by Teri (KO4WFP)

Those of you who follow my articles know I generally activate in the morning. However, as school just let out for my son, we’ve transitioned to a summer schedule and that means horseback riding lessons are now in the morning. With my afternoons uncommitted, I’d like to give hunters who may miss me in the morning an opportunity to hunt me  by activating later in the day.

Wednesday, May 22nd, I resumed my 60 new-to-me park activation goal as well as the pursuit of the WMAs near the Altamaha River by heading to Clayhole Swamp WMA (US-3740). Clayhole Swamp WMA is a 8,500 plus acre property along the south side of the Atlamaha River.

I arrived at the property around 3 PM and began looking for an activation site. I first thought to activate near the river as Glenn W4YES and I did at Sansavilla. However, I didn’t have time to drive all over the park as I wanted to be on the air at 4 PM. An hour sounds like gracious plenty of time but when you are driving up and down dirt roads in an unfamiliar area, it isn’t.

The road into the property (as you saw in a photo above) is well-packed and maintained. However, as you drive further into the WMA, other roads are less so. I found Lemmond Road and gave it a go. Given the recent rain, it was a bit on the boggy (but no less fun) side.

Eventually, it became two ruts in the forest and I appeared no closer to finding the river. Also, a multitude of flies swarmed all around the car. At this point, despite having fun mud-bogging on the road in my Subaru Crosstrek “Kai,” it was time to turn around and find a less buggy and muddy QTH.

I retraced my path to the entrance and a little past the entrance into the WMA found a clearing off to the right. The terrain was such I could drive the car just a little way in and set up my station.

There were trees all along the side of the clearing. I donned my blaze orange vest and hat and pulled out my arbor line and weight. Amazingly, it took just one toss to get a line up and in no time, my EFRW was hoisted and ready. I oriented it southeast hoping to get good coverage to the west but also the northeast which turned out to be the case.

The site I chose was shady so despite the afternoon temperature being in the 80s, Daisy and I were cool. I also brought along her cooling vest from Ruffwear. You wet the vest and put it on the dog. The evaporative cooling it provides can lower the temperature for the dog by 3-4 degrees. It worked. She didn’t pant at all during the activation while wearing the vest. This piece of equipment will come in handy for POTA in the summer.

I began with 30 meters, logging 4 contacts before moving to 20 meters. Twenty meters gave me 11 contacts, including a park-to-park (P2P) QSO with John W4ER at US-3691 in Alabama.

I then moved to 17 meters for two contacts and 40 meters for three. At this point, I’d been on the air for an hour. Time to go hunting myself for some P2P QSOs.

I snagged five QSOs on this particular activation, all on 20 meters – Charles AB9CA at US-4162, Melvin W3PYF at US-2437, Andrew AJ1S at US-5635, Paul W2ECK at US-1437, and Rostislave KC3FQF at US-1738. Paul, by the way, is from Savannah. It was a surprise to see him pop up on the POTA site but in Wisconsin.

I did see an op activating in Alaska on 15 meters; however, his signal was too faint and I figured he was not likely to hear me. I think my hunch was correct given the QSO map of my activation showing the farthest west my signal reached was Texas.

After being on the air for an hour and a half, it was time to call QRT and eat dinner. Yes, you read that correctly. Daisy and I had a picnic supper.  It doesn’t get much better than a valid activation followed by supper in the shade with the WMA all to yourself! (I saw only one other car during my time at Clayhole Swamp.)

Remember those flies I mentioned in the back section of the WMA earlier in the article? There were just a few at this spot in the clearing. Certainly the terrain had something to do with that. It also may have been because of the two dragonflies that “patrolled” during my activation. I finally managed to photograph one sitting next to my chair. I enjoyed watching his head rotate back and forth as he scanned for insects to hunt.

After supper, Daisy and I checked out the clearing and then took a walk up and down the entrance road. There were lots of different flowers blooming including the yellow ones in the photo below and trails to maybe explore in a future visit.

All in all, this was a fabulous POTA. The only thing that would have made it perfect was having Glenn along. (He had a Zoom meeting that afternoon.) So far, of the three WMAs along the Altamaha River I’ve visited, this is my favorite. But, I have five more (yes, five!) to visit before settling on a favorite. Which one will I or we visit next? Stay tuned…

Equipment Used

[Note: All Amazon, CW Morse, ABR, Chelegance, eBay, and Radioddity links are affiliate links that support QRPer.com at no cost to you.]

• Elecraft KX2
• Pressure paddle (David VK3IL design)
• Tufteln 9:1 EFRW Antenna
• Tufteln RG-316 Coax
• Tufteln Knee Board
• Weaver Throw Weight
• Marlow Excel Throw Line
• Reflective Blaze Orange Dog Vest
• Blaze Orange Hunting Vest
• Sitka Ballistic Cap (blaze orange)
• Helinox Chair Zero High-back
• Ruffwear Cooling Jacket (older model no longer sold)