Category Archives: Field Reports

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

QRP DX: A quick POTA break with the Penntek TR-45L on the Blue Ridge Parkway

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As I’ve mentioned in the past, I feel pretty lucky to live in an area that is  flush with POTA sites.  It’s not that we have numerous individual parks, but the parks we do have encompass massive portions of the area.

One park, in particular, that literally runs around and through Asheville, NC, is the Blue Ridge Parkway. When I’m in town and have a few free minutes, it’s quite easy to hit the BRP; it’s never far away.  I can set up along the parkway pretty much anywhere, or go to the Visitor’s Center or Folk Art Center if I want to operate from a picnic table. In addition, the Mountains To Sea Trail runs along large portions of the parkway, so it’s very easy to hit it as well.

On Wednesday, September 28, 2022, I took my daughters to a class and had the better part of an hour to play radio. The BRP’s Folk Art Center was only a 10 minute drive from their class, so I made a beeline for the site as soon as I dropped them off.

I had the amazing Penntek TR-45L packed in my car, and decided to pair it with my Tufteln End-Fed Random Wire antenna.

Continue reading QRP DX: A quick POTA break with the Penntek TR-45L on the Blue Ridge Parkway →

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

Jay discovered that his first CW POTA activation wasn’t scary at all!

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Many thanks to Jay (W1ASP) who, last week, sent me a note about his first POTA CW activation. I asked if he’d consider writing up a short field report about his experience to share with others and he was happy to do so. Thank you, Jay.

Halloween POTA

by Jay (W1ASP)

Halloween doesn’t have to be scary.

I set out to Bear Brook State Park (K-2643) for my first CW POTA activation.

Bear Brook is relatively close by, its the largest state park in New Hampshire with over 10,000 acres. There’s camping, hiking and biking trails along with an archery course and plenty of swimming and fishing areas.

I didn’t give it much thought about what day it was, just that I had the time to do an activation and it was nice out, what a perfect opportunity to break in the newly assembled kit.

I decided on a spot next to the water and as luck would have it there was a picnic table right there. I took out my gear, set up and proceeded to tune around and listen. The band seemed pretty quiet. I wasn’t sure if I’d get enough QSO’s in to make it an official activation. I decided on 14.038 MHz, I sent QRL? I then held down the memory button, took a deep breath and hit it again to transmit: CQ POTA DE W1ASP

I waited a second or two and used the memory keyer once more, again nothing. I went to the POTA website on my phone and added my activation.

The memory keyer was used for a third time, I noticed a message pop up on my logging app, the Reverse Beacon Network spotted me. It wasn’t too long after, the first call came back to me!

I was nervous and fumbled a bit here and there but once I took my time I was fine, sending their call back and TU UR 599 599 NH BK. I cheated a little and left the CW decoder enabled. I wanted to be sure I had the call correct as I logged my 13 QSO’s. (I swear the 13 wasn’t intentional.) for my first CW park activation! I only realized that it was Halloween while walking back to my truck.

I thought to myself, “that wasn’t scary at all.”

Once I decided that, as an activator I’m in charge of the QSO, I relaxed and it was a lot of fun. I may have made a few mistakes but everyone was patient with me. I later received an email from another Ham in Delaware. He was using the same radio, and referred to them as the perfect “picnic portable radio” we emailed back and forth a few times and I look forward to hearing him on the air again soon.

 

The week before, I finished building my second QCX Mini. The first kit I built was for the 30 meter band around this time last year, this second one is a 20 meter version. I love these little radios, there’s something about these little transceivers that I just can’t seem to put them down.

I took my time making sure it was working properly, I hooked it up in my shack and I had my first QSO with another POTO activator in Maryland just over 400 miles away.  To say I was excited is an understatement!

I planned on putting together a kit about a month ago for POTA and eventually SOTA with the QCX Mini as the radio. I decided on using a small pack, I wanted it to be a self contained kit that had everything I needed to do an activation and nothing extra.

I keep the wire and radios together,  and depending what band I choose to operate on is the one I pack. I’m considering a third kit; maybe a 10m version? I threw the EFHW matching transformer in the bag along with a notebook, mechanical pencil and a battery pack I put together using four 3.2v LifePo batteries. The paddle I’m currently using is a stainless paddle I found on online with a mini CW paddle for backup and set of folding headphones.

I’m looking forward to my next park, this was a great experience. I wanted to learn CW since I became a Ham in 2016, that’s another story of what got me into Ham Radio in the first place.

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

POTA Plan C: Swapping antennas and rigs at Tuttle Educational State Forest

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After the success of my previous day’s activation at Fort Dobbs State Historic Site, I decided to take the Icom IC-703 Plus out for yet another activation.

As I mentioned in the previous post, the IC-703 has not gotten a lot of outdoor time this year because I’ve had issues with the electronic keyer locking up when using the radio with end-fed antennas.

Of course, there are a number of ways to mitigate or radiate the RF that could be coming back to the radio, so at Fort Dobbs, the previous day, I used a simple common mode choke. It seemed to do the trick.

I was curious if using a common mode choke might be the only solution needed to solve this problem, or if I’d need to perform a mod to my IC-703.

I was ready to test the IC-703 again.

