This is a page that will change year to year… 2025 right now.
Table of Contents
Photos of site taken May 24th
Although the gravel is beautiful on the Old Rockingham Site, there are weeds in some places where we want to put stations.
Overall site:
Here’s the old infrared image of the site when the building was there. Note that the gravel parking area is only half of the big square, the further west part is now overgrown and full of briars. North is up.
Last year we made a rough plan for where to put things… assuming that the whole area was cleared. We didn’t exactly follow this plan, but it does show that putting tents in the shade is a good idea, and the VHF tent needs to be at the highest point in the parking area.
Looking across the main area.
In the distance you see my car, parked at the gate. This image shows the gravel area, surrounded by truly tall trees.
My thought is to put the PortaJohn on the entrance road to the right, out of sight of the roadway (A).
About 20 feet further up the road, at B, there is a level spot shaded by a short tree, which would make a very good operating location.
Shady side
Further up, in the corner of the square area, is a very tall, open tree,(C) perfect for antennas.
Below that, and currently covered with weeds (Mugwort) is (D) a very shady operating location. It is about where the RV was last year.
(E) is another possible operating location, slopes slightly, but about as good shade as we can get for shade.
This is another tall tree behind F, which is about were the food tent was. We used that last year for the 80M G5RV antenna.
Moving around we have an area with lots of mugwort growing…
The sunny side
Futher on, we get to the semi-shady spot where last year’s Food tent was (F) note that the mugwort needs to be mown down before it becomes too woody. Also, cut back the low branches over the line of stones, so we can sit on them.
at the other end of the line of stones is a very sunny corner (I) it is the highest point, and good for a VHF tower, in spite of being sunny and hot. The tree behind it, (H) was one of our best trees for stringing antennas. I’m thinking of using a carabiner on a big rope to be a pulley for several antenna ropes, including 6 Meters, and a 2-223-440 vertical, as well as HF antennas.
WE could even use the 40′ ladder as a tower for the 2 meter beam… if we have several folks who want to operate VHF. Last year we used Laura’s tent for VHF.
This 360 degree panorama from 2023 shows a blue tent in that north corner, with a blue canopy toward the entrance road, and lots of canopy tents over on the shady side. About dead center in the image is location J, which John used for the digital station last year.
(J) was a good operating location (once the weeds were removed) because a tree further to the right provides some shade. So let’s mow that area.
That’s what we have so far!