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).
The Ranger 80 Tuning Coil.
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.
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)
PA State Route 66 Trail-head on K-4239
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.Molly on the run.
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.
Molly supervises CW operations during the 2-fer Activation.
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.
Logs from the activation filled up the last 2 pages of one notebook, and the first page of a second notebook.
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.
Many thanks to Bob (K4RLC) who shares the following POTA field report from February 2023:
Dismal Swamp Activation – February 2023
by Bob (K4RLC)
The Dismal Swamp is a lovely place !
The goal for this winter was to activate the Dismal Swamp in northeastern North Carolina, both as it is a relatively rare area, and during the summer it is full of critters like snakes, gators, bears, and mosquitoes as big as birds. So, in February I did a three day trip.
First, I activated the Dismal Swamp State Park (K-2727) in Camden County North Carolina, off US Highway 17.
This state park contains some historically important lands to the US. In pre-revolutionary times, George Washington actually bought some of the swamp land and attempted to drain it to make it farmland. His plan failed, but there is still a marker for his house on the Virginia side. Indigenous people lived here 13,000 years ago, and flourished off the rich fish and animal life.
During the Civil War, the Dismal Swamp was an important part of the Underground Railroad, for those escaping from slavery in the South to freedom in the North. Some slaves used ancient Indian villages as the foundation for building communities deep in the swamp. There are still remnants of this rich history. Originally, the Great Dismal was over a million acres, but now is only half that size.
To make this activation more interesting, you first must go to the Gate Keeper and sign in with your name and give the model and color of your car before you can enter the park. This is to keep track of lost souls who might wander off the path in the swamp, never to be found.
The Gate Keeper also controls the bridge over the Dismal Swamp Canal, which is part of the Intercoastal Waterway up the East Coast of the United States, sometimes called a water way Interstate. This canal was also historically important for transporting materials in the 1800s.
During World War II, when German U-Boats torpedoed merchant ships off the coast of North Carolina, the Dismal Swamp Canal became an important waterway for military transport. Once you enter Dismal Swamp State Park, there are several hiking trails along the Canal and back into the Swamp. One even takes you by a Moonshine Still which unfortunately was not still operating.
I set up the trusty ICOM-706 MkIIG at a picnic table on 20 meters CW, and soon had a nice pile up going. Someone spotted me on the POTA site and RBN. Soon, I was getting emails to my cell phone asking for contacts. Little did I know how rare Camden County was, especially on the 40 and 20 CW bands.
I wish I had had more time to explore Dismal Swamp State Park, including walking the 20 mile path along the Canal, but I wanted to go to the Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge (K-0566) which was over an hour’s drive away, with the entrance across the border in Virginia.
On the weekend of July 29, 2023 we had a very special guest visit the Asheville area: Alan (W2AEW).
You likely know Alan because he has an amazing YouTube channel where he takes deep dives into a wide variety of ham radio, test equipment, and other technical topics. Alan is also an avid POTA (Parks On The Air) activator and a regular contributor here on QRPer.com.
Alan reached out in early July and mentioned that he would be in town to see his nephew’s band (Safety Coffin) who would be performing to celebrate the release of their new album.
Fortunately, that weekend was the one free weekend in my schedule during July because I had cleared it in anticipation of the 2023 WCARS Hamfest. Vlado (N3CZ) and I had planned to reserve a few tables to sell some gear, but both of us were so busy leading up to the hamfest, we skipped the idea of being vendors and decided instead to simply enjoy the hamfest without all of the prep.
Early Saturday morning, I picked up Alan and we made our way to the hamfest.
The WCARS hamfest is always a good one. There’s a large indoor area and loads of outdoor spaces as well.
It seemed to me that there were even more vendors this year than I had seen in the past. I don’t think there was one free spot indoors.
My buddy Philip (N4HF) is a regular at the WCARS hamfest.
Alan and I browsed all of the vendors and both of us ended up buying a few adapters and other small items.
I wasn’t too tempted to make a major purchase, but there were some real goodies, like an Elecraft KX2 and Elecraft KX3 package. Gil (KS4YX) tried to convince me I needed his KX2 as a spare, but I resisted the temptation! (Good try, Gil!)
