On Saturday, August 3, 2024, my wife and daughters drove to Edneyville, North Carolina, for an annual family get-together/reunion. It’s always a lot of fun catching up with my wife’s extended family. And, I must say, the food is always spectacular. I’m talking every amazing Southern dish you can dream of!

After the gathering, my wife and I dropped off our daughters with some of their friends for the afternoon. We’d planned to head back home and catch up on a few things, but I (fortunately) glanced at Google Maps and saw that I-40 was closed west-bound which meant that instead of a 30-minute drive home, we were staring at 70+ minutes. It was a busy weekend, with a lot of tourists in town, and traffic was at a standstill.

Lemons to Lemonade

I proposed to my wife that we go in the opposite direction of everyone else–up the very winding 151 to Mount Pisgah. She looked at me and knew I had activating on the brain. She happily agreed.

I knew hiking to the summit of Mount Pisgah for a SOTA (Summits on the Air) activation was unrealistic because we didn’t bring hiking gear and, frankly, the weather was a little too dodgy with pop-up thunderstorms forming.

Instead, I had the Mount Pisgah Picnic Area in mind. It’s a brilliant spot with numerous options for setting up a POTA station. It took us all of 35 minutes to drive there.

Hazel was happy to jump out of the car.

I’m sure she was on bear alert because the last time we were here, she spotted a black bear. She never forgets a bear but she always forgets how small she is compared to them.

There are numerous spots to set up a station at this particular parkway picnic site. We found a table off to the side where I had easy access to trees (i.e., wire antenna supports) if needed.

I was hoping I wouldn’t need them, though. I planned to attach the Version 2 KH1 Right Angle Adapter Elecraft sent me to replace out the prototype I used in a previous activation/field report. This would give my KH1 “picnic table” mode.

Based on all of the recent reports I’d been receiving from other POTA and SOTA activators, I knew such a modest antenna might make things challenging (foreshadowing alert), but by not deploying a wire antenna, I could pack up super quickly should we get caught in a downpour or thunderstorm.

I set up the KH1, prepared my logs, and got ready to hop on the air!

Gear:

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• Elecraft KH1 Edgewood Package
• Elecraft KHRA1 Right Angle Adapter
• Pelican Micro M40, specifically, one with the Tufteln KH1 mod
• Bamakey TP-III
• Key cable: Cable Matters 2-Pack Gold-Plated Retractable Aux Cable – 2.5 Feet
  
• Anker Soundcore Mini Speaker
• Packtenna 9:1 End-Fed Random Wire
• Weaver arborist throw line/weight and storage bag
• GraphGear 0.9mm 1000 Automatic Drafting Pencil
• ‎Rite In The Rain Top Spiral Notebook
• Camera: DJI OSMO 4 action camera with Joby Telepod Sport Tripod
• Nemo Chipper Foam Seat

On The Air

I hopped on the air and started calling CQ POTA with fingers crossed.

I worked N8JY and KO4PK in fairly short order after I self-spotted (thank you for the contacts!).

Then…silence.

(Sound familiar activators who’ve been out there lately–?)

I even moved to the 30M band for a stint, but there were no callbacks there either.

Next, I moved up to the 17 meter band. After calling a while, I worked K5RX who was surprisingly loud!

Twenty five minutes into the activation and I only had three contacts! Heather, Hazel, and I weren’t exactly rushed for time, but we were concerned about the weather shifting on us so I really wanted to get the activation in the bag.

I decided to deploy my PackTenna 9:1 Unun EFRW antenna. Instead of stopping the activation to deploy the antenna, I decided to keep the KH1 calling CQ POTA DE K4SWL the whole time. If someone were to call back, I’d have enough time to run back to the radio and reply.

I quickly deployed the antenna, then hooked it up to the KH1’s BNC connector. I stopped the message memory and sent the prosign AS (which means “please wait”) in the remote chance someone was listening.

Next, I flipped the antenna switch on the KX1 to the BNC input and pressed the ATU button. The KH1 found a match rapidly, and I started calling CQ POTA again.

The PackTenna seemed to work because I logged three more stations–KW7AT, N7CCD, and KG5DKG–in quick succession on 17 meters. Then, silence…

Next, I moved back down to the 20-meter band where I worked six more stations in fairly short order: KJ7RPL, K3OX, KI5GTR, VA3UZ, N2BJ, WB3DDJ, and N1KB.

With 12 stations logged, I was a happy camper!

QSO Map

Here’s what this five-watt activation looked like when plotted out on a QSO Map (click image to enlarge):

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.

Dodging the weather

As I grabbed my gear to head back to the car, post-activation, we felt the rain starting. Fortunately, it was never worse than a drizzle until we were in the car. Then the rain came down in sheets for a few minutes.

The trip back home was uneventful and the roads were in slightly better shape. The extra traffic only added 5-10 minutes to the drive.

Overall, it was an amazing Saturday and I’m pleased I had the KH1 packed for an impromptu activation!

Thank you!

Thank you for joining me during this activation!
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!

Cheers & 72,
Thomas (K4SWL)