As I write this report, I’m on the road with my family–we’ve been spending the week on the coast of North Carolina and are now (at time of publishing) in Raleigh. I’ll keep this field report short and sweet so I can publish it quickly and also fit in an activation before record temps heat up the region!

Blue Ridge Parkway (US-3378)

On the morning of July 4th, 2024, Jonathan (KM4CFT) and I arranged to meet and activate on the Blue Ridge Parkway (US-3378).

Jonathan was in town visiting family over the holiday weekend, and I had a brief window of time that morning to join him. My schedule had been packed since Field Day, making this my first chance for a POTA activation for a couple of weeks.

We knew it would be an interesting activation right from the start: we both arrived at the Folk Art Center at the same time and were greeted by a large black bear strolling down the road in front of the entrance! A bear walking away from your POTA spot is always a good thing.

After a quick catch-up, I grabbed my arborist throw line and deployed the 30/40 meter linked end-fed half-wave antenna I’d built using the KM4CFT antenna kit.

It would have been rude to use another antenna with KM4CFT standing right there! (Note to N5FY: Yes, I know I’ve been rude to you on many previous activations, haha!)

Gear:

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On The Air: The Accidental Self-Spot

Jonathan took to the air first. Since neither of us had announced our activation, I opened POTA.app to spot him. Except, I didn’t. In a moment of confusion, I accidentally spotted myself!

It turns out there’s no easy way to delete your own spot once you’ve done that. (If there is, I’d love to know, though I hope to never make that mistake again!)

What followed was rather comical. Jonathan noticed people thought he was me, even though he used his own callsign in each exchange. I guess it’s easy to mishear a callsign when you think you already know it!

I kept spotting myself “QRT,” but many kind operators kept re-spotting me. I even moved to 14,000 kHz (an out-of-band frequency I’d never use) and spotted myself QRT. People were still re-spotting me on Jonathan’s frequency!

It was funny, and the early morning hour on a holiday probably contributed to the confusion.

After Jonathan logged his ten contacts, he handed the radio over to me. I swapped out paddles (his TP-III setup mounted to the FT-818 wasn’t comfortable for me).

I started calling CQ POTA de K4SWL, spotted myself (correctly this time!), and the real activation began.

In the end, I worked 25 stations in 26 minutes. Thanks to all the hunters!

Then it was time to call QRT and continue our day. It was great seeing Jonathan and fitting in a little POTA before the day really started!

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 during this activation! (And thank you, Jonathan, for joining me!)

I hope you enjoyed the 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 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 makes 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 a brilliant week ahead and be kind to one another out there!

Cheers & 72,
Thomas (K4SWL)

6 thoughts on “Morning POTA with KM4CFT: Back-to-Back activations with the venerable Yaesu FT-818!”

Cool to see my call in your log and hear the QSO from your end. Thanks for the P2P contact.

How about we don’t spot activators
1) we haven’t worked
2) we can’t hear
3) have not requested a spot through an alternate channel.

I really enjoyed my FT-817ND for about 7 years, but that constant background noise and non- adjustable bandwidth got really old.
I have a QRPLABS QCX Mini for 40m and it has crystal clear sound, no noise at all hardly ever!

I sold my 817 and bought an 891 for the filters and large screen. First thing I did was turn power diwn to 5 watts lol. My QRP 891.

I have a QRPLABS QMX for high bands to build. Can’t wait to take it into the field!

You guys did ok. The hunters will get proper credit anyway.

73 de NG9T

Go Hokies!

I love seeing FT-817/818 radios in the wild. Can’t wait for the weather here in FL to cool down and get back on the trail with mine in a few months. Thanks for the article.

Jonathan & Thomas,

When I first got into QRP, twenty years ago, I wanted ‘Portability.’

The Yaesu FT-817 was my pick. It was mainly SSB at first, and it was plenty challenging. Contacts were few from my abode in SW Montana. But I fell in love with everything QRP.

I still have that FT-817 (non ND). It has an Elecraft T1 & Palm Mini iambic velcro’d to it. The same set of rails, to protect afield, and an installed BMi filter.

Shame I don’t use it much. Now days, my KX2 is the frontrunner. Followed by my minimal QRP Labs transceivers, all six of them.

But we all remember our first love. So thanks for the post & video.

72 de W7UDT ID (dit dit)