All posts by Thomas Witherspoon

Field Reports, News, Portable, POTA, QRO, QRP, Travel

Family Camping/POTA in Cloudland Canyon State Park, GA

June 22, 2025 Thomas Witherspoon 1 Comment

by Micah (N4MJL)

I strategically suggested to my family a camping trip to Cloudland Canyon State Park in Georgia (US-2169).

It is located in northwestern Georgia, just south of Chattanooga, TN. I sold the idea to the family under the premise that it was centrally located for everyone. Cloudland Canyon State Park was about six-ish hours driving for my parents from southeast Missouri, six-ish hours driving for my sister’s family from the Florida panhandle, and seven-ish hours driving for my family in Virginia.

While that sounds reasonable enough, I actually had a deeper plan. I sold the idea to my wife that she could leave my daughter and me for two days at the state park, and she could go visit one of her college girlfriends in Huntsville, Alabama. Huntsville was less than a two-hour drive from where we would be camping. She really liked that idea because she had been talking about doing a trip down to Huntsville for a while.

That was the bait, and now for the hook. My condition was if she got to visit her friend in Huntsville, then she needed to help me get two POTA activations! As one of my old flight Instructors used to say, “plan your work and work your plan.”

I am trying to do a POTA activation in every US state. At the time of the planing of this trip, I had not yet activated any parks in Georgia or Alabama. The second POTA activation that I wanted to complete was 40 minutes across the boarder in Alabama, Crow Creek Nature Refuge (US-9880).

Our three families were able to get camping spots all next to each other on the east rim at the state park. My daughter, who is five years old, was over joyed to be camping with her two cousins who are eight and nine years old along with her grandparents! My condolences to our fellow camping neighbors, because we were definitely the loudest group camping on the East and West rim combined. Haha

Side story: one week before leaving for this camping trip I had an unscheduled long layover, due to aircraft maintenance and flight duty limitations, in Atlanta, Georgia (Delta Country). I try to avoid Atlanta, but the Company put me up in a hotel in downtown Atlanta, three blocks away from Centennial Olympic State Park (US-9798). Fortunately, my Elecraft KH-1 goes every where I go, and I was able to activate that park using the whip Antenna in the pedestrian mobile configuration on 20M band.

Day 1: Camping at the park

My Dad and I rounded up the kids to hike the short Water Falls Trail. This was a beautiful hike down into the canyon to see Cherokee and Hemlock falls. The views on the hike did not disappoint!

Much to the kids’ dismay, there are signs everywhere about no swimming or wading in the water anywhere along the falls on Daniel Creek! Reading between the lines, I think it has to do with the number of rescues that took place and the amount of pedestrian traffic that was occurring. My wife talked to the ranger, and he told us about several spots further up on Daniel Creek where it was permissible to play in the water.

Day 2

We took the ranger’s advice and drove to Sitton’s Gulch Trail Head! From here, the ranger said it was about a 1/4-mile walk to the creek where swimming was permissible along Daniel Creek. We brought a hammock, chairs, and lunch, making an afternoon of swimming in the creek. The cousins enjoyed swimming in the cold mountain streams until their lips turned blue and purple! The girls would take breaks to warm up and eat snacks, only long enough to delay the onset of early stages of hypothermia before jumping back in to do it all over again!

Day 3

Since my wife was planning to leave that evening to drive to Huntsville to visit her friend for two days, I decided that after breakfast would be a great time for my dad (AC0UT) and me to get a POTA activation at the campground! Due to all the RFI interference from the trailers in the campground, we drove over to the parking lot of the Main Overlook. In front of our picnic table, you can see the railing for the Main Overlook trail, where you can enjoy some pretty incredible views! Continue reading Family Camping/POTA in Cloudland Canyon State Park, GA →

Antennas, Field Reports, Morse Code, New Products, News, Portable, POTA, QRP, Reviews, Videos

Putting the New Radioddity HF-009 Portable Vertical Antenna on the Air — QRP Style!

June 20, 2025 Thomas Witherspoon 3 Comments

by Thomas (K4SWL)

The day before I left on my week-long FDIM/Hamvention trip, I received a package in the mail from Radioddity containing their soon-to-be-released HF-009 vertical antenna.

