Laurel Caverns recently became PA’s 125th state park. I went to check out the cave tour and activate the park for POTA, then added a stop at Morgantown and Gregg Knob while I was in the neighborhood. Dan NM3A had recently done this peak, advising to drive along Greggs Knob Road to approach the peak (as Dale N3HXZ suggests) rather than White Oak School Road, since the latter is in poor condition. I did not have much trouble driving along Greggs Knob, about 1.5 mi of unpaved road driving, eventually parking by a gate in front of a field in the AZ.
While setting up by the side of the road, I tugged on my wire a bit too tightly and my EFHW snapped cleanly in two, right where I had stuck a center insulator. This shifted my 40m resonant wire antenna to a 20m resonant wire, no problem! This antenna was almost exactly one year old, having come with me to over 50 activations in that time. Now it was showing its age, the BNC connector starting to oxidize from its repeated exposure to snow, ice, and rain, but it was time to give this antenna its last activation.
On this Saturday in late May, I found a lot of folks driving by on ATVs and various off-roading vehicles. One couple drove by, asking if I was the landowner here. I just explained what SOTA was we talked a bit about the old ski hill that used to operate around here. They were here to gather rocks by the side of the road and really just wanted to know if I could give them permission to look for rock piles on the property. Alas, I could not!
Being a Saturday afternoon, a lot of folks were out activating summits, and half of my QSOs were S2S, all on 17m and 20m. KX0R on W0C/SP-070, N0DNF on W7I/SI-015 (a rare Idaho activation!), KC0DGR and W7UM on W0C/PR-118, WU7H and WW7D on W7W/KG-093, and KK7LHY on W7W/WE-010. I also used the KX2 tuner to work JB KC1MXB on 30m, but regretted not being able to work my regulars on 40m.
- Trailhead: 39.50187, -79.53535 : Side of Greggs Knob Rd
- Maps: [AA3TZ SOTA]
- Route: Drive-on via Greggs Knob Rd
- POTA: None
And a couple pictures from Laurel Caverns SP, the last full activation for this antenna before it was truncated. I worked the activation from a service road and trail a bit down the hill from the parking area to be out of the way. Many folks visit the park!
Tom Zajdel 