I feel incredibly fortunate to live in an area where a POTA park—the Blue Ridge Parkway—quite literally runs through town. As convenient as that is, I’ve still struggled to squeeze in activations over the past few months. We’ve had so much going on that even impromptu POTA time has felt out of reach.

Fortunately, I have a secret weapon for making the most of even the shortest activation window:

The KH1!

My Elecraft KH1 goes with me everywhere—it’s my proper EDC radio. And on Thursday, April 3, 2025, it came in very handy.

I dropped my daughter off at a physical therapist’s office, which just so happened to be right next to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Instead of waiting in the office for 45 minutes trying to catch up on email, I opted for some POTA radio therapy instead!

I left the parking lot and drove to a nearby gravel pull-off along the Parkway—just about four minutes from the PT office.

I hadn’t originally intended to film an activation, but I happened to have my camera, digital audio recorder, and a new magnetic clip-on camera mount with me.

I purchased this mount specifically to record pedestrian mobile activations. The first time I tried it, the results weren’t great: I mounted it at chest level, but my arms dominated the screen, making it tough to see both the radio and the logbook.

That Thursday, though, I had everything I needed—and I figured it was worth another try, this time clipping the camera mount higher and on my right shoulder.

With the clock ticking, I deployed the KH1 and hit the air!

Gear

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Radio and Antenna System

• Elecraft KH1 Edgewood Package
  • Included 4′ whip antenna and 13′ detachable counterpoise
  • Zebra Mini Mechanical Pencil (preferred over the included Zebra pen)
  • Pelican Micro M40 mine is the modified version from Tufteln
  • Panasonic ErgoFit Wired Earbuds

Camera and Audio Gear

• DJI OSMO 4 action camera with Magnetic Clip-On Mount
• Sony ICD-FX312 Digital Recorder ($20 thrift store find)

On The Air

If you’ve done any POTA or SOTA activations in the past six weeks, you’ve probably noticed conditions have been rough—at times, downright miserable.

Luckily, I picked a day with reasonably good propagation.

I tuned to 14.053.5 kHz and started calling CQ POTA. I didn’t have to wait long for RBN auto-spotting and my first hunters to roll in.

In just nine minutes, I logged the ten contacts needed to validate the activation.

I continued operating for a few more minutes, ultimately logging 18 contacts in 18 minutes.

My goal was to complete the activation in 20 minutes—knowing setup and teardown would eat into my time—and I hit that goal!

I packed everything up and made it back to the PT office just as my daughter was finishing her session. A proper win in my book.

QSO Map

Here’s what this five-watt activation looked like when plotted out on a QSO Map. Click on the map 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 YouTube monetization turned off, 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.

Always worth it

Sometimes when I squeeze in a quick activation, I wonder if it’ll really be worth the effort.

Looking back? It always is.

For me, POTA is proper radio therapy. Even just a few minutes on the air clears my head and lifts my spirits. I’m grateful that this hobby gives us a reason—even an excuse—to pause the day and do something meaningful.

Thank you

Thank you for joining me for this quickie 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.

Here’s wishing you an amazing week ahead!

If you plan to attend Four Days In May or Hamvention this week, please look me up at the Ham Radio Workbench Podcast table!

Cheers & 72,
Thomas (K4SWL)

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