Those of you that read the final article for my spring-break Florida POTA trip know that I recently reconciled with someone dear to me. This man, Glenn W4YES, has moved to Savannah, Georgia and we are in a relationship. He is a CW op and the person behind CW Innovations’ Comprehensive ICR course. He knows how much I love POTA and joined me Friday, May 3rd for an activation.

I could have resumed my quest for 60 new-to-me parks. However, I figured we had enough “new” stuff going on with a new activator and a different set up for Glenn. POTA tends to throw the unexpected at you already and the more variables you add, the more opportunities there are for mistakes (er, learning opportunities) and/or hilarity to ensue. So I chose to return to Evans County Fishing Lake (US-7464), a site already known to me, for our dual activation.

What a gorgeous day! Sunny skies and 71 degrees! The drive is a short (about 50 minutes) and easy one to this park.

Given Glenn would use QRO equipment and didn’t have a chair or knee board like myself, I chose one of the few spots with a picnic table. The site looks out on Bidd Sands lake. We could have shared my QRP set-up but decided to activate at the same time which necessitated two sets of equipment.

I chose familiarity over reinventing the wheel when it came to picking equipment for Glenn – I grabbed my Yaesu FC-50 tuner and Yaesu FT-891 rig from my ham shack and the Pacific Antenna 2040 trap dipole antenna and SOTABeams travel mast from my equipment stash. This was the set-up I used for POTA before I went QRP with the KX2 and Tufteln EFRW last May. It wasn’t long before a station was set up on the picnic table for Glenn. However, the antenna was another matter.

When I grabbed coax for the antenna, I forgot the connector is a BNC connector which is why I have a coil of RG-174 in my stash. Instead of grabbing that RG-174, I grabbed my 50’ coil of RG-8x. (Doh!) That coax is extremely heavy for the SOTABeams travel mast and, after adding an adapter for the BNC to SO-239 connector, the antenna was hanging over precipitously. It just goes to show how well-made and durable the SOTABeams travel mast is. I was mortified as I like the best possible arrangement for my antennas but Glenn wasn’t. He knew what we had was good enough for contacts (see his QSO map down below) and his thinking turned out to be correct.

While Glenn finished getting everything in order for his activation, I began setting up for mine. I know this park allows antennas in the trees so it wasn’t long before the trusty Tufteln EFRW was installed. Daisy and I chose a shady location near the antenna, got comfortable, and began my activation.

As Glenn was running QRO (the power I usually run on my Yaesu FT-891 is 75 watts) on 20 meters, I began working other bands. I initially wondered if I would have any difficulty running a QRP station so close to a QRO set-up, but I didn’t.

Thirty meters gave me 11 CW contacts in 30 minutes and 17 meters gave me two. I tried 40, 15, and 12 meters but those bands were a bust for me – too noisy or no responses to my CQ.  Given how flaky propagation was as of late, I was happy to log what I did. I still needed to work 20 meters but that would have to wait until Glenn was finished.

While I did my activation, Glenn was getting mobbed! He would throw out his call sign and get a massive pile-up every time. One thing he ran into that I haven’t encountered much (probably because I run QRP) is that stations were not listening to him when he would ask for parts of a call sign followed by a question mark. Rather than allowing that one op to respond, everyone would jump in with their call sign again. This happened multiple times and frankly was frustrating. I have difficulty believing there are that many rude operators. Maybe it is because they are new and don’t understand the protocol of only responding in a pile-up situation if any part of your call sign is requested.

Finally Glenn had enough and called QRT. It was now my turn for 20 meters! I immediately began calling CQ. The band yielded for me 16 CW contacts in about 40 minutes including four park-to-park QSOs which I hunted – David K2JVB at US-8083, Randy N5ILQ at US-8641, Ted VA3TAR at CA-5670, and Jon K7CO at US-10069. By this time it was 12:30 PM and time to call QRT.

All in all, the day proved to be a fun adventure and learning opportunity. Though the outing had its stressful moments (my frustration with the Pacific Antenna set-up and Glenn’s non-stop pile-ups), we enjoyed doing what we love – CW – in a gorgeous setting. And best of all, we were able to do it together! How wonderful  it is to share such a fun and exciting hobby with the person you love.

So, the POTA Babe is back in action after a month’s hiatus. And, at times, I’ll have a companion with me to share my POTA experiences. How will we fine-tune Glenn’s set-up when he next activates and where will I or the two of us show up next? Stay tuned…

Equipment Used for KO4WFP

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• Elecraft KX2
• CW Morse SP4 POTA/SOTA Key
• Tufteln 9:1 EFRW Antenna
• Tufteln RG-316 Coax
• Tufteln Knee Board
• Helinox Zero High-back Chair

Equipment Used for W4YES

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

• Yaesu FT-891
• Yaesu FC-50 Antenna Tuner
• Pacific Antenna 2040 Trap Dipole
• SOTABeams Travel Mast
• DX Engineering RG-8x Coax
• Bioenno 12V 15Ah battery
• N3ZN Iambic Paddle, model: ZN-9dx