All posts by Thomas Witherspoon

News, QRP Radios, Travel

Survey 3: What QRP HF transceiver would you choose for air travel?

21 Comments

Many of us are traveling this summer and with pandemic concerns lessening, we are taking to the air and going much further afield!

This summer, I’ve gotten a number of inquiries from readers asking about the “best” HF QRP radios for air travel.

While I have suggestions, in truth, these days the radio selection often comes down to availability. It might be difficult to order and receive your first choice radio prior to your travels unless you scope out the used market or are simply looking ahead to travels next year.

With air travel in mind, of course, transceiver size and weight become important factors especially if, like me, you’re a one-bag traveler.

In addition, being able to easily power the radio without a large/heavy external battery/power supply is also important.

This is why QRP radios are so ideal for air travel; they’re so much easier to stash in luggage compared with their 100 watt siblings.

Survey #3

The first and second surveys we posted were so much fun and insightful! As I mentioned in May, I’ve a number of surveys in store this year.

As with our previous, surveys, this one also also focuses specifically on HF QRP transceivers.

If you would like to participate, please use the Google Form below. If you don’t see the radio you would choose in this list, feel free to add it in the “Other” selection, but again, please do not list 100 watt radios in this particular survey that focuses on QRP HF transceivers.

While the survey form doesn’t allow for comments, this QRPer post does! Please consider sharing your thoughts about the radio you chose in the survey–this is a brilliant way to elaborate on your entire travel set-up. Being a radio, pack, and travel geek? I love this stuff!

Thank you!

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

Part 1 – Getting There: VO1DR Goes QRP Portable in Central Newfoundland via Float Plane

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Many thanks to Scott (VO1DR) who shares the following guest post:

Portable/Kite QRP Operation in Central Newfoundland Wilderness by Float Plane: Part 1 – Gearing Up and Getting There

by Scott Schillereff, VO1DR

Introduction

I love getting out in the woods and wilds in Newfoundland for portable QRP operation.  Lately, I have been trying kite-borne antennas.  This is a two-part story of a portable QRP adventure with a kite antenna at Mount Sylvester in the Bay du Nord Wilderness Area in central Newfoundland by float plane.  Part 1 describes the setting, history, geology, access, and outdoor/survival gear.  Part 2 describes radio stuff and some dramas with getting a kite antenna aloft.

It is useful to describe the island of Newfoundland setting, since it is unique in North America.  You can think of Newfoundland as a wild cousin of Nova Scotia – many similarities, but worlds apart.  If you want to play radio in a well-developed, refined setting (where giant manicured lawns are a thing), then Nova Scotia is for you; if you want a wilder adventure with some risk and less people, come to Newfoundland and Labrador.

Central Newfoundland Setting

I live in St. John’s, the capital of the eastern-most Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), situated about equidistant between Boston and Ireland (Figure 1).  This means QRP contacts to western Europe are as easy as those to eastern North America.

The island of Newfoundland is about the size of England but, with an island-portion population of only 479,105, we have less than 1/100th of the people in England.  There is a lot of empty space here!  Most of the people live in small towns and communities scattered along the coasts, originally to pursue various fisheries.

The principal highway (Trans-Canada Highway; Highway 1 on Figure 2) traverses an arc around the northern and western part of the island.  The central area of Newfoundland is a vast sparsely-populated area, historically used by indigenous groups for hunting, fishing and gathering, and, since European contact and later occupation, mostly for logging, mining, recreation, and hydro power projects.

Figure 1 – Location of Newfoundland and Labrador

The Bay du Nord Wilderness Reserve and Mount Sylvester

The Bay du Nord Wilderness Reserve in southern Central Newfoundland (large green patch in Figure 2) was established by the Province in 1986, primarily to protect the Middle Ridge woodland caribou herd – the largest herd in the island of NL.  This 2,895 km2 reserve includes ponds, rivers, bogs and fens, and forests, and is the last major unspoiled area on the island.  There are no facilities, amenities, trail markers, or public buildings – just wilderness.  This inland area has a cultural history of use by the Mi’kmaq indigenous peoples since the 18th century.  The area was first described by European explorer (William Cormack) after his trans-island trek of 1822.  Geologist James Howley was the first known person to travel the full length of the Bay du Nord River in 1887.  A cairn he built atop Mount Sylvester as a surveying marker still stands today (see below).

