Big Hole Battlefield, Wyoming. NPS photo.

Tim, AE7PJ posted an interesting video showing his experience as an activator in the ARRL National Parks On The Air (NPOTA) event. He was operating from near Wisdom, Montana, at a point where three National Park Service units converge: The Big Hole Battlefield, the Nez Perce Historic Park, and the Lewis and Clark Trail.

The Lewis and Clark Trail traces the route of the 1804-06 Corps of Discovery from Illinois to Washington.  This particular spot was along the route of Clark’s return journey, following the Yellowstone River and then along the route of modern day Interstate 94. The Big Hole National Battlefield is the site of the August 9, 1877, Battle of Big Hole between the U.S. Army and the Nez Perce encamped there.  The National Battlefield is one of six units in four states of the Nez Perce National Historic Park, devoted to the history and culture of the Nez Perce (Nimiipuu) people and the 1877 conflict.

Tim condensed his two-hour operation into a nine-minute video, and it sounds like he listed all of the call signs he worked and has a brief snippet of everyone’s audio.  You can see my call, W0IS, scroll by at 5:46, and you’ll hear me saying “59 Minnesota” at 6:08.

Tim was running a Hamstick vertical antenna on his vehicle, the same antenna that I’ve used for my activations so far.  It has the advantage of being inexpensive and convenient to carry around.  It’s not particularly efficient, but as you can see from the video, it gets the job done.  He was running about 100 watts.  My activations have used a Yaesu FT-817, running only 5 watts.  While the 5 watts is adequate for CW contacts, the added power really makes a difference in being able to make voice contacts.

The video references the NPOTA Facebook group, which has become a very active forum for discussing NPOTA, and also providing spots to help other chasers find the stations in the parks, some of which can be quite weak.  In Tim’s case, he had posted his plans, and a number of us kept tuning the band looking for his signal.  I think I was the first one to spot him, but he was too weak to work when he first came on.  While waiting for him to show up, I did have the pleasure of working WC8VOA, the ham station located at the former Voice of America relay station in Bethany, Ohio.  For many decades, that station broadcast worldwide, as documented in the video below.   Two historic sites in one night–not a bad use of radio.

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