I braved the cold morning to head to Fort Marcy (US-9900) this morning, about a half hour from home. Fort Marcy was one of two forts in Virginia guarding the entrance to the Chain Bridge into DC during the Revolutionary War. From the parking lot I activated a POTA 4-fer:
- Fort Marcy US-9900
- Civil War Defenses of Washington National Historic Trail
- George Washington Memorial Parkway
- Potomac Heritage Trail National Scenic Trail
There are some open spaces and picnic tables a short walk from the parking lot, but they aren’t close enough to activate the Potomac Heritage Trail which runs right through the parking area. I set up my 1/4 wave vertical on Faraday cloth next to my car and operated from the passenger seat. 30W on 20 meters FT8.
I made 55 qso’s in about 1 hour 20 minutes (with 3 duplicates.) I spent a few minutes answering CQ’s to make sure everything was working correctly, then called CQ. There were only a few times I called CQ and didn’t get immediate response. That works out to something like 41 qso/minute. I think in theory if I’m tail-ending replies it should take 1.25 minutes per contact, or 48 qso/minute. It will be interesting to see if I can get close to that in future outings.