All posts by Thomas Witherspoon

After a fun little activation of Lake James State Park (K-2723) on the morning of Monday, July 31, 2023, I decided to fit in at least one more POTA adventure on a mini rove.

The logical choice was Table Rock Fish Hatchery since it’s such a short drive from Lake James and I always enjoy activating that particular site.

The weather that morning was beautiful and so was the drive.

Table Rock Fish Hatchery (K-8012)

I pulled into the driveway of the picnic area and–no surprise here–I had the place to myself.

In fact, according to the POTA website, I’ve activated this site 12 times and I’ve never seen another soul in the picnic area save my canine friends, park staff, and one guy who was hunting muskrats in the creek. That’s about it. Never anyone actually hanging around the picnic area.

On the drive over, I hadn’t considered what antenna or radio to use–I had a few in the back of my car.

I thought about using my Elecraft KX1, but then realized I didn’t have an extra shielded audio cable to connect to my Anker Soundcore Mini speaker nor did I have my in-line digital audio recorder. Without those things, I wouldn’t be able to make a video of the activation.

My next choice was the Yaesu FT-817ND and, in fact, it would be ideal. I was looking forward to putting the ‘817 on the air again–it’d been a couple of months!

First, though, an antenna. I pulled out the 40 M End-Fed Half-Wave Steve (MW0SAW) made for me some time ago.

This antenna has been in heavy rotation lately because it’s been in my main radio backpack as I’ve been traveling around the region.

I deployed the EFHW in short order, then hooked it up to the ‘817. Continue reading POTA Field Report: Pairing the Yaesu FT-817 and a 40M EFHW at Table Rock! →

Field Reports, Guest Posts, News, POTA, QRP, SOTA

K4RLC’s December 2022 Adventure at Stone Mountain State Park

August 24, 2023 Thomas Witherspoon 2 Comments

Many thanks to Bob (K4RLC) who shares the following POTA field report from December 2022:

K4RLC’s December 2022 Adventure: Stone Mountain State Park North Carolina

by Bob (K4RLC)

As 2022 was coming to an end, I wanted one last Summits on the Air/Parks on the Air (SOTA/POTA) activation. Stone Mountain North Carolina is around 3 hours away in Northwestern North Carolina, near the Appalachian Trail and the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is a huge state park of over 14,000 acres and some wilderness areas.

A little background about this year might be helpful.

Earlier last year, both Alanna K4AAC and I were diagnosed with COVID, which turned into long serious COVID, lasting almost 3 months of acute illness, followed by several months of recovery. We are both healthcare professionals, and were vaxed and boosted and being very cautious, so it’s somewhat of a mystery what happened. One of us does have multiple medical risk factors which may have added to the complexity.

Nevertheless, we did what a lot of Americans did last winter and spring, with buying RVs and campers, and bought a Winnebago Solis camper van.

The Solis is Winnebago’s smallest van, built on a Dodge Pro Master commercial chassis. What appealed to me is that you can be completely self-sufficient, boon-docking with it. It has a 140 Watt solar panel on the roof which charges two 100 amp hour AGM batteries.

Off the grid, this powers a small refrigerator, house LED lights, water pump, and a ceiling fan.

The Solis also has a 20-gallon propane tank, which runs a two-burner stove and a really nice furnace for cold nights. It sleeps two comfortably with a Murphy bed. Also has a sitting area with a table for dining, which can be used as a desk or an operating position for the radio.

Since getting the Solis, we have really enjoyed making trips to the beaches and mountains of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. In addition to enjoying exciting POTA/SOTA activations, we have been replenished by nature’s beauty and feeling safe in the fresh air.

Returning to my Stone Mountain adventure, I guess not many people camp in the middle of the week in December in the mountains. Initially, I was the only person in the large campgrounds. Eventually, a couple with their dog and a trailer set up at the far end. We never had any contact. It was really eerie, especially with the pea soup fog that hung around.

The most prominent feature of Stone Mountain State Park is Stone Mountain itself.

