Because I receive so many tips from readers here on QRPer, I wanted way to share them in a concise newsletter format. To that end, welcome to QRPer Notes, a collection of links to interesting stories and tips making waves in the world of radio!
Foldable feet for small radios
Many thanks to Randall (K8UFM) who shares the following tip:
Thomas,
I found these on Amazon and they work great for small radios.
PONICOR 2PCS Zinc Alloy Mini Foldable Laptop Stand, Portable Computer Keyboard Riser with 2 Adjustable Angles, Self-Adhesive Invisible Notebook Stand and Keyboard Lift for Desk (Black)
This is Tom WW8D in Salem Va. I sure do enjoy your videos on youtube. I received a new KH1 yesterday and I just wanted to tell you that I have a clear waterproof case like the one you but its a slight bigger fromHarbor Freight. Its an Apache 550 and everything fits perfect in it.
I purchased the Apache 550 a few days prior to Helene hitting our area. I intend to make a post or video soon showing how this apache case compares size-wise with my Pelican cases. It is, in general, a much larger case than the M40 I currently use with the KH1. See photo below.
Video: Demystifying SWR
Many thanks to Vince (VE6LK) who writes:
Here is an EXCELLENT video explaining return loss, why lossy coax hides SWR issues and many other things:
Editor note – Please enjoy this guest post from Jeff Bourgeois VE7EFF.
Sometimes the elements just aren’t in my favor. I knew activating Echo Lake Provincial Park CA-3459 would be a propagation challenge. This POTA Park has never been fully activated before. Last year one operator attempted it and was only able to log four contacts. Today, I not only had mountains to contend with, but apparently significant solar storms in action as well.
What initially made this activation so challenging is that Echo Lake is located on a valley floor and that it is surrounded by mountains on almost all sides. I picked this particular spot to operate because it is the only location in the park that has a small window of opening to the South or South-South-East. I was hoping I could hit enough stations in the USA to make a successful activation of 10 contacts.
Echo Lakes is about a 2-hour drive NE from my home in Kelowna, BC, and about 45 minutes ESE of Lumby, BC. The last half-hour or so is on gravel roads. Now that we have arrived, my wife Alexis, VE7LXE, helps with unloading the gear,
This photo shows my narrow window of opportunity for southerly HF propagation. Mountains on the left, mountains on the right, and mountains behind me.
As you can see below, the eastern direction is mostly blocked by a mountain and SE is the direction where I typically have the best success of traversing the USA. I generally can’t rely on NVIS propagation; there just aren’t enough Canadian POTA chasers within NVIS range for me to make a successful activation.
Today, I’m using my recently acquired Chameleon CHA Porta-Mount to support the 34’ (really only ~ 32’) carbon fiber telescopic mast.
Once again, I’m also testing my homebrew coaxial sleeve dipole, now cut for the 17m band. I constructed it with RG-8X coax and terminated with a Fair Rite #31, 2.5” core as the RF block choke. My KX3 antenna tuner will take care of any SWR issues on all bands that I operate on.
Because I’m using a carbon fiber telescopic mast, I’ve previously noted that the mast has “significant” detuning effect on the antenna. Thus, I operate it as a slanted coaxial sleeve dipole. This moves the antenna away from much of the mast influence. The slant should also help with raising the propagation angle to hopefully clear the mountain tops (but not enough to make it NVIS).
The weather report was supposed to be mostly sunny. However, it turned out to be just the opposite and was cloudy, threatening to rain, and somewhat cold. It’s colder outside than I care for and the fact that it is threatening to rain, I decide to operate from inside my 2016 Subaru Forester. I only operate from inside my car when it isn’t viable to operate outside. Besides, I don’t want to risk getting wet today.
Now that my KX3 is fired-up and connected to the Bioenno 4.5 Ah battery and the antenna, I’m all set to see if anyone can hear me. I should mention that I’m operating at 10W today so I guess that disqualifies me as a QRP operator. 😊
Here is the play-by-play report:
I started calling CQ on 20m at 16:55 UTC (09:55 PDT). My first contact came 15 minutes later with KN7D in Utah. It took another 15 minutes to snag my next contact with WM2V in Arizona.
There’s not much happening for me on 20m, so I switch up to 17m. At 17:40 UTC I log N5RLH in NM. That’s it for 17m. Moving up to 15m, I snag a contact in NC with N4EX at 17:52. That was my only 15m contact of the day.
I went on to try 12m, 10m, and even 30m. Absolutely nothing over the next hour of calling CQ on those 3-bands. Back down to 20m. One contact with KE4KE in Minnesota. It took an hour and 15 minutes more to land just one more contact on 17m with KB6FPW/P in California at 21:00.
