POTA – Thousand Springs State Park (Idaho)

While we were in Idaho to see family over the holidays, Morgan (N7WBV) convinced me to do a quick activation for the New Year’s award. I grew up in the area and it’s been a long time since I’ve been to Malad Gorge, especially in the winter.

Entrance to the Park
Set-up with the Mobile Rig
Malad Gorge
Bridge over the Devils Punchbowl
Parking Log

The Park is Malad Gorge State Park – but it’s a sub-park of Thousand Springs State Park. The area is beautiful in the summer and exploring all the various parts of Thousand Springs State Park is great fun.

We activated this park last summer as well, but at a slightly different location bordering on the Billingsley Creek Wildlife Management Area.

Summer Activation
Hagerman Valley

Ham Shack Remodel – Part One

I’ve been operating in a section of our shop since getting started back in 2020. It’s been ok – but I have grander ideas (of course) and wanted to make it more comfortable to work and experiment in. However, I still need to maintain the shop as a workspace for other non-radio-related projects.

First HF rig – got me hooked on Icom!
Just Getting started
A bit more into it

The first part was to remove the old wooden bench, patch/paint the wall, and put in a new bench. I made sure the new bench can hold both my and my son’s radio rigs and have room for expansion. One great benefit – is a 240v plug that I can use for an amp in the future.

Eventually, I’d like to wall off this corner of the shop to help heat in the winter – the current heat setup is wasteful in the entire shop and some additional wall space for better shelving would be ideal – but that probably won’t happen for a while.