It is known as a “Dome Monadnock,” as it is a large dome of granite/quartz still standing from the Devonian Age about 400 million years ago, while the earth around it has eroded over thousands of years. (Stone Mountain Georgia is the same geologic feature). Continue reading K4RLC’s December 2022 Adventure at Stone Mountain State Park →

Field Reports, Guest Posts, Portable, POTA, QRP, SSB

Guest Post: A wildly successful POTA activation…on a whim!

August 23, 2023 Thomas Witherspoon 6 Comments

Many thanks to Mike (KE8PTX) who shares the following field report:

One of my best POTA activations on a whim.

by Mike (KE8PTX)

Monday 8/15/2023

Doing some late afternoon POTA chasing from the back deck home QTH, contacts on 5 watts seemed to be coming fairly easy so I started to think I should have a go at it and activate a park.

One in one hundred times I activate QRO, so I decided to take the FT-891 and blow the dust off the finals.

When filling my pack, I had a last minute change of heart and decided to stick with QRP. Bagged up the never fail KX2 field kit and hit the road.

The park was Port Huron State Game Land (K-6762) a nearby game land with many activation spots. As I never do look at the solar reports, this time was no different. I feel the solar reports more times than not would keep me home. With a QRP mind set we all feel we have something to prove by just doing it.

So off to the park we go!

After a short 20 minute dive through the countryside of the Michigan thumb, I arrived at my location only to be welcomed by a flock of Michigan state birds: the mighty Mosquitoes. I came prepared with my trusty Thermacell. Fired it up 5 minutes before exiting the car to give it a head start.

My deployment of gear is simple and quick. My go-to antenna is a 40m EFHW inverted V configuration running North to South.

My mid support is a modified Carbon 6 mast.

Setup time was less than two minutes and I was on the air. Continue reading Guest Post: A wildly successful POTA activation…on a whim! →

Field Reports, Guest Posts, News, Portable, POTA, QRP

Matt’s Low-Profile POTA Activation at the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park

August 22, 2023 Thomas Witherspoon 2 Comments

Many thanks to Matt (W6CSN) who shares the following post from his blog at W6CSN.Blog:

SF Maritime NHP POTA Activation

by Matt (W6CSN)

There are several Parks On The Air eligible parks in San Francisco and the northern tip of the peninsula of the same name. One would expect that a POTA activator that calls this city home, would have logged activations from all of these parks, but so far this one has eluded me.

The San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park (K-0757) sits at the northern edge of the city, right next to the Fisherman’s Wharf area that is so popular with tourists visiting San Francisco.

The National Park encompasses an area that includes the municipal pier, aquatic cove with its small public beach, the art deco style Maritime Museum, and Hyde Street Pier with its floating collection of historic ships.

The historic ships alongside Hyde Street Pier

For various schedule and logistical reasons, K-0757 was the one park in the city that I had not yet activated. So today, when my daughter wanted to visit the ships, I made sure to have my lightweight POTA “go” pack with me in case I found an opportunity to attempt an activation.

I’d say the main attraction at Hyde Street Pier is the Balclutha, a steel hulled, square rigged, cargo ship built near Glasgow, Scotland and launched in 1886.

Balclutha – a survivor from the Age of Sail

Balclutha is continually undergoing restoration and maintenance by the Park Service and skilled volunteers. Her many careers on the world’s oceans are documented with numerous interpretive stations and exhibits, both topside and below decks.

We wrapped up our tour of the vessels on the pier by exploring C.A. Thayer, a 219 foot long sailing schooner built in 1895 near Eureka, California to serve the coastal timber trade.

Eureka is a steam powered ferry that served on SF bay.

I was thinking about where to activate and not really looking forward to setting up on or around the public beach. Between the Aquatic Cove swimmers, people enjoying the beach, and tourists going to and fro, there wasn’t really an “out of the way” location to setup even a small station.

Hyde Street Pier itself was actually pretty quiet, but I wasn’t about to set up my station there without prior approval of park staff. Just as we were about disembark from Thayer I noticed an NPS employee near the gangway, and so I took the opportunity to inquire about setting up my low impact, leave no trace, POTA station.