I’m definitely not breaking any speed records today. A tortoise could probably log more contacts than this.
Another hour passes until I land a contact with K0SX in Colorado on 20m. Suddenly, 20m picks-up steam and I land 4 more contacts on 20m – two in California and two in Colorado between 22:00 and 22:47. I’m almost at the end of the POTA UTC day for this park, but I’m determined to try to pick up more contacts before 00:00 UTC.
Last crack at 17m band. At 23:13 I land KJ7BS in Arizona. As my final contact of the UTC day, I snag KD7DUG in California at 23:15. I keep calling CQ for the next 45 minutes with no more results. It is now 00:00 UTC and the POTA day is over.
But something drives me on to keep calling CQ. I keep thinking propagation will get better.
At 00:05 I log my last contact of the day on 20m – a P2P QSO with AF0E in Colorado. I realize that this contact will have to go into the next day’s POTA log, but a contact is a contact. At the end of the day, I logged 13 valid POTA contacts, plus 1 into the next UTC day.
Tip: Click on the map for a larger image view.
The Contacts Map above does seem to confirm that my narrow corridor of propagation was primarily due-south or SSE – squeezing through the mountains opening. Some magic of propagation handed me North Carolina and Minnesota.
This is by far the hardest I’ve ever had to work to get sufficient contacts to activate a new park. I was determined to get this park activated, though. It took 7 hours of calling CQ to log 13 contacts. That’s a record 1.8 contacts/hour!
I don’t think the antenna is the real culprit for today’s weak results, especially considering that 6-days earlier I logged 68 contacts including 8 DX stations in Europe via Inonoaklin Provincial Park CA-3626 using this same antenna configuration. I wont get any awards for logging the most contacts per hour – but perhaps I qualify for an award for the least number of contacts per hour! They could call it the Snail Award. 😊
Between being surrounded by mountains and muffled by solar storms, it was a challenging day. Time to pack-up and make the 2-hour drive back home before it gets dark.
For those who haven’t followed my previous posts, we live in a rural mountain community in Swannanoa, NC, and were hit hard by the unprecedented destruction caused by Hurricane (later Tropical Storm) Helene. I’ve been sharing regular updates to chronicle our recovery efforts and, naturally, to highlight the vital role amateur radio has played throughout.
Late Sunday afternoon, as my wife and I were reviewing our financials and plans on the porch, we suddenly heard a group of neighbors down the road cheer, “Woo hoo!”
We exchanged a knowing look.
Power had been restored to our road.
What a moment! A dedicated power line crew from Indiana had spent several long days installing new poles and running new lines along our two-mile stretch.
As I’ve mentioned before, we installed a solar power system with battery backup (read all the details here), so the only way I could confirm grid power had returned was by checking the app that monitors our system.
This news was a tremendous morale boost for everyone. With grid power restored, neighbors no longer need to worry about propane deliveries or managing generator runtimes. They can now fully rely on their refrigerators again.
Late Sunday evening, I stepped outside into the front yard, and for the first time in weeks, the valley was quiet—no more generator hum.
Simply amazing. We’re deeply grateful to the line crews who traveled from across the U.S. and Canada to restore service.
Estimates
While I doubt Duke Energy is reading my posts, I do plan to reach out and thank them for their hard work. I also want to offer a suggestion about providing power restoration estimates to customers, particularly after such a major event like Helene.
During smaller outages (the kind that happen when a tree falls on a line), Duke’s website and app typically provide an estimated restoration time. More often than not, power is restored a bit earlier than the estimate. I think this is a good practice, as it gives customers a realistic, “worst-case” time frame.
However, during this event, Duke understandably refrained from providing detailed estimates. We were told that 90% of the county would have power by Sunday, but there were no specific estimates for harder-to-reach areas like ours.
I assume that some Duke field engineers were instructed to err on the side of caution when giving estimates to customers they encountered. In our case, a Duke employee told us last Thursday that we should prepare to be without grid power until Christmas.
This information reached us just before our community meeting that day, leading many of us to adjust plans and purchase supplies for a long-term outage.
Then, on Saturday, we spoke with a power line worker contracted by Duke who had been dispatched to our neighborhood. He informed us that power would be restored in a matter of days and that new poles had already been set on the lower part of our road. He estimated we’d have power by Monday, maybe even Sunday.
Sure enough, by Sunday evening, the lights were back on.