Figure 2 – Eastern and Central Newfoundland showing Mount Sylvester within the Bay du Nord Wilderness Reserve.  Also showing the capital St. John’s (east edge) and Gander (north-northeast), where we started our flight.

Mount Sylvester (Figures 3 and 4) is an inselberg (German: island mountain) created by weathering and glaciation with top elevation of 365 m (1,198 ft) above sea level, and rising 154 m (505 ft) above the adjacent flat glaciated terrain (for more stats search: peakvisor.com).  It was named after Sylvester Joe, a Mi’kmaq hunter and guide hired by Cormack for his travels.  The yellow arrows on Figure 4 point to Howley’s cairn (about 2.5 m high) at the top, and huge fluted glacial scours along the sides and flanks.

Figure 3 – View of Mount Sylvester looking south
Figure 4 – View of Mount Sylvester looking west, showing Howley’s cairn at the top and fluted glaciated scours along the flanks

Getting There

Mount Sylvester lies immediately adjacent to Diamond Lake, with a gentle glaciated bedrock slope to the summit.  A perfect spot to land a float plane and walk to the top for a QRP adventure!

My companion Kerry, a distant relation in Gander, NL, owns a float plane and for years has been interested to land on Diamond Lake and walk to the top – but never had a second person to go (for safety).  We were a match made in heaven!  My wife and I and our two Havanese doggies drove our motor home to Gander (about 4 hr drive) and Kerry and I geared up for the flight and hike on June 24, 2023.

As luck would have it, hundreds of forest fires were (and are) burning in eastern Canada.  Smoke from those fires has drifted over eastern Canada and most of NL producing a tan haze that can block out the full sun (Figure 5) and reduce visibility for flying.  Since Kerry is only certified for Visual Flight Rules (VFR) flying, it was touch-and-go whether we could fly at all.

Figure 5 – Forest fire smoke haze blocking sun, Gander, NL – June 23, 2023

On the morning of June 24, bright and early, we tried anyway.  The smoke had shifted to form a layer above 1,500 ft altitude, but we could safely fly under it at 500-750 ft altitude.  We were good to go!  Kerry’s plane (C-FAVG) was the venerable Cessna 172 Skyhawk (Figure 6), among the most common small aircraft on earth.  The C-FAVG airframe was produced in the 1970s and has been upgraded and certified ever since.

We drove to his float plane dock at Deadman’s Pond adjacent to Gander airport (this airport was the site of the massive commercial aircraft landings during 9/11/2001; the basis for the Come From Away musical).  Kerry assured me not to worry about the name of the pond…

Figure 6 – Cessna 172 Skyhawk C-FAVG
Figure 7 – Kerry fuelling wing tanks (takes 38 US gal of AVGAS; gives about 6 hrs of flying)

We took off just before 9 am and headed south for about an hour’s flight to Diamond Lake.  Kerry checked in with Gander Tower and within half an hour, we were out of direct VHF contact.  Our communications were by VHF with other planes, or our cell phones (they worked great all day, even on top of Mount Sylvester).

Figure 8 – Pilot Kerry in his happy place during take-off.  Regarding small planes, he said: “Everyone should have one”.
Figure 9 – Me in the plane (at 1.98 m or 6’6”, I barely fit in this dual-controls plane!)
Figure 10 – Typical view in central Newfoundland – a vast glaciated terrain of boreal forest, ponds, and wetlands.  The white patterns in the bogs are reflections of the sky on pools of water at surface.  One cannot (easily or dryly) walk across such bogs, you must skirt around them.
Figure 11- Woodland Caribou on heathery barrens (small ones are new-born calves)
Figure 12 – Larger herd of caribou (expand photo to see calves).
Figure 13 – Caribou on barrens with lurking black bear (circle at right). He will take advantage of a new-born calf in the natural order of things.