It turns out the person I talked to on the deck of C.A. Thayer was the supervisor of the SF Maritime National Historic Park! He is keenly interested in radio and was even aware of recent solar activities that have given us amateurs a mixed bag of propagation conditions. He agreed to my request to set up at the end of the pier, past Balclutha’s gangway.

Is Balclutha’s steel hull a reflector of radio waves?

I used the Gabil GRA-3750T antenna with its stock telescopic whip tuned for 20 meters. This is the most low profile antenna I can field for HF. Yes, it’s a compromised antenna system but as you’ll see it works good enough. Continue reading Matt’s Low-Profile POTA Activation at the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park →

Hacks and Hints, Morse Code, News

Fred’s simple hack to secure the Begali Traveler

August 22, 2023 Thomas Witherspoon 7 Comments

Many thanks to Fred (KE8TBM) who writes:

Here is a solution I came up with for the slipping issue with the Begali Traveler.

It’s very easy to push a pin through the (front only) plastic/rubber feet on the key. This will stop it from sliding on everything including formica counter tops.

After you push the pin through the plastic/rubber feet using a needle nose pliers, simply snip the sharp end off to leave it blunt.

You can leave the little ball on the other end of the pin to retract it if you wish, however, I’ve found that not to be necessary. —-I find that the pins really don’t snag on anything as they just barely peak out the bottom of the foot, but the option is there.

This makes for a rock solid hold on your surface and is a game changer. It’s so nice to be able to push away and not worry about the key slipping around.

Mike, K8MRD just did a review on the Traveler Lite and mentioned the slippage issue.

Best 73 Thomas and thank you for being a great image for the ham community.

Fred, KE8TBM

What a simple and effective idea! Thanks for sharing this tip with us, Fred. Also, thank you for the kind words, OM.

Field Reports, News, Portable, POTA, QRP

POTA Field Report: A Morning 40 Meter QRP Activation at Lake James State Park!

August 21, 2023 Thomas Witherspoon 3 Comments

On Monday morning (July 31, 2023) I left the QTH with POTA on my mind.

As I mentioned in a previous post, July was a busy month and I was in desperate need of some POTA Therapy! Fortunately, I had the full morning to play radio, so I plotted a two (or possibly three) park rove, starting with Lake James State Park.

Lake James State Park (K-2739)

I arrived at Lake James a little after 9:00 AM and pretty much had the park to myself.

In order to keep my setup time a little on the short side, I chose a picnic table next to my car.

I grabbed my throw line cube and (1st gen) Red Oxx Micro Manager pack in which I’d packed my Discovery TX-500 and accessories.

Since it was in the morning, I planned to spend time on the 40 meter band and, hopefully, work a number of hunters in the surrounding states.

For this activation, I paired my Discovery TX-500 with MW0SAW’s 40 meter end-fed half-wave antenna.

I powered the TX-500 with a homemade 5Ah LiPo battery my friend Joshua (N5FY) sent me a couple months ago.

Of course, since I was using a 40 meter end-fed half-wave antenna, I didn’t need an ATU for 40 meters (or 20, 15, or 10 meters for that matter). Continue reading POTA Field Report: A Morning 40 Meter QRP Activation at Lake James State Park! →

Field Reports, News, Portable, POTA, QRP, Videos

From the Archives: A 2022 Postcard Field Report and Activation Video from New River Gorge National Park

August 18, 2023 Thomas Witherspoon 3 Comments

These are busy days for K4SWL

These past few weeks have been absolutely crazy for me in terms of activity–I’ve been traveling a lot, doing (involved) DIY projects on the house, searching for a new car, planning a PV system for the QTH, fixing well pumps, helping friends, and doing caregiving for my folks.

It’s all kept me very busy!

I have a sizable backlog of emails that have accumulated during this time. If you’ve sent me a message, I likely haven’t read it yet. Apologies for that. I simply haven’t had time to read and reply.

I thought about skipping a field report this morning, then I remembered an amazing West Virginia camping trip and draft videos I’d already uploaded to YouTube.

