Christmas Eve WWFF and POTA Activation

For years when I lived in Nevada my Christmas Eve tradition was to go duck hunting. It reminds me of a tradition my mother had told me that her dad had done: Thanksgiving morning was spent deer hunting. Now that I live in the UK, hunting is a bit more difficult so this year I decided to replace it with Ham Radio!

My youngest son wanted to come along today. I’m pretty sure he only likes coming because I let him bring his Nintendo Switch, but I’m happy to have his company and spend time with him. He’s noisy and asks a lot of questions so it does make activating a bit more difficult. Even more so with CW where it seems my brain can’t switch back and forth between English and Morse Code very easily. 

We were at Lakenheath Fen RSPB which is POTA and WWFF. This counted as WWFF’s Brass Monkey #2 activation for December. I set up the radio in the car with the trusty mag mount and ham stick combo. It’s been a while since I activated CW only so I was ready for the challenge. I planned on 40, 20, and 17 meters and I’d swap out when the calls stopped coming for a bit. I had a few times that I needed to ask agn agn for a few simple questions but made it through regardless.

I was able to activate CW only even through the sounds of the Nintendo Switch audio, frustrated growls when things didn’t go his way, and questions about “what’s this pedal do” or “what’s that button do” and “how do I move the seat” or the ever repeated “which one is the brake again?” 

I’m sure he’ll be out with me again. He’ll have the same questions and more but it is always welcome.

Happy Christmas, all.

de M0NZZ

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