While we were overjoyed, the earlier estimate of “Christmas” was more than a little stressful. Many of us made decisions and spent money based on that initial forecast. Perhaps the Duke employee felt he was managing our expectations, but the result was unnecessary stress and over-preparation.
I thought this might be an isolated incident, but a ham radio friend in Fairview shared a similar experience. His community was told to expect months without power, only to have it restored within days.
I’m not here to complain. My point is simply that being straightforward and realistic in assessments is far better than offering a doomsday scenario.
Disrupted Services
While power restoration is a huge victory, we’re still facing some longer-term challenges.
For one, unless people have recently signed up for Starlink (and I’m certain this disaster has led to a massive surge in subscriptions), there’s no internet on our road, and it’s unlikely to return anytime soon. AT&T is our only service provider, and their lines were in poor condition even before Helene hit. Earlier this year, we switched to HughesNet satellite internet because our AT&T DSL was unreliable and painfully slow.
There’s been talk that AT&T might replace the old copper line with fiber, but I have my doubts. Rural communities like ours often get overlooked because we don’t have the subscriber density of urban areas.
We’re also still without mobile phone data service. My 4G hotspot, which we rely on to supplement bandwidth for our daughters’ online classes, hasn’t worked since September 27th.
Our road, too, remains a challenge. The Kentucky DOT crew did an excellent job patching up two rough areas on flat parts of the road, but it’s still not easily passable by vehicles with low ground clearance. Our road will stay one-lane until the NC DOT can step in and fully repair it to their standards and add guard rails at some point int he future. NCDOT has never faced destruction on the scale of Helene before, so it’s going to take time to address all the damaged roads and bridges that were compromised or wiped out by flooding and debris flows.
Even simple things like grocery shopping take longer now. Ingles, the dominant grocery chain in western North Carolina, was hit hard by Helene.
I took this shot at our local Ingles two days post-Helene when a neighbor and I rode our mountain bikes into town. Note where the water line is on his white truck that was parked in the parking lot (where he thought it would be safe) during the storm.
Our local store was flooded (see photo above), and many locations remain closed. Their massive distribution center in Swannanoa/Black Mountain was also damaged. In the Asheville area, we have other options, but Ingles is the only grocery store in some of the rural towns in WNC. Hopefully, they’ll get back on their feet soon.
Our favorite local produce shop was almost certainly damaged beyond repair. The owner, Mr. Ledford, is a family friend and a valued member of the community. We always tried to shop locally and relied on his store for fresh produce.
It’s heartbreaking to see how many local businesses in Swannanoa were affected by the storm. This disaster is going to change the business landscape here for years to come.
Some school services are expected to resume by October 28, provided water restoration in Asheville stays on track. Our daughters will have missed a full month of their senior fall term. Since they’re dual-enrolled at the community college, all of their classes will go on their college transcripts. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that this break has given them time to focus on university applications and scholarship opportunities.
Proud Papa: I must say, I couldn’t be prouder of my daughters (K4GRL and K4TLI). They’ve been doing an incredible job helping both at home and within our community. Both have taken on net control duties for our local simplex frequency and have been passing traffic on the N2GE (Mount Mitchell) repeater. Their dedication and skill have been vital to our recovery efforts and the broader communications network in the area. Thank you, ladies!
Arborists Update
Yesterday morning, the arborists we hired to remove the trees from our property called to let us know they wouldn’t be able to bring their cranes up our tricky road. There are two sections that are too steep and rough.
That news was a bit of a blow, as we’d spent days finding an arborist with an opening in their schedule and who could make it to our area.
But within an hour, a neighbor called on the radio to tell us that a family friend from Ohio, who owns a tree service, was on the way to help—free of charge. They’d traveled overnight to Western North Carolina just to lend a hand.
When the arborist saw our rental house, he said, “You don’t need a crane if you can use mechanical advantage. Let’s get this done.” Using ropes and pulleys, he and his crew made quick work of the tree.
They’re coming back this morning to help with the tree our residence as well.
Their generosity has been overwhelming, and although they’ve offered to do this for free, we will pay them to help pay it forward—so they can continue helping others who might not be able to afford tree services and perhaps keep them in the community a bit longer.
As I’ve said before, this disaster has truly brought out the best in humanity, and we feel fortunate to be surrounded by such kindness.
In summary
Things are certainly improving, and we are incredibly grateful for all the progress made so far. Rather than expressing concerns, I hope this message offers a constructive perspective from those of us navigating life in a post-disaster environment, with the intention of highlighting opportunities for improving communication in the future.
