US-11629 Canoe River WMA

On Saturday I joined the Pilgrim Amateur Wireless Association's monthly POTA outing at US-2420 Borderlands State Park. It was a really fun get-together with POTA/SOTA star Bob WC1N flipping burgers on the grill and at least four stations active on all bands and modes. One would think that I'd be reporting on a US-2420 activation, but several of us, including Bob, KC1RAY and NS1C, just sat around telling tall tales until early afternoon.

I've had my eye on Canoe River WMA for a while. It has a reputation of being difficult to reach, and in fact when I mentioned at the cookout that I was heading over there, Bob, of 1300+ activation fame, asked, "How are you going to get in?" He'd looked at it and thought you could park in an abandoned house lot on the west side and cut across another house's lawn. But I'd done some satellite recon and noticed that the east side, which is much smaller, is stuffed in between a Dunkin, a strip mall, and I-495, and I thought I could park at the strip mall and plunge into the thicket behind the buildings. Had I only zoomed in one more click on the POTA site map I would have noticed that Norton Rail Trail runs through the WMA on the west side of I-495 and it looks like there are actual trails inside the area.

No, instead I parked here...

As of October 2024 there's a Lapels Dry Cleaner at the entrance to the little plaza that you can route to on your GPS. Those trees behind the daycare are part of the WMA. I know...

It's possible to go to your right here and walk past a cell tower, and you are in. This was gated off with multiple warnings about video surveillance (due to the cell tower, no doubt), so I instead ducked behind the buildings in the photo and walked along the back and up an embankment.

This, by the way, is the clearest area you'll see on this side of the WMA. It is completely unmaintained, and you'll run into a few nip bottles and general trash back in there. The Dunks is at your back in this view.

Keep walking until it becomes difficult, just a few minutes. At this point you can push on straight, cross the Canoe River, and pop out on the northern part of this sliver, which backs up to a small housing development. Instead I chose to go back down the ridge in what looked like a bit of a clearing. It wasn't terrible, and I wandered around for a few minutes to find a spot to sling a wire. I use the term 'clearing' in its relative form...

I'm using an EFHW right now, resonant on 6m, 10m, 15m, 20m, and 40m. There's no lack of trees here, and it was quick work to sling a line into a big pine and string the wire up. The feedpoint was suspended about six feet off the ground, and SWRs were 1.4:1 or lower on all five bands. I'm starting to really appreciate this antenna, it is very light – the 1:49 balun is only rated to 12W or so – and well-sealed against the elements. It required zero trimming out of the box for perfect resonance. It was inexpensive, too, $35 delivered to my door in six days from Shenzhen. I can fit the entire antenna in my back pocket. I still have hamstick dipoles in the car, just in case I want to change it out, but I think for a while I'll use the EFHW and learn its tricks and quirks. It's definitely a plus to be able to switch bands without having to put another dipole up on a pole.

Operating was straightforward. I started out on 10m, slid over to 20m for a bit, and did a final series of CQs on 6m, which is a habit I'm trying to develop. Six is lighting up at unexpected times, and I think it's worth a few pings to see who is around. This was an all-digital affair, and I logged 27 FT8 QSOs over the course of about an hour and a half. There wasn't really a lot of exploring to doin the woods, although if I'd made a little effort I could've gotten to the Canoe River to take a look. Now that I know that there's an actual trail on the east side I'll hit that next, and I have the feeling it is a lot nicer over there.

I try to optimize one thing each time I go out, and this time it was to use an iPad Mini to run the station rather than the full-sized iPad I've been packing around. I'd forgotten I had it, it was tucked up in a closet, and despite being a few years old it happily loaded up the latest operating system (Sequoia) and there were zero problems connecting it to the IC-705 with SDR-Control. It's so much lighter in the pack! I brought the DStar hotspot along with me, too, but ended up just fiddling with it and not actually talking to anyone. I like having it and will keep hauling it in.

The pack is down to thirteen pounds now and is quite comfortable for longer hikes. I'm using a set of shaving-kit bags to stow gear and will write an article describing the system soon.

A good day in the so-called woods, and quality face time with the local club, it was a great POTA day to be sure.

ID: US-11629 Canoe River WMA
Location: Easton MA, Bristol County FN41
Activation date: 19 October 2024
Activated by: W1GRD