After all, I needed to show Alan that I had some measure of restraint. Right? [Don’t worry: the following weekend I picked up not one, but two small QRP radios from a friend–more on that in a future post.]
We also spent some time with my buddy Dave (K4SV) who gave us a proper deep-dive into his Tesla Model Y (thanks again, Dave!). My wife and I are planning to buy a used EV and the Model Y is high on the list.
It was brilliant seeing so many friends at the hamfest, but Alan and I didn’t hang around too long. Alan needed to be back with his family around 12:30 and both of us hoped to squeeze in a POTA activation. I was especially keen to get Alan on the air because he had yet to add North Carolina to the list of states he’d activated. We needed to take care of that quickly!
I posted another survey on the POTA Facebook group. I was curious as to how much power people use in their field radio work. The question I posed was “As an activator, I like to run a lot of CW. Balancing time at the site, effectiveness, battery life, similar propagation, etc., what power level do you like to employ? For the sake of simplicity, we are limiting the upper end to 100W.”
The survey size was 291 votes and does not necessarily reflect reality, but the numbers are interesting. Of course, we had some tongue-in-cheek levels entered like 11 watts from one ham; a reference to the movie “This Is Spinal Tap”. I rolled those oddball numbers into the closest one already listed. Here are my results:
If we take the accepted value for QRP as 5 watts or less, that group is 24% of the total. So, in total, the majority of hams either run full-bore or QRP.
On the morning of Tuesday, July 25, 2023, I packed an overnight bag, grabbed my Elecraft KX2 and Chelegance MC-750 then drove to Charlotte, NC.
I go to Charlotte very rarely these days, but somehow in July of this year, I managed two separate visits. Before that, I think I was last there four years ago to catch a flight to Denver.
Since I was in Charlotte for most of the afternoon, I also used it as an opportunity to do a bit of car shopping and test driving. Very soon, I’ll have two new drivers in the family, so we plan to add another vehicle to the mix sometime within the next few months.
While driving to Charlotte I contacted the President James K. Polk State Historic Site. I had never visited this site before so wasn’t sure what to expect. I did a bit of research Monday evening and discovered that their hours were from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM; typical hours for NC State Historic sites.
I knew my schedule would be tight. The park is located on the south west side of Charlotte (in Pineville) and my 3:00 test drive was in the north east part of Charlotte. If you’ve ever driven in Charlotte, you’ll know that driving times are unpredictable once 4:00 hits. I figured I might not arrive until 4:30 or later.
En route to Charlotte, I called the park to ask for permission to do an activation. Anytime I plan to activate a smaller park like a historic site, I always seek permission first from the park staff in advance. Often, they have restrictions about where you can set up and the types of antennas you can use (some historic and archaeological sites, for example, don’t allow any stakes in the ground or lines in trees).
The park staff gave me a thumbs up to do the activation. I didn’t expect them to deny me because this particular park has been activated over 150 times. No doubt, it’s so popular because it’s the closest park to the Charlotte metro area.
I then asked the staff if they closed all of the park grounds at 5:00 or only the visitor’s center. My hope was that, like the Vance Historic Site, they left the park gates open after hours. Unfortunately, the staff member confirmed that they do indeed close the entire site at 5:00, but he added, “you can certainly do your activation up to closing time, though.” He knew I would be pressed for time to fit in this activation.
Fortunately, I made good time to Charlotte and actually was able to bump up my appointments. I finished my last test drive a little after 3:00 and made a beeline for the park.
I arrived on site around 4:00 PM.
President James K. Polk State Historic Site (K-6848)
Before hitting the picnic area, I walked into the visitor’s center to ask where they prefer that I set up. Plus, I wanted to check out some of the displays in the museum!
I chatted with the park staff for a good 15 minutes or so. They were incredibly kind and very familiar with POTA (of course). They were especially familiar with my buddy Max (WG4Z) who lives nearby and activates the site frequently. He’s evidently been a great POTA ambassador!
Many thanks to Teri (KO4WFP) for the following guest post:
An Unexpected, Speedy Activation at Tuscumbia WMA in Mississippi
by Teri (KO4WFP)
Some of the best things in life are unexpected.