Geology

As a geologist, I am fascinated on why Mount Sylvester exists and its interesting geological features.  First of all, the ENTIRE mountain was covered with glacial ice during last ice age (Wisconsinan-Age glaciation ending about 11,000 years ago).  A small continental ice sheet covered the island of Newfoundland, and radiated out toward lower sea levels.  Figures 3 and 4 show the smooth, fluted flanks of the inselberg created by the grinding passage of ice laden with rock blocks and fragments (Nature’s ultimate sandpaper). Continue reading Part 1 – Getting There: VO1DR Goes QRP Portable in Central Newfoundland via Float Plane →

Accessories, Field Reports, Hacks and Hints, Morse Code, News, Portable, POTA, QRP, Videos

Field Report: Testing the bhi Dual In-Line with the (tr)uSDX, making a big blunder, and P2P with Teri!

10 Comments

On March 30, 2022, I took my factory-assembled (tr)uSDX transceiver on a POTA activation at South Mountains State Park.

It was a “test flight” of sorts since I’d only had the (tr)uSDX for a few days and had not taken it to the field.

I wrote up an assessment from that initial POTA activation mainly to give other potential (tr)uSDX owners an idea of how well one of these super-affordable radios might perform.

Difficult to critique

It’s difficult to critique a 5 band HF radio that you can purchase as a kit for less than $100 and fully-assembled and tested for less than $150…shipped!

On the one hand, I think it’s one of the most amazing portable HF radio innovations of the past decade. It simply blows my mind that the developers (DL2MAN and PE1NNZ) could make this modest radio hardware do so very much. It’s truly a triumph of engineering and a fun little radio.

On the other hand, this isn’t a high-end radio, so we can’t expect performance like we’d see in an Elecraft, Icom, or Yaesu field radio, for example. I never expected this, in fact, but was very curious if the performance would be “good enough” for POTA or SOTA.  So many had asked me about buying a (tr)uSDX as their dedicated POTA radio.

I found using the (tr)uSDX for POTA was actually quite fun, and I certainly achieved my goal of activating a POTA park with it.

So yes, it’s good enough!

That said, I haven’t reached for the (tr)uSDX to do POTA or SOTA since last March because I prefer the performance characteristics of my other radios.

My biggest complaint, frankly, is that the audio fidelity is pretty poor. The noise floor of the (tr)uSDX is higher than most HF radios and audio amplification is very basic. I notice a lot of electronic noises (pulsing, etc.) in my unit. I find it a bit fatiguing to listen to for long sessions with my headphones. The internal speaker isn’t really a viable speaker for doing an activation–it’s more akin to an emergency speaker, if anything.

When plugged into an external amplified speaker, the audio is much improved. The pops and internal noises are still there, but it has better overall fidelity and the volume can be raised enough to hear weak signals (this can’t be easily done via the internal speaker).

It struck me that a DSP device might clean up the (tr)uSDX’s audio and noise floor a bit.

Enter the bhi Dual In-Line DSP filter

Sometime during the beginning of the pandemic, I reached out to bhi Noise Cancelling Products and asked if I could test one of their DSP units as a loaner. I’ve always felt that bhi manufactured the best DSP products in the amateur radio market.

At the time, I wanted one of my friends and contributors on the SWLing Post blog to test the bhi unit and see if it might help out a QRM situation that popped up at his QTH. I thought it would make for a great evaluation since I have little to no QRM at my home.

Graham, at bhi, kindly sent me a unit–the Dual In-Line Noise Eliminating Module–and as I prepared to forward it to my friend, his noise was no longer an issue. I can’t remember the details now, but there was no need to send it to him.

I notified Graham that I would like to test it myself, but that my plate was so full it would take time. What ended up happening, though, was I completely forgot about it due to a busy family life at the time.

I re-discovered the unit this year and spoke (apologized) to Graham at the 2023 Hamvention. Of course, he had no issue at all and was very forgiving. He’s a great fellow.

I thought pairing this bhi DSP unit to the (tr)uSDX would be a great way to, perhaps, cut down on the listening fatigue.

