{"id":119,"date":"2025-04-08T20:51:29","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T19:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=119"},"modified":"2025-11-19T21:20:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T21:20:24","slug":"i-do-not-like-the-zoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/2025\/04\/08\/i-do-not-like-the-zoo\/","title":{"rendered":"I do not like the zoo!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Today the family decided to go to the zoo for the day&#8230;. I&#8217;m not a big fan of the zoo so it seemed like a great opportunity to get away for a few hours of HF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I decided to walk from my holiday cottage to <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.visitdevon.co.uk\/northdevon\/explore\/villages-towns\/northam-burrows\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.visitdevon.co.uk\/northdevon\/explore\/villages-towns\/northam-burrows\/\" target=\"_blank\">Northam Burrows<\/a> which is the site of a Second World War Chain Home radar station and also  Parks On The Air (<a href=\"https:\/\/parksontheair.com\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/parksontheair.com\/\">POTA<\/a>) location <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/pota.app\/#\/park\/GB-0527\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/pota.app\/#\/park\/GB-0527\" target=\"_blank\">GB-0527<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After about an hour of walking along the coast path lugging my Yaesu FT-891 POTA setup and an ex-military 5.5m mast I arrived a little ahead of my scheduled activation time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_20250408_101221_330-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-130\" srcset=\"https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_20250408_101221_330-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_20250408_101221_330-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_20250408_101221_330-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_20250408_101221_330.jpg 1215w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Initially I thought it would be nice to set up literally on the site of the old radar installation but it was right by the entrance to the country park and very busy so instead I walked a little further and found a quieter spot with nice views out over the water and across the country park.  The mast was soon up and the 20m band <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/2025\/04\/03\/a-simple-double-bazooka-dipole-design\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/2025\/04\/03\/a-simple-double-bazooka-dipole-design\/\" target=\"_blank\">double bazooka<\/a> hoisted to the top in an inverted V configuration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/P4080222-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-120\" srcset=\"https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/P4080222-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/P4080222-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/P4080222-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/P4080222-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/P4080222-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The weather was stunning and the QSOs came in thick and fast!  I operated for around 2 hours using 25w before I was out of battery.  33 QSOs including one in Canada and 3 park to park QSOs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"720\" height=\"416\" src=\"https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screenshot_20250411-2107402.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-121\" srcset=\"https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screenshot_20250411-2107402.png 720w, https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screenshot_20250411-2107402-300x173.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>All in all a great morning of HF and much more enjoyable than the zoo!  I&#8217;ve not previously operated my portable setup for long enough to find the limits of the 9ah battery, although I was using the radio quite intensively I was surprised at the 2 hour endurance at 25w, I was expecting more, perhaps it was not fully charged?!?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"is-layout-flex wp-container-3 wp-block-columns\">\n<div class=\"is-layout-flow wp-block-column\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/P4080227-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-123\" srcset=\"https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/P4080227-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/P4080227-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/P4080227-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/P4080227-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/P4080227-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"is-layout-flow wp-block-column\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/P4080225-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-122\" width=\"382\" height=\"286\" srcset=\"https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/P4080225-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/P4080225-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/P4080225-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/P4080225-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/P4080225-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 382px) 100vw, 382px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today the family decided to go to the zoo for the day&#8230;. I&#8217;m not a big fan of the zoo so it seemed like a great opportunity to get away for a few hours of HF. I decided to walk from my holiday cottage to Northam Burrows which is the site of a Second World [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132,"href":"https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions\/132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willwoodman.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}