Kensington Park

My day began with a trip to the vet with my dog Quigley, he needed a follow-up and then his vaccinations. All went smoothly and quite quickly and I was soon back home waiting for Ralph to arrive so we could head out for Vancouver. He arrived and we set out for coffee and the park. Traffic was reasonable and we soon found ourselves driving Knight Street looking for 34A where we would find the park’s entrance.

This park has a number of playing fields and an aquatic centre with a pool. When we arrived, we noticed that part of the small parking lot was blocked by construction, what had been a nice loop for easy parking was now a dead-ended area requiring tight maneuvering to park and get back out. Fortunately, a stall opened up as we arrived and we were able to get parked quite quickly. After a quick pitstop in the aquatic building, Ralph and I started wandering over the park. The higher southern side was mostly a grass area with a few walks and some ‘art’ displays. Not many benches here nor tables. There was a kids’ area but most of the park was filled with large playing fields with signs to keep dogs off them; which were being ignored by the dogs currently on the fields who were playing with their human pets. I always wonder why they expect dogs to be able to read those signs because their owners sure can’t.

Ralph found a nice location for his station at the north end of the park, it was further down the slope but had some nice shaded patches. I decided to use one of the two picnic tables we saw. Both were very close to the parking lot and so I ended up setting up quite close to my car. We got our gear out of the car and made our way to our chosen locations. I was soon setting up and was on the air long before Ralph finished walking to his spot and then set up. I scanned the bands, only the 20m band had activity and I tried listening to other park activators but I could only hear one other and he couldn’t hear my calls.

Eventually Ralph was ready and we made some contacts between us. We then decided to try calling for the next twenty minutes and see how things were going. I found an open area on the band and posted myself on the list and began my calling. My noise floor was very high at this park, S6+ which would make hearing weaker stations next to impossible. Fellow club members back in White Rock tried to contact me but neither of us could hear each other. Too close for sky bounce and blocked by hills for ground wave!

Eventually I had a response from N4EX in North Carolina, one of the major POTA hunters, who has over 32000 contacts! It sure is nice knowing there are people out there trying to reach me. I made 4 other contacts but it was slow and tough. Ralph managed one more contact than I did but he too was finding the calling tough. We decided to continue for another 10 minutes but neither of managed any more contacts and so we packed up and Ralph joined me at my table where we ate our bag lunches. We could have continued calling longer and make a few more contacts but we had enough and we didn’t want to stay too long and risk running into heavy traffic on our way home.

Done with lunch we packed ourselves into the car and set out for home. The return drive went quite smoothly. Not much traffic yet and no road construction on our route until the last block near my house. Fortunately, it was not delayed when we arrived. Though it was a slow day for radio it still felt good getting out and exploring a new park for us. It is one of the main benefits of the POTA program – seeing new parks and getting out of the routines of life. I have really quite liked seeing so many different parks in the region most of which I would never have visited otherwise.