Fort Dobbs State Historic Site (K-6839)

On Wednesday, July 5, 2023, I had an opportunity to test the (tr)uSDX/bhi pairing at Fort Dobbs State Park. Continue reading Field Report: Testing the bhi Dual In-Line with the (tr)uSDX, making a big blunder, and P2P with Teri! →

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

KO4WFP: A Return to Butter Bean Beach

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Many thanks to Teri (KO4WFP) for the following guest post:

A Return to Butter Bean Beach

by Teri (KO4WFP)

Given the trip to Nova Scotia and then getting a cold upon my return to Savannah, Georgia, it had been awhile since catching up with the guys in my local club – Coastal Area Radio Club (CARS). They have a No Work Wednesday club that meets weekly, activating either Butter Bean Beach at the Wormsloe State Historic Site (K-3725) or Fort Pulaski National Monument (K-0930). This Wednesday, July 19th, they opted for Butter Bean Beach, hoping for a maritime breeze given the hot and humid weather.

I always arrive early at Butter Bean Beach on Wednesdays to get my CW activation out of the way as my local guys use SSB. I rolled into the parking lot around 7:30 AM and saw stuff already piled up on one of the picnic tables in the pavilion. Uh-oh.

I, then, saw people I recognized – Garret Jones and Lisa Goodman. Garret volunteers with Wilderness Southeast and Lisa is the organization’s Executive Director. Wilderness Southeast offers eco trips and group programs to connect people with the environment. On one of my past activations, they were at Butter Bean Beach with a group of ninth graders for their Fish Gotta Swim program. Also assisting Lisa and Garret today was Sierra Abbasi. They warned me that around 9 AM a group of kids would arrive for their kayaking camp. Good thing I had my noise-cancelling headphones!

Last time I activated this site, I used the EFRW antenna in a tree but I thought to try something different today. Frankly, I figured my SOTAbeams travel mast looked a bit lonely, especially since I had lugged it all over Nova Scotia but not deploying it once while there.

It didn’t take long to get the mast deployed and the antenna where I wanted it. Now how to deal with the feed-end? The night before, I recalled a recent conversation with a friend who suggested using gallon water jugs to hold the ends of an inverted V. I figured that might work just fine for attaching the feed-end and keeping it taut. It did!

As for the counterpoise, even though I received a comment on a previous trip report that the counterpoise does not need to be elevated, I thought “let’s just gild the lily and elevate it anyway.” So I put out my water bottle and attached the end of the counterpoise to that. Besides, I wanted to be prepared for kids possibly walking around my antennas. A black, thin wire lying on the ground would not be easily noticed. But one slightly elevated with neon pink flagging tape might.

It wasn’t long before I was on the air. When at Butter Bean Beach, I almost always start first on 40 meters due to the early hour. (Note: I did not check the band conditions before heading out that morning but good thing I didn’t because 40 meters obviously didn’t read that report either.) Continue reading KO4WFP: A Return to Butter Bean Beach →

Field Day, How To, News, POTA, Skills

Can a Field Day or contest contact count as a valid POTA contact?

18 Comments

Many thanks to @thogevoll who asked the following question following my field report and video from Field Day 2023:

Thomas, I’m still new to POTA and have not done an activation yet.

How does a Field Day contact from a park count as a POTA contact? Is it simply that you are operating from park? Do you have to send the park ID number? Or, is that actually not even required for POTA contacts?

These are great questions.

The short answer is, YES: almost any simplex contact you make as an activator counts as a POTA contact regardless of the exchange used.

I’ll try to break this down…

Contests, as a rule of thumb, have a defined exchange and the elements of that exchange must be logged with each contact. This often includes things like signal report, section, region, and/or serial number.

ARRL Field Day is no exception.

If you look at the Field Day video I posted, you’ll note N3CZ and I were logging our Field Day contacts on N3FJP’s Field Day version of ACLog. Two key components of the Field Day exchange are the section, and the category (1B, 2A, etc.). We were running 1B (one op, QRP, battery) NC (North Carolina).

Those elements must be logged in order to have a valid Field Day Contact.

POTA ≠ Contest

Parks On The Air, on the other hand, is not a contest. It’s simply an on-the-air activity that has no defined start and end time. You can activate or hunt a park any time of the day or night, any day of the year.