My family, after spending two days in Dallas, Texas visiting in-laws, headed back east on Wednesday, July 26. We originally planned to drive Interstate 20 through Louisiana and Mississippi with a stop in Alabama to visit with friends. However, early Wednesday morning, I Googled our route and realized a shorter route through Arkansas and Mississippi would save us thirty minutes. That doesn’t sound like much but when you spend nearly all day driving in a car, thirty fewer minutes feels like a big deal.
Before the trip, I planned an activation in and purchased a permit for Louisiana’s Russell Sage WMA (K-4076). Well, now I wouldn’t even go through Louisiana on our way back. I was loathe to not activate a park at all on the drive home. (Those who know me well, know I don’t give up easily at anything.) So I looked at the new route and the POTA website and endeavored to find a park that would work as well as we’d reach later in the day due to the hot weather. I settled on Tuscumbia Wildlife Management Area (K-7092) in Mississippi along US Route 72.
The 2,600 acre Wildlife Management Area (WMA) is located just outside Corinth, Mississippi and divided into two sections, one on either side of US 72. The section to the north of the highway is primarily swamp bottomland but the northeast corner of it is accessible to the public. The WMA is a great place for birding and I noted 104 species have been observed according to the website eBird. It was this northeast corner at which I would attempt my activation.
The weather during the day was hot! At the Arkansas welcome center, I noted the boat-tailed grackles in the parking lot panting to cool off in the heat. I planned to reach Tuscumbia WMA near the end of the day but whether it would still be too hot or not, I had no idea. Thankfully, as we reached the Mississippi state line out of Memphis, cloud cover appeared and I watched the temperature on the dashboard slowly descend from 99 degrees earlier in the day to a manageable 86 degrees.
The other potential wrinkle in my last-minute decision was whether accessing the park required a fee or not. I couldn’t tell from the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks website. When we reached Memphis and had better cell service, I called one of their offices and spoke to a helpful employee who confirmed that yes, I would need a permit which I could purchase using their app. I also needed to use a second app to check in and out when actually at the park. Somehow I managed to get the apps downloaded, my account set up, and a one-year non-resident permit purchased during my husband’s turn at the wheel. Whew! One more hurdle surmounted.
Everything seemed to be falling into place. The last remaining wildcards were if I would arrive early enough before sunset and would I be able to find a place to set-up.
We arrived at the site a little before 7 PM. The most obvious place to activate, on the gravel pad next to the highway, had power lines running right above it as I had feared. There was no way to set up there. And I could not drive the car further into the property as gates prevented auto access. My only other option, with daylight running out, was to walk into the property, find a spot, and sit on the ground. To make space for our trip luggage, though, I left behind the bin in which I usually keep a tarp and other emergency supplies. (Note to self – next time keep at least a tarp in the car.) The only thing I could find for me to sit on was the windshield sunshade – not ideal but it would work.
I checked into the app, grabbed my POTA backpack, liberally applied bug spray for the gathering mosquitos, and headed past the gate to see with what I had to work. By the way, I’ve never seen mosquitos so large in size! They were at least three times bigger than the ones we have in Savannah, GA. Continue reading KO4WFP: An Unexpected, Speedy Activation at Tuscumbia WMA in Mississippi→
Because I receive so many tips from readers here on QRPer, I wanted way to share them in a concise newsletter format. To that end, welcome to QRPer Notes, a collection of links to interesting stories and tips making waves in the world of radio!
1296 on the Icom IC-705
Many thanks to Alan who shares this video of VK3FS operating his Icom IC-705 on the 23cm band.
Video description:
If you enjoy SOTA, parks, microwave or radio in the great outdoors, then Icom IC-705 is the radio for you. Having received many accolades, and a long list of positives, some might say there’s one thing missing on the IC-705 and that’s the 23cm band.
The good news – is it’s a relatively easy fix with the help of a 1296 MHz transverter from SG Labs.
Chameleon adds color counterpoise kits to catalog
Many thanks to Don (W7SSB) who notes that Chameleon antennas has added color counterpoises to their product offerings.
Many thanks to Dennis (K2DCD) who shares the following message sent originally by Larry (W2LJ):
Once again, I’ve been giving thought to attempting to pump new life back into the New Jersey QRP Club. For many, many years it was considered to be one of the top QRP organizations in the country. It ranked right up there with the NorCal QRP Club, the Colorado QRP Club, the New England QRP Club and others.
