Braving the cold westerly wind off of Lake Michigan in 26 degree (F) weather, Mike Wendland, K8ZRH was one of the first National Park "ACTIVATORS", activating Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
Despite still recovering from an early December shoulder replacement, Mike weathered the wind, snow and cold to put up his Aerial-51 Model 404-UL OCFD antenna on a Spiderbeam 40 ft. telescoping fiberglass pole.
Operating off of his Roadtreck RV's 12v battery and running just 10w from his Elecraft KX3, Mike made 117 QSOs, working 33 states, three Canadian provinces and Puerto Rico in about 2 hours on the air.
If this is any indication of what ARRL's NPOTA is going to be like, we can all look forward to loads of NPOTA fun throughout 2016.
Read more about Mike's outing to Sleeping Bear Dunes and see more pictures of the beautiful lakeshore scenery at Mike's Blog: Roadtrecking
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT ARRL's NPOTA