While there is a generally accepted convention for POTA exchanges (which varies based on country/region), there is no formal required exchange. The POTA activator guide is very clear about this.

True, we POTA activators in the US and Canada tend to exchange both the signal report and the state or province, but this isn’t done in most other countries in the world. It’s up to the activator if they send the park number.

Convention in voice modes is to send the park number, but it’s less common in CW unless a hunter asks for it or if you’re completing a Park-to-Park contact. That said, there’s nothing preventing you from sending the park number with each contact if you like.

For a POTA contact, you really only need to log the station/call, time, mode, and frequency. Those details are submitted with your logs that detail the park number, date, activator, etc. and then uploaded to the POTA database in an .ADI file.

Working contesters as an activator

If I happen to pick a crowded contest weekend to activate a park and don’t have a rig or antenna that can escape to the peace and quiet of the WARC bands (and, yes, POTA is very much allowed on the WARC bands) then I often hunt and work contest contacts. I especially do this if band conditions are rough and the contest activity is dense.

I prefer, of course, to run one frequency as a POTA activator in order to open the park to POTA hunters–that’s why I use the WARC bands on contest weekends–but in a pinch, I might work contesters in order to get the ten contacts needed to validate an activation.

Of course, I need to sort out the contest exchange and use that with each contact, but that’s not too difficult. Those random folks I log have no idea I’m activating a park.

I should also note that many contests (Field Day may be one of these) don’t allow self-spotting, so when Vlado and I worked as a Field Day station this year, we did not spot ourselves on the POTA network. We were actually making Field Day contacts first and foremost, with the side-benefit of activating a park at the same time.

In other words, we simply logged our Field Day contacts per FD requirements, then (with a bit of log tweaking) uploaded the log to both the ARRL and the POTA network.

In POTA, only the activator is required to submit their logs, not the hunter; they get credit via your uploaded activator logs.

POTA: Some QSO exceptions

To be clear (and redundant), any contact you make at a park–even when the other op isn’t a POTA participant–counts as a POTA contact, with a few side notes and exceptions:

  • Contacts via a land repeater are not allowed. I can’t hop on a local repeater and make/log valid POTA contacts. I can, however, hop on a local repeater and ask for someone to spot me or meet me on a simplex frequency for a contact.
  • Satellite repeaters are allowed. All satellite contacts are allowed.
  • Fully automated QSOs are prohibited. I can’t set up one of those fully-automated digital mode applications that will run unattended. As the POTA rules state: “Each contact must include direct action by both operators making the contact.“

I believe every POTA activator should read through both the POTA rules and Activator Guide prior to your first activation.

Summary

We’re entering the heaviest part of the contest season at present. If you arrive at a park on the weekend and discover that the bands are absolutely chock-full of contest stations–and you can’t find a free frequency to do your activation–feel free to work and log contest stations!

Otherwise, do what many of us do and either escape to the WARC bands or move closer to the band edges (being careful not to go too far) where you’ll typically find more free space.

Do you combine Field Day, contests, and special events with POTA? Feel free to comment with your approach!

News, POTA

Alan’s POTA Mapping Tip!

6 Comments

Many thanks to Alan (W2AEW) who shares the following tip:

Thomas,

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I find it hard to locate maps for the national and state parks. Some of the parks have good maps on their websites, some do not. Others have maps, but they aren’t detailed enough sometimes to definitively determine if you’re within the boundary or not.

I’ve found that one of the best sources for the national, state and local park boundaries is OpenStreetMap.org. This is a free mapping site. One missing piece is that it does not map National or State Trails very often. But, for park boundaries, it is great.

For example, this map clearly shows that most of Barnegat Light State Park (K-1609) is also within the boundaries of the NJ Pinelands Reserve (K-6609). From experience, I know that this also falls within the NJ Heritage Coastal Trail (K-6544) – thus making it a 3-fer.

At my early activations from this park, I did not know that it was part of Pinelands and thought it was only a 2-fer.

I have also used an app called “onX road” on my phone which can show owners of properties, but in order to see that, it isn’t free.

Just another tool for your toolbox.