Thank you
Once again, we are deeply grateful for the kindness and support we’ve received. If I haven’t had a chance to respond to your emails or comments, please know it’s because I’ve been focused on helping my family and neighbors through this challenging time.
A huge thank you to Vince (VE6LK) and all the fantastic contributors submitting articles on QRPer.com!
Vince has been an absolute lifesaver, stepping in to handle the formatting and posting of field reports and articles. It’s been such a pleasure to read all the incredible reports and witness QRPer.com truly flourishing while my attention is focused on recovery at home.
On that note, I’ve been reading every comment and message, but simply don’t have the time to reply back to everyone. My time on the internet is very limited these days because I’m still outside working most of the day.
What an amazing community you all are! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
In recent times I’ve been feeling the urge to start experimenting with telescopic vertical whip antennas. Vertical whip antennas appear to be somewhat simpler to setup than elevated dipoles. So, it seems like a worthwhile endeavor to experiment with.
Recently, I purchased two Chameleons telescoping verticals whips: their 17’ version and the 25’ version, for experimental purposes. I’m looking forward to trying various configurations, which will likely not be until next spring or summer as our weather here in the Okanagan Valley of BC is starting to show hints that winter is just around the corner. So, for now I have one specific configuration idea in mind that I have been itching to try: a 1/2 λ Coaxial Sleeve Telescopic Vertical Dipole. However, this configuration is required to be elevated with a tall mast.
In a sense, I suppose one could call this a Hybrid Telescopic Vertical Antenna because the top-half of the antenna will be a standard 17’ telescopic vertical whip from Chameleon. And, instead of typical radials, the bottom-half of the antenna will be using the same concept of a Coaxial Sleeve Vertical Dipole, tuned for the 20m band.
I won’t take up too much space in this report outlining the construction details. I just wanted to see if this antenna concept has any viable potential for ongoing uses. This is the antenna I will be using today atop my 30’ carbon fiber telescopic mast.
Here we go with the events of the day.
Today I will be attempting to activate Vance Creek Ecological Reserve, CA-4252. The Vance Creek activation spot is located about 1.5 hours drive NE of Kelowna, BC, Canada. The access road into Vance Creek is a gravel forestry service road (FSR), just north of Lumby, BC. I will be the 2nd person to ever activate this park, and the 1st to do it with CW.
We left home early with plans to make this another full day of playing with POTA.
Having never been here before, we drove the length of the reserve in search of a good spot and settled for a location just inside of the far-end of the park boundary at around 16:00 UTC (09:00 PDT). We chose this location because it is one of the few areas to easily park off the roadway. Beyond the sign titled “Woodlot” is a forestry logging harvest area (outside the park boundary).
Editor note – Please enjoy this guest post from Conrad Troutmann N2YCH.
Thank you “deputy” Vince, VE6LK, for assisting in managing some guest contributor posts for QRPer.com. I’m so happy to hear Thomas and his family rode the storm out safely and send him my best wishes and hope things return to normal soon. Here’s my contribution to help keep QRPer.com going while Thomas gets his house back in order. 73, Conrad, N2YCH
September 22, 2024
Lately, the high frequency bands (15/12/10 meters) have been hit or miss, largely due to recent space weather events. Today, taking a look at WSPR beacon reception at my QTH on the Top Spotters web site, I noticed that 10 meters was open and I was spotting quite a few stations on the band.
Top Spotters Ranker – https://wspr.rocks/topspotters/
The weather here was sunny and beautiful and my batteries were all charged up, so it seemed like all signs were pointing to a POTA activation at Silver Sands State Park, US-1716. I usually activate on 20 meters, however with 10 open, I thought I’d try for some DX and give hunters that don’t normally hear me on 20 a chance to get the park. When I was trying for my Worked All States POTA award, I appreciated it when the Hawaii and Alaska activators activated on the higher bands so I had a chance to get them all the way from the East Coast. I like to return the favor when I can.
I decided to give my Elecraft KX2 a workout as well. Paired with my Buddipole vertical up 10’, I figured I would do well.
Buddipole Vertical with Elevated Counterpoise using Electric Fence PostKX3, Samsung Computer and Bioenno Battery with a view looking towards Long Island Sound at Silver Sands State Park in Connecticut
I got set up, checked and adjusted my computer time using JTSync and started calling CQ POTA on FT8. I called and called and no one answered. I checked PSKReporter and I was being spotted, but still, no answers. I was receiving well, in fact, I was picking up stations as far away as South Africa. “Hello, is this thing working? Can you hear me now?”
