Welcome to another Postcard Field Report!

If you’ve been following QRPer.com and my YouTube channel for long, you’ll notice that I typically post two field reports with videos per week when my free time allows. Each report takes about four hours to produce along with a video. I’ve got a busy day ahead on the road (including a POTA activation), so in order to squeeze this field report into my schedule, I’m going to use my more abbreviated field report format: a “postcard” format!

Speaking of which….

Pisgah National Forest (K-4510)

On the morning of Friday, November 10, 2023, I had a couple hours to fit in some POTA time.

All morning, we had been receiving some much-needed rain in the form of scattered showers in a constant heavy mist.

I decided to explore picnic areas I hadn’t yet visited in Pisgah National Forest along the Pisgah Highway near Brevard, North Carolina.

I was curious if I might find a small shelter at one of the roadside sites. Unfortunately, I did not; however, I did find quite a few sites that were ideal for POTA with tall trees, space between picnic tables, etc. I decided to pick one at random that had no other park visitors.

I did have a small rainfly in the car I could set up, but I decided to simply risk it. The goal was to pair the new Elecraft KH1 with my (MW0SAW) End-Fed Half-Wave antenna.

I wanted to see if the KH1 ATU could match the EFHW on 30 and 17 meters (outside of its resonant bands of 40, 20, and 15 meters).

Setup

Since I wasn’t using the KH1 pedestrian mobile, I connected my N0SA (“SOTA paddle”) and my Anker Soundcore Mini portable speaker.

Antenna deployment was easy enough (though I did take a few tries to hit *the* tree branch I wanted)!

In no time, I had the KH1 on the air and ready to start calling CQ!

Gear:

Note: All Amazon, CW Morse, ABR, Chelegance, eBay, and Radioddity links are affiliate links that support QRPer.com at no cost to you.

• Elecraft KH1 Edgewood Package which includes:
  • KH1 Hand-Held, 5-Band Transceiver
  • KHATU1 Antenna Tuner and Built-In Whip
  • KHPD1 Keyer Paddle
  • KHLOG1 Logbook Tray w/mini-ballpoint pen
  • KXBT2 rechargeable Li-Ion battery
  • KHIBC1 Internal Battery Charger
  • ES20 Custom zippered carrying case.
  • E980262 Power Cable
  • KXUSB USB Cable
  • Counterpoise wire & 2 storage clips
  • E740377 KH1 Owner’s Manual
• Anker Soundcore Mini Speaker
• Homemade 40 Meter End-Fed Half-Wave by MW0SAW
• ABR Industries RG-316 cable assembly (Use Coupon Code ABR10QRPER for 10% Discount!)
  
• N0SA SOTA Paddle
• GoRuck GR1 USA
• Weaver arborist throw line/weight and storage bag
• GraphGear 0.9mm 1000 Automatic Drafting Pencil
• Rite In The Rain Top Spiral Notebook
• Camera: original OSMO Action Camera (the OSMO 3 is the current version) with Sensyne Phone Tripod

On The Air

I hopped on 40 meters, found a free spot, and started calling CQ POTA.

Turns out, 40 meters was in great shape!

I logged my first ten contacts in eight minutes!

I continued on 40 meters for a while, then QSY’d to the 15 meter band.

I didn’t expect a lot of activity here, but I was wrong. I logged an additional ten stations in nine minutes!

All told, I logged 29 contacts during the activation. Check out my logs and activation video below to see how it played out!

QSO Map

Here’s what this five watt activation looked like when plotted out on a QSO Map:

Activation Video

Here’s my real-time, real-life video of the entire activation.  As with all of my videos, I don’t edit out any parts of the on-air activation time. In addition, I have monetization turned off on YouTube, although that doesn’t stop them from inserting ads before and after my videos.

Note that Patreon supporters can watch and even download this video 100% ad-free through Vimeo on my Patreon page:

Click here to view on YouTube.

Thank you

Thank you for joining me on this fun little POTA activation!

I hope you enjoyed the Postcard field report and my activation video as much as I enjoyed creating them.

Of course, I’d also like to send a special thanks to those of you who have been supporting the site and channel through Patreon and the Coffee Fund. While certainly not a requirement as my content will always be free, I really appreciate the support.

As I mentioned before, the Patreon platform connected to Vimeo make it possible for me to share videos that are not only 100% ad-free, but also downloadable for offline viewing. The Vimeo account also serves as a third backup for my video files.

Thanks for spending part of your day with me!

Have an amazing weekend!

Cheers & 72,

Thomas (K4SWL)