Thank you for the tip, Alan! I have not used OpenStreetMap.org as a POTA tool, but I certainly will moving forward. 

I have been using the free app, Parceled, on my iPhone to discover the owners of land parcels–it works brilliantly and is free (so far).

Thanks again, Alan!

If you have a mapping tip you’d like to share, please comment!

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

KO4WFP: The Final Fling at Grand-Pré National Historic Site

5 Comments

Many thanks to Teri (KO4WFP) for the following guest post:

The Final Fling at Grand-Pré National Historic Site

by Teri (KO4WFP)

If you read my four previous articles, you know my family and I went to Nova Scotia for eight days. At this point in my trip, I had three successful POTA activations and three unsuccessful. Tomorrow, July 6th, my family and I would head back to the States. I hankered to attempt one more QRP POTA activation before that happened.

For our final day in Nova Scotia, we opted to drive back from our Airbnb in Middleton on Highway 101 to Halifax. The night before, I looked at the POTA website for parks along the route to activate. I had learned to avoid urban parks if possible due to the noise level and limited space for the EFRW antenna which I preferred to deploy. One park seemed to fit the bill – Grand-Pré National Historic Site (VE-4839).

The morning of Wednesday, July 5th was overcast and rainy. Despite the dreary and less-than-optimal conditions, we drove toward Grand Pré. To buy myself a bit more time in hope the showers might abate, we grabbed a bite to eat at the Just Us Roastery and Café outside the town.

After a quick breakfast, we arrived at the site around 12:45 PM. Given the rainy conditions, I would need to stay in the car. Too bad because the site looked inviting and I would have enjoyed setting up on my jacket like I did at Fort Anne.

The limitation of operating out of my car meant staying close to the parking lot. The trees in the main parking lot were all shorter than I preferred. And, as I learned at other sites, the main lot didn’t give me any buffer from people walking into my antennas. However, at one side of the property was a separate small lot for two or three RVs. Two trees on the far side of it were tall enough for my antenna and, better yet, no one would be walking into them. We pulled into this lot parking on the grass at its edge so I would be out of the way of any RVs. Continue reading KO4WFP: The Final Fling at Grand-Pré National Historic Site →

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

Nail-Biter of a Quickie POTA Activation on the Blue Ridge Parkway!

4 Comments

Monday, July 3, 2023, was a day absolutely chock-full of running around town. I had projects that morning to take care of, a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon, and I needed to chauffeur my daughters to/from a meet-up with friends.

I didn’t even have time to properly debate if I could squeeze in an activation. Before I left home, I simply grabbed a radio backpack and put it in the car just in case. If a window of time opened, I’d be at the ready, but there was no real way to predict in advance.

Even though I always have a radio at the ready in the car, I don’t carry all of the things necessary to film activation videos. That’s where my POTA pack comes in.

Since Hamvention, I’ve been using my GoRuck GR1 as a POTA backpack. It easily holds my radio and camera gear.

During the early afternoon, I could see a very short window of POTA opportunity opening: about 30 minutes (start to finish…or set up to take-down) to complete an activation.

Blue Ridge Parkway (K-3378)

Since time was so limited, I also chose to hit the closest predictable site: The Blue Ridge Parkway Folk Art Center. I could have easily set up at a slightly closer spot on the parkway, but if I wanted to include an activation video it would have taken longer to set up the chair, tripod, etc. Those minor details would eat up valuable on-the-air time, especially since I knew in advance that propagation was once again in the dumps (our local star has been in quite an activate state of flaring and spewing CMEs!).

So that I wouldn’t have to do an introduction once I arrived on-site, I started the activation video in the car as I was driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway. In the video, you’ll see the full set-up, activation, and pack-up. Continue reading Nail-Biter of a Quickie POTA Activation on the Blue Ridge Parkway! →

Field Reports, Morse Code, News, Portable, POTA, QRP, SOTA, Videos

Deck Rail SOTA on Mount Pisgah and Improvising my Wire Antenna Deployment!

10 Comments

On the morning of Tuesday, June 27, 2023, a rare occasion happened in my otherwise hectic summer schedule: both a weather window and a wide activation window opened!