Just to be sure my equipment was working, I shifted to “hunt and pounce” mode. Rather than call CQ, I started answering stations who were calling CQ. It’s not my preferred way to get the QSO’s needed to officially activate the park, but sometimes that’s what you need to do. I have JTAlert set to sort received stations from strongest received signals to weakest. I’ve found based on prior experience that my chances of completing a QSO are much higher with stations that I’m receiving with strong signals. So, I answered a CQ for a station in Texas coming in at +19 and he answered right away. One in the log.
I did this for the next 30 minutes or so and managed to get six stations, about half I called and the other half answered my CQ. I moved around the waterfall looking for openings, but it was busy and challenging. Just for grins, I decided to see if FT4 was active. Sure enough, I was receiving many stations there as well. I called CQ and immediately had stations answering. I did the rest of the activation on FT4 and had a steady stream of callers. I completed the activation with 17 total QSO’s, my map is below. I make these maps using the Adventure Radio log analyzer. You can import the same log you upload to the POTA page and put the grid square in and it generates the map.
Activation QSO Map made with the Adventure Radio Log analyzer
Interestingly, all of the USA contacts were on FT8 and when I moved to FT4, I picked up all of the EU ones. I was happy to see after I uploaded my log to the POTA site that almost all of the hunters who got me were active POTA hunters and had accounts at the POTA web site. In fact, one was actually a park-to-park QSO. PA4PA was at the Sluiswaai Nature Reserve, NL-0219 in the Netherlands.
If you haven’t read my previous posts, here’s the situation in a nutshell: we live in a rural mountain community in Swannanoa, NC, where the bridge connecting us to the outside world was swept away during the 1 in 1,000-year flood event caused by Tropical Storm Helene.
Recovery Period
Since my last update, I’ve had to take a break from chainsawing and heavy lifting due to an old mountain biking injury that flared up, causing significant pain in my right shoulder. I’m currently on medication prescribed by my doctor and focusing on giving that arm a rest.
Fortunately, one of our amazing neighbors is a physical therapist and gave me an evaluation on Friday. She has me on a treatment plan that seems to be working, and she taped my shoulder with therapeutic tape to help stabilize it. I’m incredibly grateful for her help.
In many ways, I’m my own worst enemy. Like my grandpa, I have a hard time stepping back when there’s work to be done or someone who needs help. If my mom were still around, I’m sure she’d be quick to point this out! But I realize I need to take it easy for now to heal properly so I can help later.
Amateur Radio’s Vital Role
Over the past 17 days, the N2GE (Mount Mitchell) repeater has shifted from being the primary source for gathering real-time information and conducting wellness checks to now serving as a liaison between aid groups and those needing assistance. If you’ve been monitoring, you’ll hear it’s as busy as ever.
This week, I’ve been focused on connecting aid groups with the parts of Western North Carolina most in need. I can’t overstate the importance of amateur radio in facilitating these connections.
Government resources and private aid groups often operate on different communication networks, making coordination challenging. This has led to some areas being overlooked while others are inundated with supplies they can’t manage. For example, one local church in north Asheville has become a relief hub due to social media posts but is now overwhelmed with donations and lacks the logistical infrastructure to manage them. It’s a bit crippling for an all-volunteer group.
I’ve been attempting to: 1) gather information on resource hubs, 2) compile a list of communities in need along with their specific requests, and 3) link the two and arrange deliveries. So far, I’ve made good progress, especially with some amazing resources here in central Buncombe County willing to drive supplies to more remote areas in Yancey, Mitchell, and Avery counties.
Aid Coordination
On that note, yesterday, my wife and I headed into town to connect with one of the largest aid resources in Swannanoa: a coalition of churches and private individuals from various states that have taken over a large facility near I-40. They’re as organized as a private aid agency can be.
We met with one of their logistics managers and set up direct communication, so I can provide them with specific community needs. We also informed them about a local church that needed heavy equipment like skid steers (with forks) to manage palletized donations.
Their site was buzzing with activity, with trucks coming and going, and volunteers lining up for tasks ranging from chainsaw work to laundry services. It was incredible to witness the coordination.
We also checked in with the Swannanoa Fire Department to relay the status of our community and see if they needed anything. They’ve been a critical hub for both government and private relief efforts.
On our way home, we couldn’t leave without accepting meals prepared by the Swannanoa First Baptist Church—such loving persistence! Their generosity was deeply appreciated.
Our mobile post office.
At the post office, we helped out a bit too.
Proudly displayed in the window of the mobile post office. 🙂
They were open on Saturday to accommodate those in the community collecting mail and packages
They’re based in a brilliant temporary mobile post office and have an additional shipping container (that lacks lighting) to manage larger packages and parcels.
