An Afternoon at Morningside

I had noticed this park on the map a month back and was waiting for a day when I could visit it. The day arrived and so I set out to explore the park and operate my radio. I left around 12:30 and arrived about 12:50, a short drive through central surrey. The ariel map of the park showed two large grass areas. The small front area shared its space with a kids playground. Upon arrival I noticed that the front grass was long and in need of a cut but the back was a field with unkept grass waist high. After a quick wander along the paved pathways, I settled on a spot in the front section.

I returned to the car and transferred my gear to the cart and then walked to the park cutting across the grass to where I would operate. I used a tree for the north end of my antenna and my post for the south. The map showed a string of mature firs separating the two park areas but a number of them had been felled and I was able to use the mound of a former tree for my post. Once set up, I dialed in the 15m band to try for some contacts.

I spotted myself on the list and started calling. After around 8 minutes with out a peep I decided to switch to 20m. Here I dialed in a new frequency and after spotting I started calling. Again there was only silence. Another 5 to 10 minutes passed with nothing. I decided to try to hunt for a station and went to dial in the park frequency only to notice that I was still on the 15m band! After all this time and calling I was not where I said I would be. So not only did I waste my time but likely a number of stations that may have hunted me would have given up!