Three parks, one KH1, and a friend at Great Brook Farm
Much of my field operating lately has been with my Yaesu FT-891, but I still love my Elecraft KH1. This past weekend, October 31 and November 1, 2026, I left the big radio home and activated three parks in eastern Massachusetts with the KH1 and a whip antenna with a coil. All three activations were CW at 5 watts.
The three parks
- Great Brook Farm State Park (US-2435), Carlisle, Saturday October 31. 15 contacts on 40 meters.
- Minute Man National Historical Park (US-0745), Saturday October 31. 12 contacts on 40 meters. I’ve been here before (Kilo Award at Minute Man).
- Alewife Brook Reservation (US-8399), Cambridge, Sunday November 1. 22 contacts, 7 on 20 meters and 15 on 30 meters. I activated it with the KH1 in June 2024, days after the radio arrived (POTA at Alewife Brook).
That’s 49 contacts with 48 different stations (W9GTA in Indiana called in on both 20 and 30 meters).
Great Brook Farm is a state park in Carlisle built around a working dairy farm, with a seasonal ice cream stand and miles of trails. The picnic tables by the red barn made an easy place to set up.
Minute Man National Historical Park protects the ground where the first battles of the American Revolution were fought on April 19, 1775. It runs through Lincoln, Concord and Lexington and is managed by the National Park Service.
Alewife Brook Reservation is a small, urban park run by the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation. It follows Alewife Brook, a tributary of the Mystic River, and it sits next to the Alewife transit station.
Running into Niece at Great Brook Farm
Great Brook Farm was the highlight of the weekend. I set up at a picnic table near the big red barn on 40 meters, and my friend Niece, KA1ULN, turned out to be at the park too, operating portable and running CW on 20 meters. I stayed on 40 meters while she worked 20, so we could both be on the air at once. We didn’t make a contact with each other, though.
Two of my 15 contacts there were park to park: KC1QKM in Vermont at US-3114 and VA2HUY in Quebec at CA-0992, Parc La Fontaine in Montreal.
I know that park. I activated CA-0992 twice in August 2024 on a family vacation, operating as W1YTQ/VE2 with the KH1 (POTA in Montreal). It was a treat to hear another operator on the air from the same park.
The fun of QRP
The solar cycle is ebbing, and 5 watts with a whip and a coil doesn’t make anything easy. I still get a lot out of it. QRP means a few more calls and a little more patience for every contact, and that extra time is no problem when I’m sitting in a beautiful park in peak fall color. Working New Brunswick from Minute Man on 5 watts and a whip never gets old.
Alewife Brook is a small urban park wedged between Cambridge, Somerville and Arlington, and I still got stations from Florida, Illinois, Indiana and Puerto Rico from a picnic table there. My farthest contact of the weekend was KP3W in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, about 2,700 kilometers (1,700 miles) from Alewife Brook on 30 meters.
Where the contacts landed
The 49 contacts reached 17 states, Puerto Rico and two Canadian provinces, New Brunswick and Quebec. Here is every contact, colored by the park I was in.1
Going forward
The FT-891 is great when I want more power and SSB, but the KH1 is a fun little rig that punches above its weight, and it’s a joy to operate. I plan to keep taking it out.
Contacts are plotted at the center of the grid square in my log. Two contacts, N3XTK in Maryland and KB3C in Pennsylvania, had no grid square, so they are placed at the approximate center of their state. ↩