Tag: Quad Cities

Categories
W9XG

Antenna Maintenance

K9GVT - Out Standing in his Field

As a member of the River Bend Wireless Operators Club (https://www.w9xg.club ) in Milan IL, there is a lot of necessary work to keep things running smoothly. I went down to the club on February 29, 2020 to mostly watch what’s involved in maintaining the club’s antennas.

It’s so different to belong to a club with a permanent clubhouse, as opposed to just meeting once a month in a conference room at a hospital like I did for my former club.

The amount and variety of antennas at this club is amazing. I can’t wait for Field Day…

Categories
DRAC

Parks on the Air

Wild Cat Den

We had been talking about activating a park for a few weeks. Then on February 23, 2020 instead of scoping out a park to activate, we just went and did it. We activated Wild Cat Den State Park in Muscatine County in Iowa and it was awesome.

I recently moved back to the Mid-west from Southern California. I don’t know much about the Quad Cities Area because I grew up on the northwest side of Chicago. When you activate a park, you make a day out of it. Load up your truck with gear, meet your friends for lunch at Jeff’s Market in Blue Grass IA, stop and check out points of interest along the way, like The Pine Creek Grist Mill, and then set up your station at the park.