US-2832

Hat Rock State Park – OR

On a return trip from Portland, OR, I stopped by Hat Rock State Park in north-central Oregon. This would be my first activation outside of my home state of Washington. It would also be my first “discussion” with a park ranger, although it was constructive and ended amiably.

Being Sunday afternoon, use of the park was light so I scouted out a parking spot in an elevated and sparsely used area. I deployed my Chameleon 17′ whip on it’s ground spike and was setting up to operate when a park range drove my in his pickup, looked at my antenna, and rolled down his window. “In the future,” he said, “please check with us before putting a stake in the ground.” It turns out that he was concerned with someone driving a stake into an irrigation pipe, something that might have occurred to me if I’d thought about it before hand. I apologized and told him that the spike was 9″ long and that I’d certainly move it if he wanted. I also thanked him for letting me know why he was concerned. He said that he thought I was probably OK and left me in peace. Another successful activation in under an hour.