In lieu of writing a full field report (and so that I can share a video today) I thought I’d simply share this activation video with a Postcard type field report.

2022 West Virginia POTA Camping Trip

Last year (2022), in lieu of going to the Dayton Hamvention, my buddies Eric (WD8RIF), his son Miles (KD8KNC), and I spent a long weekend activating parks and camping in the New River Gorge area of West Virginia. Click here to read more about that trip.

The camping trip was absolutely amazing and we activated a number of parks during that time.

I made activation videos at most of the parks we visited, but with my summer travels and activations in Canada last year, I skipped over several of the videos I’d uploaded so that I could publish my Canadian activations while I was still in Canada.

New River Gorge National Park (K-0696)

The following activation video was made on May 21, 2022 as WD8RIF and I activated K-0696.

I’ve yet to re-watch this video myself, but I remember clearly that this particular day we had atrocious band conditions.

Indeed, rough bands were present during much of our weekend camping trip, but it never stopped us from having fun or activating our parks.

In terms of gear, I used my trust Elecraft KX2 paired with my Chameleon MPAS 2.0 antenna system.

Activation video:

Click here to watch on YouTube.

Logs

I hope you enjoy this below video and, as always, thank you so much to my Patreon and Coffee Fund. supporters! You’re simply brilliant!

72,

Thomas (K4SWL)

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

POTA on Mount Mitchell: The new REZ Ranger 80 and how to use the Over/Under method to coil wire and cable

August 14, 2023 Thomas Witherspoon 1 Comment

The REZ Ranger 80 antenna system ships with everything you need, including a nice backpack.

Back in March, I received an email from Mike Giannaccio (W5REZ) the owner of REZ Antenna Systems–he was curious if I’d like to check out his REZ Ranger 80 antenna system.

At the time, my plate was pretty full, so he arranged to send it to me on loan in July.

If you’re not familiar, the Ranger 80 is a portable vertical antenna with a tuning coil at the base that employs a sliding tap for tuning. The Ranger 80 will cover anywhere from 80 – 15 meters without needing any sort of external matching device (like an ATU).

If you’re familiar with the Wolf River Coils antenna systems, then you’re familiar with this type of vertical antenna. The difference is that the Ranger 80 is built to what I could only describe as MilSpec standards.

Much of the Ranger 80’s components are CNC machined from premium materials. It sports a Delrin body, black anodized 6061 aluminum, and all stainless steel hardware.

This is not a featherweight antenna: it has the heft to match the caliber of materials used in its construction. It’s not an inexpensive antenna either–it’s currently about $560 US at DX Engineering.

The base of the Ranger 80: note the beautifully CNC-machined holes for the four counterpoises.

The Ranger 80 is also rated for 500W SSB and 250W CW/Digital–in other words, quite a bit more power than I’d ever use in the field, but this design will make activators and field ops happy that like to push some wattage.

I was curious how easy the Ranger 80 would be to deploy and tune, so on Sunday, August 6, 2023, I took it to one of my favorite parks on the planet.

Mount Mitchell State Park (K-2747)

I wasn’t alone on this trip: it was a proper family picnic with my wife, daughters and, of course, Hazel.

The weather was very moody that day–driving up to the park, we watched clouds and mists rise up through the trees like waves crashing on a rocky coast line. Continue reading POTA on Mount Mitchell: The new REZ Ranger 80 and how to use the Over/Under method to coil wire and cable →

Field Reports, Guest Posts, Morse Code, News, Portable, POTA, QRP, QRPers

K3ES’ Hike with Molly: The POTA Dog In-Training!

August 13, 2023 Thomas Witherspoon 7 Comments

Many thanks to Brain (K3ES) who shares the following guest post:

“Hey! I can be a POTA Dog. Let’s go on a hike!”

A Hike (and Activation) with a POTA Dog In-Training

by Brian (K3ES)

A plan for a Hike and an Activation

A couple of Wednesdays ago, I decided to take a hike along the North Country Trail. It would not only provide some needed exercise on a beautiful day, but it would also take me into Pennsylvania Game Land #024, enabling a 2-fer activation of K-4239 and K-8725. I had hiked this stretch of the trail several times before, so I figured it would be safe taking one of our dogs along for the trip.

