I don’t have very many weekends free in August, so I needed to scope out the next park for August’s Coffee and POTA. As this was going to be a low pressure activation, I thought I’d try out the QMX.

For August, I thought I’d return to Patuxent State Park. However, this time, I’d avoid the scary dirt road from my last activation. This time I thought I’d check out the grounds around the Nature Center.

I am glad I did because the grounds are absolutely gorgeous. This is going to become another one of my favorite parks. It was so peaceful. I set up the radio at a picnic table under a collection of trees. There was a nearby babbling brook. I started by hunting on SSB. There weren’t very many activators. I tried answering the call of one of activator, but they didn’t respond. I tried calling CQ on SSB a few times. No callers.

After I gave up on SSB, I pulled out the CW key. I called CQ a number of times. Reverse Beacon Network didn’t hear me, and no one responded. OK. I guess today isn’t my day.

I plugged in the USB-C cable and fired up FT8CN. I let it call CQ for a bit. I only got 3 calls with my highest report of -15. I guess the fish just weren’t biting today.

I’ll have to say, I used to think that FT8 at the park was boring. However, I now think that’s a feature and not a bug. It was quite nice to fire up FT8CN, have to start calling CQ, while I kicked back and watched the bird. As much as SSB is exciting, FT8 is chill. I think I’m going to be doing FT8 more often in the park.