I was going to visit my brother in Portland, and the Umatilla National Wildlife Refuge (K-0596) is directly on the route from my home in the Tri-Cities. It is located on the banks of the Columbia River and can be worked from either the Washington or Oregon side. The site itself is not particularly noteworthy, being of interest mostly to hunters or birdwatchers. The entrance is easy to miss, and I drove past it and had to turn around. After a short drive down a gravel road, I arrived at an empty parking lot and set up my station. The parking lot features a nice panoramic view of the Columbia and has room for a dozen or so vehicles. There are no facilities but I did have good cell phone reception.
I had created a plywood operating table that I strapped to the center console of my pickup, and this was its first outing. I had glued a layer of rubber non-skid material to the top and it proved to be a very serviceable operating station. I noted that I needed to cut an inch off the side nearest the steering wheel. While testing, I strapped the platform to my center console with a ratchet strap, but the setup proved entirely satisfactory so I intend to fashion a nicer strap. The temperature was in the high 30s, but being parked in the sun I enjoyed enough greenhouse effect to keep me comfortable for an hour.
I began by searching for P2P opportunities and worked 4 before calling CQ. I went on to make 33 more contacts, then tuning around for another 2 P2Ps before packing up the gear. The total was 39 QSOs.
| Date/Time | 2022-1-6 17:41-18:45 |
| Frequency | 20m – 14.0555 MHz |
| Rig | IC-7300 @ 100W |
| Antenna | 17′ whip |
| QSOs | 39 |
