Radio Notes From a Veterans Day Drive to Glenville and Meshtastic Observations

For Veterans Day, I took my mother to the Glennville Veterans Memorial Cemetery to visit my father's gravesite. On the way up, I took I-16 up to Ellabell then US-280 through Pembroke to Old Sunbury Rd and Old Georgia 250 to US-301 to Glenville. After visiting the cemetery, we stopped for lunch then headed back to Savannah, taking US-301 to GA-144 to I-95 to GA-204. Along the way I did some radio listening and heard what I think were some 26th MEU/VMFA-542 F-35Bs. At the bottom of this post, I've included some observations from my experience with the Mesh node I bought at the Stone Mountain Hamfest earlier this month. 

Glennville Veterans Memorial Cemetery

Donnelly WMA and Drayton Hall - Overnight Charleston Road Trip Report; 3/4 November 2026

To round out my Autumn vacation, I took an overnight road trip to Charleston, SC. I left Savannah late on Tuesday morning and went to the Donnelly WMA near Green Pond, SC where I did some wildlife watching and got in another Parks on the Air (POTA) activation before heading to Charleston to get some dinner and check into the hotel to do some radio listening. Wednesday morning, I rose early and did some more radio listening before heading to Drayton Hall for their 10:00 AM tour. Following a picnic lunch after the tour, I headed back to Savannah. On both days, I drove through some rain showers, but luckily the rain held off during my outdoor activities.

Alligator at the Donnelly WMA in Green Pond, SC

The Kettle Creek Battlefield and Stone Mountain Hamfest - Stone Mountain Road Trip Radio Report; 30 October - 1 November 2026

I haven't been to a hamfest in years, so this year I decided to take some time off and meet up with friends at the Stone Mountain hamfest. I left Savannah on Friday morning and drove up to Washington to visit the Kettle Creek Battlefield. After having lunch in Sharon, I drove to Stone Mountain where I visited Stone Mountain Park and did a POTA activation there before checking in the hotel and having a good German meal. After breakfast on Saturday morning I drove over the hamfest at the Gwinnett County Fairground in Lawrenceville; I stayed there for several hours then some of us met up for lunch in nearby Snellville. I rounded out the day by trying something new at a restaurant near the hotel. This was the first time I've been to Atlanta with the time/opportunity to do any scanning/monitoring in quite a few years, so this trip was quite the experience. 

POTA station set up at a picnic shelter near the Grist Mill parking lot at Stone Mountain Park

Visiting Old Fort Jackson and Listening to Some of East Savannah's Port Facilities

Since there wasn't a lot of military aviation activity to listen to on my day off due to it being a federal/state holiday, I decided to go out to Old Fort Jackson to take in some local History and listen to some of east Savannah's port facilities. In addition to seeing the fort for the first time in quite awhile (and getting to see some musket and cannon demonstrations), I was able to identify some Marine VHF radio activity that I've been hearing. 

If all goes as planned, I'll be taking another road trip (and posting a road trip radio report) at the end of this month when I travel up to Stone Mountain and Lawrenceville for the Stone Mountain Hamfest. I'm planning a stop at the Kettle Creek Revolutionary War battlefield in Washington, GA on the way up.

Labor Day Road Trip Radio Report - The Georgia Salzburger Society's Salzburger Festival and The Riverbanks Zoo & Gardens in Columbia, SC

It's rare for me to have a Labor Day off from work, so this year I decided to go to the Salzburger Festival in Ebeneezer (between Rincon and Springfield in Effingham County, GA) and from there go up GA-119 to US-321 and travel up to Columbia, SC to visit the Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens. As Labor Day dawned, I didn't know if I would end up going to the Festival because the weather forecast called for rain throughout the morning; instead it turned out to be a pleasant morning and early afternoon. Tuesday was a pleasant day in Columbia; the morning wasn't too hot and I enjoyed my visit to the Zoo. Normally, I start these road trip reports with the radio information and then move on to where and what I visited during the trip, but this time I'm going to start with the Salzburger Festival because of how much I enjoyed it, what I learned, and the effect it had on me. The radio information comes afterward followed by Zoo photos and road trip food.

Jerusalem Lutheran Church; established in 1734

Monthly Military Monitoring Recaps Removed

Regular readers will have noticed that over the last few months I haven't posted any monthly military monitoring recaps and removed previous ones from the blog. Primarily I haven't had as much radio time recently, which means I haven't had to the time to compile the recaps. The Iran War, our action in Venezuela, our commitment in the Ukraine War, and future potential conflicts/actions are the reason I took down the existing recaps. The static callsign/frequency information in the MilCom tab of the blog will remain. 

4th Fighter Wing From Seymour-Johnson AFB at Savannah-Hilton Head IAP for the Summer

I had a previous version of this post up earlier in the summer, but I haven't had a lot of monitoring opportunities and didn't realize there were F-15Es from multiple squadrons at the Savannah Combat Readiness Training Center/Air Dominance Center instead of just one. It turns out that the F-15Es are (at least) from the 4th Fighter Wing's 333rd and 334th Fighter Squadrons. They're here this summer while runway maintenance is being done at their home, Seymour-Johnson AFB. Draken International A-4K Skyhawks are also at Savannah providing aggressor/red air flights. They're flying morning, afternoon, evening, and night sorties but due to other commitments, most of my monitoring opportunities are the evening and night sorties. I haven't had the chance to get out to the airport and put eyes on them except for a short time when they first arrived. 

4th FW/333rd FS F-15Es at Savannah-Hilton Head IAP on 15 June 2026