Our amazing postal workers and friends were pretty busy, so Heather and I helped set up some battery-powered lanterns and headlamps they’d just acquired so they could locate packages more easily in that dark shipping container.
I may have mentioned that our local post office was flooded, so this mobile setup could be in place for a long while. We love our hardworking postal workers–they’re such valuable members of our community.
A Few Photos
Heather took some photos as we drove around town. Many of these appear blurry mainly because everything (and I do mean everything) is covered in fine silt that was left over from the flood. When the wind blows in town, it looks like a dust bowl. The town is even spraying down the roads with water just to keep it somewhat at bay.
The field next to the Swannanoa Harley Davidson shop has become a key helicopter distribution site. There’s a constant stream of helicopters taking off and landing.
Tree Removal
As I mentioned in the last post, we’ve contracted arborists to remove the trees from our houses. They’re scheduled to come today, but it’s unclear if they’ll make it. The crane they need may not be able to handle the dips and dodgy conditions on our patched-up road. The crane operator was supposed to assess the situation this weekend, but I haven’t heard back yet. Two other homes on our road are also awaiting tree removal, so we’ll see how things unfold.
One of many dump truck deliveries on our road yesterday.
In addition, the Kentucky DOT is continuing to patch our road. We’ve confirmed they’re bringing it up to DOT standards, just adding more stability. We certainly welcome any repairs. The road is still our biggest concern, aside from power restoration.
We’ll roll with the punches. Removing the trees is a priority, especially before the weather turns. While we’ve been blessed with dry days, our vacation rental has no protection from rain pouring through the ceiling where a tree came down.
Power Restoration?
One positive? We’re so fortunate to enjoy dark skies here at the QTH year-round, but lately it’s even been better because there’ve been no lights from neighboring towns.
I mentioned previously that a Duke Energy employee estimated we might not have power restored before Christmas. While our community accepted this as reality, a crew from Indiana working on our lines gave us more optimistic news yesterday. Barring any unforeseen complications, power could be restored this week. Possibly in a couple of days! This doesn’t mean everyone will get power immediately—some homes with slab-mounted transformers have additional damage—but it’s a positive development.
At our community meeting, though, we all agreed: “We’ll believe it when we see it.”
Again, we’ve been incredibly fortunate to have solar power throughout this ordeal. Still, restored power will be a huge relief for our neighbors, and we’re hopeful it’ll happen soon!
Thank You So Much!
Olive: one of our amazing neighborhood dogs.
Once again, we’re overwhelmed by the kindness and support we’ve received. I apologize if I haven’t been able to reply to emails and comments—I’ve been spending most of my energy helping my family and neighbors through this challenging time.
Also, a HUGE shout-out to the amazing Vince (VE6LK) and all of the contributors here on QRPer.com! THANK YOU!
Vince has completely taken over formatting and posting field reports and articles to QRPer.com. It’s been so fun reading through all of the brilliant field reports and see QRPer.com in full-swing.
What an amazing community you are! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Many thanks to Brian K3ES who submits this awesome report.
As I write this report, we are currently visiting with my parents at their home near San Francisco, CA. Getting here from our Pennsylvania home and back again is a continuing great adventure for my wife Becky, POTA Pup Molly, and me. You see, this is a grand road trip, complete with sight seeing, activating POTA parks in new-to-me states, and lots of driving. While much of the trip has been planned, there have been frequent changes to the route and schedule, as better opportunities presented themselves. One such opportunity was to deviate from interstate highway travel between Montana and Idaho, and divert to lesser-traveled highways. This detour enabled us to fit in a drive through Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Sadly, we were only able to take the time to see a small fraction of the natural splendor. We did see enough to create the resolve to return for a proper exploration of the wonders that we had to miss.
The Welcoming Committee: I had to stop again just after the entrance plaza leading into the park. These elk, along with a number of their friends, were standing beside the road to greet us.Mammoth Hot Springs. To get this picture, Becky hiked along planked walkways and climbed a great number of steps. Sadly we could only stop and look for a few minutes during our drive.
We made a handful of stops on our drive through Yellowstone, including a couple of hours at the Old Faithful geyser. One challenge of traveling with Molly, is that dogs are not always welcome in interesting areas. Another challenge is that, having been rescued from an abusive situation, she can respond unpredictably to other dogs. So, Becky and I have often taken turns with one of us exploring the sights, while the other remained in the truck with Molly. At this stop, Becky was the designated sight-seer for an impending eruption of Old Faithful (she takes better pictures), and I stayed in the truck with Molly.