As the French say, “Il faut en profiter!”

I always try to take advantage of any opportunities like this.

That morning, I checked in with my daughter, Geneva (K4TLI), to see if she might wish to do a SOTA activation. She was game, so I told her to grab her backpack.

My other daughter was at a one-week writer’s camp at UNC Asheville and my wife had other plans for the day, so it was also a great opportunity for some father/daughter time.

Oh, and another member of the family saw the hiking boots come out and immediately stopped what she was doing (tearing up a plush toy) to join us.

Hazel never, ever passes up a hike–! She gets more excited than anyone else in the family.

Mount Pisgah (W4C/CM-011)

We arrived at the trailhead of Mount Pisgah around 9:45 AM local.

Hazel, quite literally, bounced out of the car and towards the trailhead. She, no doubt, remembered the last time we played SOTA on Mount Pisgah.

There were much fewer hikers parked at the trailhead than I expected–then again, it was a Tuesday morning.

About thirty minutes into our hike we passed a couple who mentioned they’d spotted bears on the trail closer to the summit.

Not terribly surprising because (like my QTH) Pisgah is very much in bear territory. Since bears at this particular part of the parkway are used to human activity (and tourists feeding them), I pack bear spray. Those are the worst bears.

Black bears, in general, are fearful of humans and usually bolt the other way when they see you.  Bears used to being fed by tourists are not and are known to get aggressive. I don’t take my chances.

The hike to the summit of Pisgah is actually quite moderate. The first half of it is very relaxed with little elevation change. It’s the second half of the hike that packs it in! Continue reading Deck Rail SOTA on Mount Pisgah and Improvising my Wire Antenna Deployment! →

Field Reports, Guest Posts, Morse Code, Portable, POTA, QRP, Travel

KO4WFP: Two Parks in One Day – Fort Anne NHS and Lake Midway Provincial Park

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Many thanks to Teri (KO4WFP) for the following guest post:

Two Parks in One Day – Fort Anne NHS and Lake Midway Provincial Park

by Teri (KO4WFP)

If you read my three previous articles, you know my family and I went to Nova Scotia for eight days. You also know that the first three parks I attempted to activate in Nova Scotia provided challenges galore! I was unable to secure 10 contacts at either the Halifax Citadel National Historic Site (VE-4841) or the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site (VE-4826). However, the third time was the charm and I secured 10 contacts (just barely) at Cape Breton Highlands National Park (VE-0013).

Feeling confident after the Cape Breton activation, I decided to attempt two QRP POTA activations in one day. I already planned to activate Fort Anne National Historic Site (VE-4832) in the morning. My husband and son had a whale-watching trip scheduled for the afternoon giving me three hours to kill. What better way to pass the time than with POTA! (They did ask if I wanted to accompany them; however, there was no contest in choosing between being on a boat for three hours, whales or not, and an activation!) I chose to attempt activating Lake Midway Provincial Park (VE-0922), a fifteen-minute drive from their launching point.

The day prior it rained nearly all day. This was not typical summer weather for Nova Scotia. In fact, one of the Canadian airport security officers, while searching my backpack and ham equipment, apologized for the rainy weather we experienced during our visit. The forecast for Tuesday, July 4th, called for possible showers in the morning but clear weather for the afternoon.

Source: hamradiofornontechies.com

We arrived at Fort Anne around 9:45 AM. The earthen-walled fort was built to protect the harbor of Annapolis Royal. A museum exists in the renovated Officer’s Quarters on the site, though I did not have time to visit it.

There were no trees near the visitor center but I spied trees past an earthen embankment with an opening in it and headed in that direction. As I walked through the opening at the base of the embankment, an bowl-like area among the trees with picnic tables appeared. At the top of it’s far side was what I considered the ideal tree for my activation. I would set up on top of the bowl’s far side embankment wall and use that tree for my EFRW antenna.

It didn’t take me long to snag the branch I wanted and put up my antenna. Now how to deal with the feed-end and counterpoise? Continue reading KO4WFP: Two Parks in One Day – Fort Anne NHS and Lake Midway Provincial Park →