got a bit windy that afternoon; but after a 70+ degree day we weren’t complaining:
K5WW (l) and KS5TX (r).
In case it hadn’t “hit you” yet: yes, Jason even brought those two desk chairs!
Another photo of the beautiful lake, by Mary:
Diablo East
More wind!
K5WW (rear) and KS5TX (front)
6 o’clock, very windy and getting colder:
KU5Z, so cold she’s ready to go!
But we stayed just little longer; and around 6:30 PM Mary snapped this photo of the sun disappearing again:
KU5Z says “Good night, Amistad”.
Another hour later it was all over. It got way too windy and cold (and we weren’t really prepared for that!). Yet, some people never know when to quit:
Where’d the pile-up go???
After 251 QSO with the US, Canadia and Puerto Rico we packed our bags, poles and coaxes and headed back home. It was a whole lotta fun!!!
Thanks to everyone involved, organizers, planners, callers, heavy haulers and visitors.
Oh, and: cold hotdogs can be tasty too 😉
It was tuff staying off of the lake.