*No explanation needed*Becky got some great action shots Old Faithful!
If you haven’t read my previous posts, here’s the situation in a nutshell: we live in a rural mountain community in Swannanoa, NC, where the bridge connecting us to the outside world was swept away during the 1 in 1,000-year flood event caused by Tropical Storm Helene. We’ve also confirmed that a tornado swept through our valley, which explains the large number of trees down on houses and roads.
Arborists in High Demand
One profession in particularly high demand here, post-Helene, is arborists.
As a community, we worked together to clear our road and driveways within days of the storm hitting—an enormous task. But some trees require professional equipment and expertise, especially those needing cranes.
About 80% of the homes in the upper part of our road had trees fall on them, including our two homes—our primary residence and our vacation rental cottage.
Difficult to see in this photo, but the tree that hit our house chopped off the top portion of one of our panels and likely damaged a couple more.
At our main house, three trees fell: two landed on our Subaru, and one hit our roof, damaging two solar panels.
We were able to fully uncover “Ella Sue” a few days ago.
Thankfully, after a thorough two-hour inspection by an insurance appraiser, we were relieved to learn there was no structural damage or water penetration.
The vacation cottage wasn’t as fortunate. A tree punched through the master bedroom ceiling. I attempted to trim the branches around the hole, but the weight and tension of the tree made it too dangerous to cut without risking further damage.
In both cases, we need a crane to safely remove the trees.
I’ve been in touch with arborists we’ve used before, but they’re a small company, and the wait could be up to two weeks. With perfectly clear and dry fall weather right now, we knew we had to act quickly before the rains return.
Most arborists in Western North Carolina are so overwhelmed that they’re only doing “chop and drop” jobs—removing trees from homes, dropping them to the side, and moving on. No debris cleanup or additional work.
After numerous calls, we’ve contracted a well-recommended arborist who may be able to remove the trees from both of our houses and two others in the neighborhood.
I should note that any job involving a crane is incredibly expensive, but neither of our insurance companies raised concerns about the cost.
Fingers crossed that the arborists keep their schedule and safely remove the trees. It will be a relief to stop hearing the tree groaning on our roof and to prevent more water damage in the vacation home!
Grid Restoration
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, we’re incredibly fortunate to have solar power with battery backup. It allows us to live in relative comfort, keeping the fridge and freezer running if we manage our energy use carefully.
It’s now been two weeks without power on our road.
Duke Energy, along with line workers from across the U.S. and Canada, have been working around the clock to restore electricity in Buncombe County.
Yesterday, while we briefly had cell phone service, we received this text:
Duke Energy: We are making more progress than anticipated repairing the considerable damage left by Helene and restoring customers. Of the 50K remaining outages in NC mountains, we estimate restoring about half by Sunday night. The remaining outages will require significant construction of roads, bridges, and/or electrical infrastructure. We will provide you with additional details about your outage as soon as possible. Rest assured we will not stop working until we have restored every customer who is able to receive power.
We’re among those outages that will require major reconstruction of infrastructure.
While we’ve known this from the start, we’ve been holding out some hope as we’ve seen rapid progress on other areas. Some neighbors were thinking we might get power back in a few weeks.
For a few days, hope grew as we saw a parade of line workers along the two-mile stretch of road connecting us to the Bee Tree reservoir and the rest of the world.
Yesterday, while on our way to a 4:00 PM community meeting and potluck, we passed a Duke Energy vehicle on our road for the first time.
One neighbor stopped the worker and asked, “Are you surveying the damage?”
The lineman replied, “I came up here to count how many power poles were destroyed. I stopped counting after ten, further down the road.”
When asked about the timeline for restoration, he said, “I think we’ll be doing well if we can restore power here by Christmas.”
Sobering news, but we weren’t shocked. We’ve all adjusted our expectations, and most of us have some form of backup power. The community meeting and potluck helped keep spirits high.
Ham Radio Workbench
Last night, I had the pleasure of recording an episode of the Ham Radio Workbench podcast. While I’m a regular on the show, this time I was also the guest, sharing my experiences post-Helene and discussing how radio played a crucial role in emergency communication.
It was so energizing to hang out with friends—it was the first “normal” thing I’ve done in two weeks.
Our “priority bandwidth” renewed the previous day, so my connection via Skype was solid. We still have no mobile internet here, only voice and basic texting. So I couldn’t rely on my mobile hotspot as a backup.
The discussion was fantastic, and I feel fortunate we have solar power and satellite internet to make this possible. All other internet here is still down, and it could be that way for a while.
