The other week, I went out to Swift Creek Bluffs Nature Preserve (US-3867) with the intentions of trying to activate for the first time. Swift Creek is a nice little park situated South West of Raleigh, NC. It's one of the two closest POTA parks near me. Maybe the most noticeable feature of this park is the huge beech trees that you encounter once you get closer to the bluffs.
The trail is pretty flat at the start. It was well covered with leaves as we're heading towards the end of fall here. The path splits a third of a mile in and ascends steps to the top of the bluffs (the other split has been closed for some time). I figured the bluffs would be a good place to set up. Not just for the height, but the views are really nice as well.
I brought two antennas to try out as I'm still figuring things out; a 10m hamstick and a random wire. I'm still a tech, so 10 meters is what I'm locked in at for the time being. Takes the fuss out of deciding which band to go for.
Setting up the hamstick first as it seemed less daunting, I was able to get some really good reception and SWR was near perfect. I tried calling CQ but didn't get any bites. Maybe I wasn't being loud enough on my end. Maybe my reception was better than transmit. But I figured I'd pass on trying to activate and just do some hunting. 10m seemed to have a good amount of activity and I was able to find someone doing POTA pretty quick. I tried answering "park to park" a few times but couldn't quite break through the pile up.
Figuring that maybe my transmit just wasn't getting out there on the hamstick, I packed it up and broke out the random wire. Now this is my first time trying to get a wire up in a tree, and it showed. My nylon string that I had brought from the shed quickly knotted and was snagging on the tree limbs. Frustrating to say the least, and I see why so many people go for arborist line. That'll be one of my next upgrades. I finally managed to get it up into a slope configuration. Back on, I finally made my first contact with a station in KS.
I stuck around for a bit longer checking for more spots and listening to the other stations. But it was windy and chilly on the bluffs. Happy with my one contact, I finally decided to head out.
Until next time, 73.