In the spirit of full disclosure: Radioddity is not only a sponsor of QRPer, but we’re also an affiliate—meaning that if you purchase items via our affiliate link, we receive a small percentage of the sale, and you get a small discount. Radioddity sent this antenna to me free of charge. I don’t know yet if they want it back after I evaluate it, but let’s assume (for future transparency) that they don’t.

My Bias

When I evaluate gear, I like to take you along for the ride—and that means actually using the gear in the field.

It took me a few weeks to get around to evaluating the HF-009. Not only was I swamped post-Hamvention, but honestly, a part of me wasn’t looking forward to tinkering with this antenna.

The HF-009 is a multi-band vertical that uses a slide‑and‑tap center coil system. I know many operators who love sliding-coil verticals, but I’m just not one of them.

Early on in my POTA days, based on reader recommendations, I purchased the venerable Wolf River Coils vertical antenna. It uses a sliding coil system—like the HF-009—though its coil is located at the base of the antenna.

I immediately saw why these antennas are so popular: they deliver multi-band performance without needing an ATU, and they’re surprisingly effective. I had some fantastic activations with my WRC TIA.

My Wolf River Coils “TIA” vertical antenna on Mount Mitchell

But I eventually sold the TIA after discovering the Chelegance MC-750, which I found much easier to deploy and use.

Sliding coil antennas can be a pain to tune. Most friends who use them also carry an antenna analyzer to help dial in the best SWR before hitting the airwaves. While I eventually learned the “sweet spots” on the WRC coil, I often had to tweak it—especially on lower bands like 30, 40, and 80 meters. The more coil you use, the higher the Q—and the narrower the bandwidth.

Personally, I prefer antennas I can just set and forget (like the MC-750), or those that are non-resonant and rely on an ATU for matching (like the Chameleon MPAS Lite).

To be clear, this is just my preference. Center- and base-loaded coil verticals are very popular for good reason: they work. The more you use them, the easier they get. They’re just not my default go-to.

Getting Started

Normally, I film the “discovery” phase of a new antenna or radio in the field—experiencing the full unboxing and set-up for the first time on video, in real time.

But with the HF-009, I wasn’t comfortable doing that. Given my previous experience and bias, I decided to first test the antenna at the QTH, identify good match points for 40, 30, 20, and 17 meters, and then take it to the field.

I set up the HF-009 at home, grabbed my RigExpert analyzer, and spent about 15 minutes finding match points on the coil. Honestly? It wasn’t as tedious as I’d expected.

Because the coil is mounted at a comfortable height—not at the base like the WRC—adjustments were easier. The coil itself is smooth to adjust; I suspect it uses a finer gauge wire than the WRC, which has a clickier feel. The HF-009 is much more fluid.

To remember the coil positions, I took photos of the slider settings and saved them in the Notes app on my iPhone for quick field reference. That turned out to be a very good idea.

Very First Impressions

Before I get ahead of myself, here are a few things I immediately liked about the HF-009:

It comes with everything you need, including a coax cable and an SO-239 to BNC adapter.
The included carrying case is well-organized and feels solid.
When broken down, it’s compact and easy to pack, with shorter segment sections that fit nicely into a backpack.
The slider mechanism is smooth, responsive, and placed at a comfortable height.
The loading coil is sealed—unlike my WRC vertical, whose exposed coil was affected by moisture.
Overall, build quality feels excellent.

On The Air: Blue Ridge Parkway (US-3378)

Of course, the best way to put the HF-009 through its paces was to take it to a park and put it on the air.

On Monday, June 9, 2025, I dropped my daughter off at a class and had well over an hour to play radio, so the HF-009 came with me to the Folk Art Center picnic area on the Blue Ridge Parkway!

Since I’d set up the HF-009 once before, it came together very quickly. In fact, I think it’s right there with the MC-750 in deployment time, which is very much a good thing.

I decided to pair the HF-009 with my Penntek TR-45L Skinny. Why? To be honest, I didn’t fully trust the SWR to be acceptable using only the photos I’d taken for the coil slider placement. The TR-45L has a beautiful analog SWR meter, which I find much easier to read in situations where I might need to fine-tune an antenna.

I also packed my RigExpert analyzer because it allows me to make adjustments as I read the SWR.

Turns out, though? It wasn’t an issue at all. During the activation (spoiler alert), I moved from band to band and—solely based on the photos I took of the slider switch position—the SWR was spot-on each time!

Gear

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

Radio

Penntek TR-45L “Skinny”

Antenna System

Radioddity HF-009 Portable Vertical Antenna

Key/Cable

Pack/Cover

Red Oxx Micro Manager
TR-45L Transport Cover

Battery

Bioenno 3 Ah LiFePo Battery (Model BLF-1203AB)

Logging

Camera and Audio

DJI OSMO 4 action camera with Joby Telepod Sport Tripod
DJI Wireless Microphones

On The Air

I positioned the slider switch to the 20-meter position I had noted using this photo from back home.

When I checked the SWR on the TR-45L’s analog meter, it was nearly perfect. I was surprised.

I then hopped on 20 meters and started calling CQ POTA. Continue reading Putting the New Radioddity HF-009 Portable Vertical Antenna on the Air — QRP Style! →

Guest Posts, Homebrew, News, Portable, POTA, QRP, QRP Radios

New Summer, New Radio: Field Testing the Thunderbird

June 18, 2025 Thomas Witherspoon 15 Comments

by Sam Duwe (WN5C)

I really like homebrew radio. I’m also seeing a pattern: I build through the winter and the spring, get rusty at CW, and then spend the summer operating POTA until my ears bleed. So it’s good to be back! Here’s a quick report of a new radio I built and its maiden voyage.

For the past eight months I have worked on what I call the Thunderbird (v2) named after my local state park, Lake Thunderbird. It’s an 8-band (80-10 meters) 5-watt CW transceiver with SSB receive. I emphasized the latter (decent crystal filter and big speaker/audio amplifier) because while I don’t often use a microphone, listening to voice is both comforting and exciting – I love when the VK and ZL stations drift in late at night. It also works as a somewhat competent general coverage receiver for short wave listening. I built it to operate both in the shack and on a picnic table, it unfortunately is a bit heavy because I got greedy and kept adding bands.

I guess I “designed” this radio, but as I discussed before on this site I’m just a guy with no engineering background who learned to solder and read a schematic diagram. But by doing so I could understand and modify the clever circuits from the radios we love and then figure out how to make them play nicely together.

I built the radio using Manhattan construction on copper boards, and then stacked these and fit them into a metal project box with 3D printed front and rear panels. It’s a bit fiddly and messy, but I feel like I’m ready to challenge my family to a game of Operation! The nice thing about stacking the boards is that I can shield the receiver from the transmitter and digital components.

The bottom board houses the band-pass filters, receiver, and audio chain. This was my first attempt at building a superheterodyne receiver so I was a bit nervous (although this video calmed me down). The receiver takes inspiration from John Dillon’s (WA3RNC) TR-35. He uses a clever design to narrow (for CW) and widen (for SBB) the crystal filter. I also cribbed his excellent idea for the LED signal-strength meter. The audio chain was modified from the Elecraft KX1 which includes an AGC circuit. I learned last summer how important AGC is when I was on Vail Pass in Colorado and actually fell out of my chair and groaned in pain when a guy with an amp called me back. I also hand built an NM0S Hi-Per-Mite to switch in when I want a steep 200-Hz filter. This is an awesome circuit that you can buy in kit form.

Like I mentioned, I got greedy and experienced project creep. Honestly, I would have been super happy with 40, 30, and 20 meters, and 17 would be nice. But so would 15, and 10, and even 12 (a band that I only have a handful of contacts on ever). And why not 80 meters? So I modified Steve Weber’s (KD1JV) Tri-Bander relay-switched band-pass filter design to add them all. I also figured out how to build a preamp for the high bands. I built a secondary audio amp to drive a 3-inch 3-watt 8-ohm speaker for annoying my family at night.

The lower board with the receiver, band-pass filter board, and audio chain.

The top board houses the transmitter and the digital components. The transmitter is based on Steve Weber’s design because it’s perfect and is used in some form by many QRP CW rigs. It gives me between 4-6 watts output on all bands. Like with the receiver, I used his design for the low-pass filter board.