In the early 2000’s, due to the efforts of George N2APB and Joe N2CX and a host of others, the NJQRP Club reached its azimuth when it sponsored Atlanticon, the QRP confab of the Mid-Atlantic Coast. It was held in Baltimore and each year I was dying to go. But my two kids weren’t even really toddlers yet, and with Marianne and I both working full time, it was an impossibility.
Soon after Atlanticon ceased, it seemed the club started to wither away. Stalwarts became Silent Keys, others moved away and NJQRP started to become a shadow of its former self. There were a few times I met with other members at the food court of one of the malls near Princeton. There were also a few outdoor gatherings at the park in Grover’s Mill – the infamous landing spot of the Martians in Orson Well’s “War of the Worlds”. And then finally there was nothing.
So where does that leave us? The website was moved to its present URL location in 2016. As far as I can tell, there have been no updates. And in all honesty, except for the Skeeter Hunt, there hasn’t been much activity to update the webpage with. Whatever the members have been up to individually, there’s been no real effective means of communication between them.
George N2APB has moved to Tennessee and N2CX is a Silent Key. There’s no roster, so there’s really no way to tell who was a member and who was not, and what members if any have either moved out of the area or have become Silent Keys. And since the last iteration of NJQRP, there just may be a whole new generation of New Jersey QRP’ers anxious to meet their like minded brethren in the state.
So we start with a new beginning. I started a Facebook page. As of right now, it’s a public group and I think you can just join. I’ve also started a Groups.io group now that Yahoo groups are defunct. This group will be an e-mail reflector and our main way of keeping in touch with each other. If you’d like to join that, you’ll have to send me an e-mail ([email protected]) and I’ll send you an invitation to join.
Granted, it’s not much of a start, but it is a beginning. Hopefully, as the word spreads and QRPers in New Jersey and the surrounding area become interested, maybe we can start holding meetings, if we can find a location that is convenient for all.
I’d like to stress that while the New Jersey QRP Club will primarily serve local QRPers as far as any future live in person events go, there are no residency requirements. All are welcome and if we do meet in person, we can always incorporate a Zoom component as other clubs I belong to have been doing to include those who can’t attend in person for whatever reason.
It’s not my job to run the organization, that will be up to the members. I’m just going to try and re-launch it. So stay tuned – maybe we can light this candle and get this puppy off the ground!
We have a number of DIY projects going on at the QTH, I’ve a long list of things I need to fix (this has been the year of everything breaking), we’re scoping out a new PV system, and family life has been at an all-time high in terms of activity.
It’s funny: Matt mentioned in his recent field report that my POTA/SOTA catchphrase is, “I don’t have much time for this activation.”
It’s so true! I say and think that all the time.
My schedule is such that I so rarely have more than one hour tops to spend at a park or on a summit. At this point in my life–being the father of two amazing teenage girls, a husband, and checking in on my sweet parents regularly–my days are packed pretty darn full.
That said, I get a small thrill out of doing fully portable park activations even with a little time pressure. Perhaps it’s because it’s what I’ve gotten used to? Regardless, it’s fun.
My hope, by the way, is to add a bit more camping at parks into the mix this fall so I can spend long relaxing evening sessions on the air. We’ll see if that becomes a reality!
“Radio-Active Therapy”
One thing I know for sure: activating parks and summits is proper radio therapy.
I know I probably sound like a broken record on this point.
Something about hitting the field, deploying an antenna, hopping on the air, and using the “sacred language” (i.e. CW) just takes me away from all of my worries and obligations. It clears my headspace.
I liken it to the same feeling I get when mountain biking. When I mountain bike, I rarely think of anything other than the path in front of me, preparing for roots, rocks, and other things that could otherwise flip me off my bike.
With POTA and SOTA? I listen to the ether, pull out contacts, and connect with friends via magical wireless links. That’s where my mind goes.
After a good ride or a good activation, I feel a million dollars.
Tuttle Educational State Forest (K-4861)
The days leading up to Wednesday, July 12, 2023, had been particularly hectic; I was in need of some proper radio-active therapy, so I stopped by one of my favorite spots–Tuttle Educational State Forest–for a little POTA. Continue reading Sometimes you just need a little radio-active therapy→
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