Jojo (front) and Molly (back) are not happy about this staged picture.

Molly and Jojo are two rescued Boston Terriers, who have made our home their own since October of last year. Each has her own character. Molly is exuberant, very friendly, and frankly, a bit of a bulldozer. Jojo is pure sun bunny, preferring to find a bright patch of lawn, then lay there soaking up the heat. Once installed in a sunny spot, Jojo doesn’t like to move. So, it seemed natural to invite Molly along for the afternoon hike. The only potential issue was the planned stop for a park activation. I was almost certain that Molly would enjoy the walk, but how would she handle the period of inactivity? There was only one way to find out.

Jojo in her natural habitat: sunbathing in the back yard.

Since solar conditions had been keeping the radio bands rough and unpredictable, I decided to start my QRP CW activation in the middle of the afternoon. Beginning the activation at 3pm EDT meant that my first hour would overlap with the popular CWT sprint, so I planned to start on the 30m band to avoid trying to compete with my 5 watt signal. More importantly, the timing would let me finish on the 40m band later in the afternoon, when I have always found it to be productive.

The plan was set and an activation was scheduled in POTA.app to begin at 3pm EDT, so detection by the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) would assure automatic spotting. We left home just after 1pm, drove to the trail head, and started our hike to the activation point. Our travel and the station setup went quicker than expected. Even after securing Molly on her leash, with space to move around and drinking water in reach, all was ready to begin by 2:30pm. Fortunately, there was sufficient cell coverage to let me directly enter an early spot. Despite the early start, I stayed with my original plan to begin on the 30m band.

Activation

Contacts on 30m came slowly, but I was able to confirm the activation with 11 contacts in just over an hour. Since the CWT sprint was continuing, I moved over to 17m to see if I could pick up some more distant contacts, but it was not to be. I heard one strong signal on 17m – calling CQ over me. I am confident that the operator did not hear me on the frequency, particularly since he did not pick up my call when I responded to his CQ. Not only that, but my 5 watt signal did not even manage to attract the notice of the RBN. I took that episode as a sign that it was time to QSY.

Since it was past 4pm EDT, and the CWT sprint was finished, I moved over to 20m. Continue reading K3ES’ Hike with Molly: The POTA Dog In-Training! →

Accessories, Articles, Field Reports, News, Portable, POTA, QRP, Travel, Videos, Vintage

Travelogue and Field Report: POTA and Aviation Geekery with Friends in Dayton, Ohio!

August 11, 2023 Thomas Witherspoon 3 Comments

A couple months ago, my good friend, Monty, hatched a plan to take his father to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.

I thought it was a brilliant idea. Monty’s dad, John, served in the US Air Force in the 1960s and has always been a fan of aviation. Despite this, he had never been to the USAF museum.

Monty and I have been friends since being roommates back in our undergraduate years; he and his parents are like family to me. (You might remember Monty from a couple of SOTA/POTA activations in the past.)

When Monty asked, “Hey, would you like to join us–?” It took me all of one microsecond to say, “Heck yeah!”

Off we go…

Monty, John, and I hopped in the car and headed to Dayton (from Charlotte, NC) Sunday morning, July 16, 2023.

It was a beautiful day for a 7+ hour road trip, too. Of course, I made sure we timed the trip so that we could stop at Tamarack in Beckley, WV for lunch.

We arrived at our little AirBnB vacation rental late that afternoon.

The house was literally a stone’s throw from the USAF museum. If we would have been any closer, we would have been on the museum driveway.

USAF Museum

Monday morning (July 17) we ate breakfast, then made our way across the road to the museum shortly after they opened the doors at 9:00.

I’ve been to the USAF museum at least fifteen times and it never gets old.

It’s the largest military aviation museum in the world and it’s brilliantly curated. They’re always shuffling around exhibits so that even if you visit annually, you’ll always find something new and fascinating.