Feeling Fortunate
I was telling George, Vince, Mike, and Mark last night (sadly, Rod was traveling) that for most people, things improve each day after a disaster like this. Recovery is a process. I overheard a Samaritan’s Purse volunteer say to a homeowner whose house flooded, “What happened here was horrible, but you’re a survivor, and your life will improve each day from now.”
Scene from the neighborhood where I spoke with the amazing people with Samaritan’s Purse.
It’s a powerful sentiment, but it made me think of those in war zones. For them, there isn’t one event followed by recovery. It’s constant devastation. My friend Wlod (US7IGN) in Kyiv, Ukraine, has lived through years of uncertainty and attacks. Power outages, explosions, and devastation are part of daily life for him.
Natural disasters are tough, but I really feel for those in places where the struggle never seems to end.
Thank You
Once again, we’re overwhelmed by the kindness and support we’ve received. Thank you so much!
I apologize if I haven’t been able to reply to emails and comments—I’m spending most of my energy these days helping my family and neighbors navigate this challenging time.
Thanks to those that have submitted stories of late. If you have an article in your head and want to have it posted here, let’s keep this community going while our friend continues to help his neighbours. Draft up your story in an email with reference points to the pictures you want embedded and their captions, and attach photos to the note and send it my way to vincedeon at gmail dot com and note QRPer in the subject line to get my attention.
I’ve often wondered if naming radios is just a Thomas thing or if others do this also. He mentions them so fondly in his articles here or when we are recording Ham Radio Workbench as we were last night.
Sort of top-secret: Thomas was our featured guest in last night’s recording and I think that episode will come out as an extra outside of our regular schedule.
A great time among friends
Thomas assured us that he and his family are doing well. He acknowledges that so many have sent him words of encouragement and reads every one of them. He’s apologetic that his limited internet time is managing completion of forms for FEMA and such instead of responding to you all, but wanted you to know that he appreciates your support from afar.
Greek philosopher Seneca said that “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity” and, from what I heard last night Thomas and family were not only well-prepared but quite fortunate. The luck part happened when he and his neighbours banded together to handle a mountain-load of tasks garnering praise from the FEMA representatives who visited them. One thing stuck out from the interview -and I’ve seen this first-hand– help will not be on the ground to you, in a disaster zone, for several days. We all need to be self-sufficient for at least that period of time.
The HT Fleet at Chez VE6LK
During the interview he spoke of passing out his HTs to neighbours and establishing a twice-daily schedule of check-ins among them, at 8am and 8pm. This is an indispensable tool in situations like this! I asked if he named his HTs as he does his HF gear.. it was a fun moment and you’ll have to listen for yourself. But I then, inspired, broke out the Dymo and did my own named on the gang from Peanuts. Lucy and Linus, the brother and sister, are both Yaesu VX-7s that were my workhorse HTs during the 2013 Southern Alberta Floods. Since that time they’ve been joined by Woodstock, the Alinco DJ-MD5XT, for logging road use (it’s type approved for both commerical and amateur), Schroeder, the TH-D74, as it can -I’m certain- play a symphony once I find that page in the manual, and last but not least, Snoopy, for it’s the carefree and fun to use FT-70DR.
So – back to the title of this post – Do you name your radios? Let me know in the comments.
My goal for this summer is to do more backpacked day-trip POTA activations while I’m still physically able to. This is my 4th backpacked-in activation this past week or so. And a thank you to Thomas K4SWL for letting me share my adventures from the Canadian out-back.
Today’s goal is to activate Trout Creek Ecological Reserve, CA-4221 which is about one-hour drive south of Kelowna, BC, Canada, which is where my wife Alexis (VE7LXE) and I (VE7EFF) have lived for the past 12 years. Alexis accompanies me on all my POTA activations.
It is a beautiful late August day. The temperature is expected to be about 31℃, or 88℉. The one-hour drive is just the beginning of the day’s adventure. We were able to conveniently park at the Summerland Golf and Country Club, but this is where all conveniences end for us.
Trout Creek Ecological Reserve has never been activated before – I’ll be the first. It’s no surprise this reserve hasn’t been activated before. It’s all wilderness with no trails to follow. I have to rely on my Garmin 66sr GPS and Pixel8 smart phone with Google Maps with Satellite View to help me navigate to and through the reserve in search for an optimal operating location.
I expected the trek to only be about 1 Km in with about 600 ft elevation gain. It’s all uphill, all the way. From the golf course parking lot, the hike starts out relatively easy. At first, there appears to be some semblance of a trail.
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Many thanks to Tom (WW8D) who writes:
