It’s hard to believe that Four Days in May (FDIM) 2025 has already come and gone—and even harder to believe that attendance was even larger than last year!
What an amazing event.
As always, FDIM is my favorite part of the Dayton Hamvention weekend. If you’re a QRPer and haven’t made it to FDIM yet, I can’t recommend it enough—this gathering is pure QRP energy from start to finish.
I truly enjoyed meeting so many QRPer readers and supporters in person. Thank you for stopping by and sharing your stories—it was an absolute highlight for me!
Once again, I was so busy chatting and connecting that I barely had time to snap any photos. Thankfully, my friend Mike (VE3MKX) came to the rescue with another fantastic gallery.
As promised, here’s Part 2 of my extended HRWBOTA activation report from March 16, 2025!
(US-6856)
As I mentioned in Part 1 of this activation, I’d planned to operate for the full four-hour window of the March 16th Ham Radio Workbenches On The Air (HRWBOTA) event—a rare luxury for me. Most of my field activations typically last anywhere from 30 to maybe 90 minutes at most. So, sitting in one spot and operating for four full hours definitely stretched me a bit—but in a good way!
After two hours of non-stop CW with the Elecraft KX3, I took a brief break, swapped radios, and continued the activation with my Penntek TR-45L.
This portable rig is one of my favorite minimalist CW transceivers, and I thought it was a perfect fit for the second half of the HRWBOTA event. I used it to work 20, 30, and 40 meters in CW (in that order).
One nice bonus of using the TR-45L is that mine has a built-in Z-match ATU, which allowed me to easily find a match on 30 meters, even though the Spooltenna EFHW isn’t resonant on that band. The antenna was the same excellent 40-meter EFHW prototype from Rob (KO4HUI) that I featured in Part 1.
The only other minor change during this segment of the activation was behind the camera. Since I was filming in real-time for four straight hours, I had to pause at one point to connect my action camera to a portable battery pack which then limited my ability to use wireless microphones with wind screens. The gusty wind will be more noticeable in this portion of the activation video as a result—but, hey, it’s all part of the field experience!
Now, let’s dive into Part 2 of the gear and activation details…
Gear
Note: All Amazon, CW Morse, ABR, Chelegance, Spooltenna, eBay, and Radioddity links are affiliate links that support QRPer.com at no cost to you.
Radio
Penntek TR-45L with built-in rechargeable battery and Z-Match antenna tuner (discontinued)
As I mentioned in Part 1, this was a longer activation, and since I needed to submit electronic logs to HRWBOTA admin Mark (N6MTS), I skipped paper logging—a true rarity for me.
Instead, I logged directly into AC Log on my Microsoft Surface Go, just as I would during Field Day.
Saturday, May 10th, 2025, 09:30 am until 02:30 pm, at the Heyward Park on Savvany Hunt Club Rd in Sandy Run Calhoun County. (Just off Exit 119 of Interstate I-26.) Come rain or shine… Event is in a covered pavilion! [Click here for Map.]
Sponsored by The South Carolina QRP Club. Co-sponsors: Calhoun County Amateur Radio Group, Dutch Fork Amateur Radio Club, Edisto Amateur Radio Society
Things to see and do!
Free admission and parking
All hams, new hams and want to be hams are welcome
Prize Drawings every 30 minutes
Free food
Our famous “QRP Dogs”, Chips and Soft Drinks will be served from 10:30am to 02:00pm
QRP On-The-Air!
There will be two QRP stations set up for on the air demonstration. New hams are especially invited to make contacts (Elmers will be present to assist!)
Show and Tell
Bring your QRP equipment, kits and home brew rigs to show and share with others.
Come and get it Parts Bonanza!
Thousands of electronic parts free for the taking… transistors, diodes, capacitors, inductors, resistors, knobs, hardware and more!
Kit Building Sessions
Three different kits will be available to build at the park. All tools, soldering equipment and supplies will be provided, As well as experienced builders to provide guidance.
Kits will take between 15 to 30 minutes to build. We will stay longer if needed! The price of each kit is $10.00 each (cash only)
Kit Choices:
1. Ham Radio 24 Hour Clock (easy build) (bring a kid)
2. Endfed Random Wire Antenna (9:1 unun)(only 5 solder connections)
On Friday, March 7, 2025, Vlado (N3CZ) and I made our way to the Charlotte Hamfest — and what a fantastic trip it was!
We hit the road Friday morning and arrived in Concord around lunchtime, where we met up with our dear friend Phil (W9IXX) at Captain Steve’s Family Seafood Restaurant. The food was outstanding — honestly, it must be the best bargain in seafood in all of North Carolina. If you’re ever in the area, it’s worth a stop.
After lunch, we headed over to the Cabarrus Arena & Events Center – Gold Hall to set up our tables. The doors opened at 3:00 PM, and much to our delight, the Friday crowd was lively and active. It was great to see so many people there early, checking out the gear and chatting with fellow hams.
That evening, Vlado and I treated ourselves to some authentic Cuban cuisine at Havana Carolina Restaurant & Bar in downtown Concord. The food was phenomenal — a perfect way to cap off the first day of the hamfest.
Saturday morning came quickly, and we were back at the arena bright and early. The event was incredibly well attended. I had the pleasure of meeting a number of QRPer.com readers, YouTube subscribers, and supporters. Many folks also mentioned they’re listeners of the Ham Radio Workbench podcast — it’s always a treat to connect with so many amazing people. Thank you all for stopping by to say hello!
By the time things started winding down around noon, I had sold or given away about two-thirds of the items I brought along — definitely a success in my book.
After packing up, Phil, Vlado, and I grabbed lunch at Johnny Roger’s BBQ & Burgers in Concord. We all went for one of their specialty burgers — absolutely worth it.
All in all, it was an incredibly successful trip. More than anything, it was wonderful to spend time with friends and meet so many amazing people in the community.
Below is a gallery of photos showcasing some of the gear that was available at the hamfest. Many of these were taken before the doors opened on Friday and Saturday. Enjoy!
It’s hard to believe that Four Days in May (FDIM) took place two weeks ago! What a blast it was!
If you’re a QRPer, and you’ve never attended FDIM, you’re in for a treat when you finally do. This gathering is truly my favorite thing about the Dayton Hamvention weekend.
It’s a truly QRO event for all things QRP!
I was so busy at FDIM talking with fellow attendees that I took very few photos. Fortunately, my buddy Mike (VE3MKX) created a nice photo gallery to share with us!
Many of you know I’m on the crew of the Ham Radio Workbench podcast. In fact, as of this month, I’ve been there a year now (my how time flies). Although it shows a certain lack of judgement on their part, I’m glad they invited me on board!
On October 9, fellow HRWB crew member, Mark (N6MTS), pitched an idea to us via email:
“What do y’all think about doing an HRWB On The Air event?”
We all agreed it sounded like a great idea. Things like this normally take a year’s worth of planning, promoting, and organizing. Not when Mark’s in charge, though.
Next thing we know, Mark had us sorting out the best date/time (December 3, 2023/1800-22:00UTC) for HRWBOTA and even reached out to some amazing volunteers who helped put together a website and spotting page.
Holy cow!
December 3, 2023
I planned to operate the entire four hour event period from Lake James State Park (K-2730) since it would be an easy detour en route to Hickory, NC (where I was staying that night). Of course, each contact would could for both HRWBOTA and POTA.
The previous day, however, I learned that one of my daughters had a meeting in downtown Asheville from 18:00-19:00 UTC. She doesn’t have a driver’s license yet, so I had to take her. Had it not been an important meeting in advance of her finals, she would have skipped.
This really threw a wrench in the works. I knew that by the time her meeting ended and I dropped her off at the QTH, the earliest I could be at Lake James was 20:15-20:30 or so.
How could I increase my on-the-air HRWBOTA time?
KH1 to the rescue!
Since the Elecraft KH1 was packed in my EDC bag, I decided to play a little HRWBOTA in the parking lot behind the meeting building.
I wasn’t sure what to expect to be honest. I wasn’t spotting myself anywhere but the HRWBOTA spotting page, and I was limited to the 15, 17, and 20M bands with the KH1’s 4′ whip antenna.
I spotted myself, hit the air and started calling CQ HRWBOTA!
In the span of about 45 minutes, I managed to log a total of 15 stations! Not bad considering I was standing in an urban parking lot, swimming in QRM, and going QRP!
I didn’t make a video of this part of the HRWBOTA activation–sorry about that if you worked me then. I needed every moment of on-the-air time I could grab. Here’s my log sheet:
Lake James State Park (K-2739)
I legged it to Lake James after my daughter’s meeting–in fact, to save time, I started my activation video while I was still in my car driving on I-40.
I arrived at Lake James, parked, plugged in the car, grabbed my gear and made my way to the picnic area next to the lakeshore. It wasn’t hard to find a site with a tree that might support my KM4CFT 30/40M linked EFHW antenna.
“How can I accumulate a bunch of summit-to-summit points all at once, for Summits on the Air?” This was a question Pete Scola WA7JTM had been pondering for years. He initially thought it might be fun to choose several 10-point summits that were near each other, have a person operate on each summit, and then rotate to a new summit every so often. Eventually, this idea gave way to the Arizona 10-Point Madness Summit to Summit event. With an invitation from Pete, all willing SOTA participants gathered on a 10-point summit on September 19th, 2018, and 10-Point Madness was born!
The Arizona 10-Point Madness Summit to Summit event is a casual on-air gathering, where Summits on the Air participants set up their ham radio station on the top of summit . . . at approximately the same time. Operators are on simultaneously so that there is an overwhelming availability of summit-to-summit contacts to be made. This event occurs every year on the first Saturday of October.
Fred (N7PN) 2023 10-Point Madness
There was a focus on 2-meter contacts the first year we did this. We learned quickly during the 2018 inaugural event that it was true madness for 31 ham radio stations to contact 26 nearby summits all at the same time, especially on 2 meters. We tried alternate 2-meter frequencies and even considered a net control operator. However, in the end, we learned to just wait patiently for our turn to call for contacts on 2-meters, or if it was extra busy, we just moved off to HF for a while and returned later. As a courtesy, we now monitor 2 meters and return to it throughout the event to give the operators a chance to come and go.
Adam (K6ARK) 2022 10-Point Madness
That first year was amazing.
We collectively made 1104 contacts, 354 of which were VHF. And yes, we scored a lot of summit-to-summit points. We averaged 140 points each, with a grand total of 4324 s2s points for all the Arizona stations. We announced the event to several online platforms and invited others to participate, and had a few people join us from outside of Arizona. All of them had fun and saw good results as well.
Our 6th annual event concluded a few weeks ago. Participation has been steady in Arizona but we have seen an increase outside of Arizona. We had about the same number of Arizona participants as years past, but total contacts increased to 1403. The average s2s points per participant increased to 169, with a grand total of 4906 s2s points. I was amazed that Keith KR7RK earned 400 s2s points this year for this event – a new record, I think. These are only numbers for Arizona participants.
I read on social media that Josh WU7H, who was participating from Washington state, had 55 total s2s contacts and only a fourth of them were from Arizona. We received some statistics from stations in Georgia, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Texas, Nevada, Washington, Oregon and more. It is a lot of effort to compile the statistics but it would be interesting to include people outside of Arizona in the future.
Joe (KE9AJ) 2022 10-Point Madness
Here are a few things that have stood out to me over the past 5 years for this event:
In 2019, Josh WU7H and DJ WW7D participated from Washington. They won the award for most challenging activation in my opinion, operating from a snow packed summit in below freezing temperatures. But that didn’t deter them! They continue to come back year after year. They are tough!
In 2022 my friend Adam K6ARK was participating on a summit in California. I was able to make a 2-meter CW and SSB contact with him from my summit, 327 miles away.
Several others in Arizona also made contact with him. While not record breaking, this is long haul for 2-meters. And this year, I was able to make 19 DX contacts with one summit-to-summit into Germany. It seems like there are a lot of DX contacts to be made every year, but this was a record for me.
Finally, this year Pete WA7JTM made a contact on every single band from 1296 MHz down to 1.8 MHz. That’s 16 different bands. How amazing is that?
The point is, you can make this event into whatever you want. Experiment and try new things because there are people listening. And of course, you do get a ton of summit-to-summit points.
WW7D on High Rock 2019 10-Point MadnessJosh WU7H and DJ WW7D operated from High Rock
Dave AE9Q sent an email out to the Arizona participants and inquired about the radios, antennas, and power sources used for the event and as you can probably guess, the list was very diverse. I’m not exaggerating. Just about every QRP HF radio, VHF/UHF handheld, Antenna, and power source you can think of was used – Log periodicals, mono-band double-bazookas, double zepps, whips, Yagi’s, end-feds, QRP and QRO HF radios of all types, HT’s with microwave capabilities, mobile vhf radios, amplifiers, lipo and lifepo batteries. The list is long.
We recognize that other SOTA associations do similar events, like the Colorado 14er event and the Pacific Northwest Not Quite Fourteener event, to name a couple. These are all great opportunities to get on the air and have fun with QRP radio in the field.
I’m sure you have heard about how amazing the SOTA community is. If you get out on the summits or frequently chase, your call sign becomes familiar to others. So much so that you feel a personal connection and sense of comradery every time you make contact with them. During these events you see many of your good on-air radio friends. It’s like a reunion.
The Arizona SOTA association thanks the many chasers and participants outside of Arizona who make this event more and more exciting every year. We hope to see even more participate next year. Just pick a summit, put your alert on the sotawatch.sota.org.uk web page, get on top of the summit and have a blast!
Since I was first licensed in 1997, Field Day has been the on-the-air event I’ve always looked forward to more than any other.
I love the combination of playing radio outdoors, experimenting with antennas, hanging with fellow hams, and inviting the public to experience the world of amateur radio.
I’ve participated in quite a wide variety of Field Day events over the years. A few times, I’ve spent the entire event with one club playing radio for the full 24 hour period of time and only getting a couple hours of sleep. It’s exhausting, but loads of fun!
That’s the great thing about amateur radio: no matter where you go in the world, you have a built-in local community of friends.
Many years, I’ve also combined Field Day and POTA (also NPOTA in 2016) with my good friend Vlado (N3CZ). We typically find a nice park to play radio, make some food (Vlado is the grill-master extraordinaire), and hang out for a few hours, many times with our families and other ham friends. Our goal is mostly to have fun, make contacts, and be ready to answer questions when a crowd gathers.
My buddy Vlado (N3CZ) draws a crowd in 2016,
Field Day 2023
On Saturday morning (June 24, 2023), Vlado and I met up around 12:30 at Vlado’s QTH and I placed my gear in his car.
The plan was to hit a park and do a POTA activation–albeit just running Field Day with my callsign–then go to the Blue Ridge Amateur Radio Club‘s Field Day site for dinner and operating with their club call (W4YK).
Holmes Educational State Forest (K-4856)
We made our way to Holmes Educational State Forest (K-4856). It was a logical choice since it wasn’t too far from the BRARC Field Day site.
I had hoped the covered picnic shelter at Holmes would be unoccupied, but it was very much the opposite. I think there must have been three birthday parties in that thing!
Knowing rain showers are all around, I packed my ENO hammock rainfly and, in fact, we chose our picnic site based on tree spacing to hang the rainfly over the picnic table.
Vlado (N3CZ) warming up his IC-703 Plus
We put up the rain fly first and it’s a good thing we did because showers moved in immediately. Fortunately, the fly worked a charm and we both–and more importantly, our radios–stayed bone dry.
Since this was primarily a Field Day effort, I didn’t schedule the activation or do any spotting. No one who worked us knew that it was also a park activation.
We ran as a 1B Battery station, thus our maximum output power was five watts. (Of course we were only going to do this QRP!)
Vlado and I both operated, but he made the bulk of the contacts. While one of us worked stations, the other logged.
In the end, we logged 45 contacts–all but one were CW.
Vlado really enjoyed using his IC-703 Plus. He built a small go kit around it some time ago, but this was actually the first opportunity he’d had to use it in the field.
I also packed the IC-705 and made quite a few contacts with it including our one SSB contact!
Around 4:30 PM local, we packed up and headed to the Blue Ridge ARC FD site at one of the members’ QTH.
Holmes Video
I made a short video at Holmes Educational State Forest–not a typical activation video, just a quick visit with us:
We arrived at the BRARC site around 5:00 PM. Typically, the Blue Ridge Club sets up in very public ares–primarily the middle of some of the larger area parks.
This time, however, there was a permitting conflict that forced the club to find another space. Fortunately, two of the club members offered up their home which wasn’t in a public spot, obviously, but in every other respect was ideal.
We arrived and met with several friends I hadn’t seen in ages.
Vlado immediately hopped on KC5F’s Icom IC-7610 (the dedicated CW station) and gave Steve a break at the key.
I then took over after Vlado’s run and added a few more contacts to the W4YK logs.
I then moved to the SSB station and added about ten contacts to their logs. That particular station was the club’s Icom IC-718 and if I’m being honest, it’s not the best HF radio for crowded band conditions. It’s an overall good radio, but when the RF is dense (as it is on Field Day) its front end sort of falls apart. The difference between the IC-718 and IC-7610 was striking. The ‘7610 is a contest grade radio and it handles FD conditions with grace.
The barbecue at the BRARC Field Day was amazing. We appreciate good BBQ here in North Carolina. Don’t get me started about that potato salad–it was spectacular!
We left he BRARC meeting around 8:30 PM and on the way home decided to pop by the WCARS Field Day site at a Fire Fighters’ Union Camp Ground. This wasn’t a terribly public place for Field Day, but the grounds were ideal for setting up stations. A number of WCARS members belong to the Fire Fighters’ Union.
We spoke with a few WCARS members/friends we hadn’t seen in some time, then headed home.
In the end, I felt like we’d done a little Field Day tour that Saturday!
It was great hopping on the air, but even better seeing so many friends we hadn’t seen in such a long time.
How was your Field Day?
I’d love to hear what you did for Field Day! Please share your experience with us in the comments section!
Also, keep in mind that Saturday July 1, 2023 (tomorrow!) is the RAC Canada Day Contest! You can find out more about this event on the RAC website.
Thank you
Thank you for joining Vlado and me for a few minutes on Field Day!
Also,I’d also like to send a special thanks to those of you who have been supporting the site and channel through Patreon and the Coffee Fund. While certainly not a requirement as my content will always be free, I really appreciate the support.
I have attended every QSO Today Visual Ham Expo since Eric (4Z1UG) created this brilliant virtual event. The online platform is quite easy to use and there are loads of fascinating topics from a wide variety of presenters.
I applaud Eric for championing radio topics that are open and accessible to Technician (and equivalent) class operators.
Twice before, I haven’t been able to attend the Expo sessions live (due to my schedule) but I register anyway! Why? Eric archives and provides all of the presentations in video format on-demand for Expo attendees after the event has ended. I simply log in and work my way through presentations over the course of a month, one morning coffee after another! The gift that keeps on giving!
These presentations are a shorter format and (I find) focus less on general topics covered elsewhere; they’re truly unique to the Expo.
This is one of the main reasons I register for the QSO Today Virtual Expo: I want to support a platform that produces brilliant ideas, innovations, and encourages a wide radio of radio activities!
I have no idea how Eric puts all of this together, but I’m glad he does and we all benefit from it.
Ham Radio Workbench Podcast at the QSO Today Virtual Expo!
Join us for a live recording of the Ham Radio Workbench podcast as we help kick off the Expo on March 25, 2023 starting at 1:00 UTC (March 24, 2023, 6:00 PM).
Eric also shared the following preview of the Roundtable Lounge that allow Expo participants to hang out in real time and move from table to table fluidly.
Here is what the Ham Radio Workbench table will look like (20 seats):
I’m really looking forward to this event! I hope you’ll join us.
Connecting an international community through low-power field radio adventures.
Please support QRPer by adding us to your whitelist in your ad blocker. Ads are what helps us stay online. All of our ads are ham radio related--no junk, we promise! Thank you!