The heart of the transceiver is an Arduino/si5351 combination and the Arduino code written by Paul Taylor (VK3HN). Besides doing the heavy lifting of aiding me pull audio out of the ether his code and associated circuits are versatile and clever, including automatic filter switching, CW messages, and both keyer and straight key support.

Although I am mildly terrified of AI, ChatGPT helped me add all kinds of bells and whistles (on my own I’m not a very good programmer) such as RIT, audio filter switching, keyer speed control, and a simple but detailed display that shows the relevant information. The panel controls are all knobs and switches.

The upper board with the transmitter, low-pass filter board, and digital components.

Between the sub-par band conditions as of late, and my neighborhood’s increasingly nightmarish RFI, testing the radio’s real-world performance was difficult. Luckily I have an IC-703 on the bench and it keeps me sane. The Thunderbird isn’t as good but it’s maybe 85% of the way there (when I turn off the DSP and noise blanker on the Icom)? It has been disconcerting when 10-meter FT8 isn’t coming through, but apparently that’s the sun’s fault and not mine. But this radio was built for POTA, so onwards to my park!

For an activation it was a rush job. I had just finished with the fixing a few loose connections when I realized I had about an hour of time before picking my kid up from camp. So I headed to the park with the radio, my favorite easy-to-deploy antenna [QRPer affiliate link], and my ATU-10 (doubles both as a tuner and check to see if the radio actually works).

There has been a lot of rain here lately so my usual spot was underwater. As I was setting up on the high ground a car drove past me multiple times. I figured I was either in trouble or it was a ham, and fortunately it was the latter. Larry (WA5NTF) and I had a nice chat and he graciously drove across the bay to absolutely clean up on digital. For me, I spent about 30 minutes on 20-meters, got 25 contacts, and then failed on the high bands. This is my first solar-cycle peak: get it in gear, Sun.

A few observations: I really liked the speaker! I was away from others and could use it without invoking ire, and it was freeing. Same with the message function which helped because it wasn’t a day of pileups. I also am so used to an S6 noise level on 20-meter SSB that when I first started the radio I assumed it was broken, so quiet. What a difference being out of the city makes.

But it worked! I have some trips planned for the summer and fall to the Southwest so I can’t wait to lug this box to some weird places. And I’ll hopefully be operating locally quite a bit more. Hope to hear you on the air, hopefully on the high bands!

And a postscript, I’m not going to be a homebrew proselytizer, but if you have an inkling to try something new a great project is the SolderSmoke direct conversion receiver (I started with something similar). On this page there is a link to their active Discord server with friendly people and lots of guides on how to hand build a 40-meter receiver. Paired with a simple transmitter it would make POTA (even more) ridiculously fun.

72, Sam

Field Day, Field Reports, Morse Code, News, Portable, POTA, QRP, Travel, Videos

A Peaceful POTA Stop at Lake James with the Penntek TR-45L

June 16, 2025 Thomas Witherspoon 1 Comment

by Thomas (K4SWL)

On Tuesday, May 20, 2025, I was on the final leg of my trip back home from Dayton. After spending some time with my father—who was in the hospital at the time (happy to report he’s now home and doing much better!)—I performed a pedestrian mobile activation of Tuttle Educational State Forest (US-4861). Here’s the field report.

After wrapping up that activation, I realized I could likely squeeze in another hour of POTA on the way home. Without a doubt, the best nearby site was Lake James State Park, so I made the 25-minute drive from Tuttle to the Catawba River Access.

Lake James State Park (US-2739)

When I arrived, the park was blissfully quiet—I was one of the only people there. That meant I had my pick of activation sites!

I grabbed my Red Oxx Micro Manager pack, which contained my Penntek TR-45L Skinny, specifically packed for Hamvention.

Inside the bag, I also had my 40-meter end-fed half-wave antenna—homebrewed years ago by my friend Steve (MW0SAW).

I made my way down to one of the lakeside picnic tables. These sites can be hit or miss: they’re close to the boat dock, and when the boats show up, some of them have brutal inverters that wipe out the bands.

But being a quiet Tuesday, I wasn’t too concerned about heavy traffic.

I deployed the antenna quickly, fired up the TR-45L, crossed my fingers that propagation would hold—and hit the air!