Fort Langley Historical Park

I have visited all the parks in Langley on the Parks-on-the-air list except for one. I had operated in Fort Langley previously but that was prior to doing POTA activations and so it remained an un-activated park on my list. I planned to do it for some time but wanted to do so in the off season as it is a very busy place. For today’s adventure I joined with a different club member, this time it was Jim. Jim has recently started doing POTA activations and is quite keen on making lots of contacts. He has his truck set up with a mast holder on the front which makes it very easy to set up at a park and then operate in the cab. It is quite nice in the colder weather months.

So with Jim’s truck available I suggested we go to the fort. It would be a new park for him as well as for me. As an added bonus the nation-wide Canada trail passes right alongside part of the fort and if we operate in the parking lot we would be within the 100-foot allowance for also operating on the trail. So, for this activation we planned to position ourselves such that we would qualify for both. Jim picked me up at 10:30 and we drive directly to the fort. It was a change for me as usually I am doing the driving.

We arrived at the parking lot and drove around it looking for the best way to set up. Fortunately, there were only a few cars parked and we were able to use an ideal location for our activity. Once parked I got out and gathered a few photos while Jim began setting up the antenna. Done with photos, I helped with the final stages of the antenna set up and then we got the radio ready. We would be using the new Icom 7000 radio Jim recently purchased. This is his second IC-7000. A few years back I sold him my 7000 as I no longer needed it. He used it sporadically but felt he didn’t want it any longer and sold it. A year later Jim started doing POTA and found his remaining radio too bulky so he started looking for another 7000 which he found after a past club member unexpectantly passed away. The radio did well in this setting, one it was designed for.

Our first contact was with a station in Michigan, that was followed by one in West Virginia. This second one was a very nice bonus for Jim as West Virgina was the final state he needed to complete the worked all states award. He was very happy with getting that contact. We continued on and reached an Iowa station and then picked our own frequency and began calling. Over the next 45 minutes we completed a further 21 contacts. They were spread from California to Delaware with Alaska thrown in for good measure. Not as fast a response as some days but still quite productive. We shutdown at 12:30 as we felt it was time for lunch, we had more than needed to successfully activate the two parks. This was Jim’s first double park and so I needed to help him with the log preparation for sending to the POTA site. The program I wrote for the job makes log entry quick and easy for this type of thing.

We drove back through the town, it was quite busy with Christmas shopping and though we spotted a couple of restaurants, the parking looked poor so we continued on to the Willowbrook area and settled on a meal at the Olive Garden. I hadn’t been to it in years. I always enjoyed the food but it is a 20-minute drive from my house and with the new mall only 5 minutes from my house we now always seem to go to one of those locations for a meal out. Ones gets so lazy with convenience at times. We both had a soup and salad, having several helpings of both. It was a nice meal. Done with lunch we set out for home having enjoyed our time at the fort and making calls around the continent.