I had a fair amount of antenna options in the trunk of my car, so on the way to Tuttle Educational State Forest (on Friday, October 7, 2022), I considered a few options to shake things up a bit.

Since I was feeling comfortable that the common mode choke was taking care of things, I decided to push the limit a bit and deploy an end-fed random wire antenna. I didn’t have any of my mini portable 9:1 random wire antennas in the car (PackTenna, Tufteln, etc.), but I did have another solution: the Chameleon MPAS Lite.

The cool thing about the CHA MPAS Lite is that while it’s primarily designed to be a vertical antenna with counterpoise, it can be reconfigured and deployed a number of ways including as a simple end-fed random wire antenna.

After giving it some thought, I decided it might be fun to deploy it as an inverted V random wire. In fact, here’s a diagram from the MPAS Lite manual of exactly what I planned to do.

I’d be using the MPAS Lite counterpoise as the radiator, so I wouldn’t have the optional second counterpoise as seen in the illustration above. That’s okay, though, because I was feeding the antenna with Chameleon’s 50′ RG-58C/U cable with in-line choke; the shield of the coax would act as the antenna counterpoise.

This is the same coax cable I used the previous day. Continue reading POTA Plan C: Swapping antennas and rigs at Tuttle Educational State Forest →

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

Rich’s Triple Activation Day!

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Many thanks to Rich (KQ9L) for sharing the following field report:

Triple Activation Day

by Rich (KQ9L)

I decided to build on the momentum and lessons learned from my last two POTA outings and yesterday [October 29, 2022] completed x3 Activations in one day— a first for me. I wrote a brief description of the day and I hope you enjoy reading about the activations.

Well the weather has been pretty good here in Chicago and Old Man Winter hasn’t made it around to these parts yet and being on a POTA kick lately, I decided see if I could complete several activations in one day. Previously I had completed x2 in one day, but felt that after all that I learned from my last couple activations, I should practice what I learned and go for three.

In my area, there are several POTA sites, but one area to the south of me seemed to be the best location to accomplish my goal. The area has a unique geographic feature and historically interesting landmark which added to the lure of the area. The region centers around the Illinois and Michigan Canal.

Here is a quick history lesson courtesy of Wikipedia:

The Illinois and Michigan canal was build in 1848 and served as a connection between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. Running 96 miles, it connects Bridgeport in Chicago to LaSalle-Peru. Why was this important? This connect helped establish Chicago as the transportation hub of the US and linked by water the East coast to the Mississippi River and from there the Gulf of Mexico. Before the railroad era in the US, this water way dominated transportation.

Pretty cool!

Along the canal are numerous little hamlets and one in particular, Morris, Illinois had x3 State Parks all within about a 5 mile radius. Perfect!

First stop was Gebhard Woods State Part (K-0995). The park is only 30 acres, but affords activities for hikers, fisherman, campers and picnickers. There is even an eBike rental facility so the park has broad appeal to many people, including hams!

I arrived pretty much right after sunrise and was greeted by fog and a thin layer of frost on the grass and picnic tables. Though beautiful this frost and fog, did not make for a fun activation. Temps were in the upper 30’s F, but with the fog the air felt damp and overall much cooler.

I hurriedly set up my PackTenna 9:1 antenna on my collapsible mast and leaned it up against a nearby tree. I had a separate counterpoise and feed line with a choke built into it…more on this later.

Continue reading Rich’s Triple Activation Day! →

Antennas, Field Reports, News, POTA, QRP, SSB

Guest Post: Breaking 100 QSOs during two QRP SSB Activations

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Breaking 100 QSOs during two QRP SSB Activations

by Joshua (KO4AWH)

Back in May I had to travel last minute for work to North Dakota. I typically bring radio gear in the event that I have some time to do a Parks On the Air activation. This trip presented the opportunity to activate a park in Minnesota as well as one in South Dakota. I didn’t have much time to plan these activations, but I knew I had an early enough arrival in the afternoon that I could likely activate a park in MN and then in SD. So, I picked out a park in MN close to my destination. I could go activate in MN then get over to a park in SD and activate there.

I found a nice looking State Park in MN. The idea was to activate as quickly as I could and then get back to a park in ND with enough time to activate before it got too late. K-2482 Fort Snelling State Park had 110 successful activations. That is always promising when planning out an activation. I got my rental car and headed to the park.

I also had recently purchased a HFJ-350m which is a base-loaded coil with an extendable whip. I found a tripod base I could print online and then designed an adapter so I could install a SO-239 and RG316 lead with a BNC connector. I had just tested this setup in the back yard and knew it worked, although I certainly knew it was a compromised antenna.

HFJ-350m setup on custom tripod in the backyard for testing
Custom 3D Printed Tripod with BNC Connector

I typically bring my Raspberry PI4 loaded with Build-A-Pi and then run digital modes from my phone or Tablet. My plan was to activate this park with the compromised antenna running 5W on FT8 at the first park and then go to my second park and run a full half wave wire in a tree on SSB at 10W.

Not much to say about the activation in MN. The state park was nice but where I set up presented quite a bit of RF noise. Not so much of a problem since I was running digital. After a bit of adjustment on the whip I was tuned for 20m and started hunting a few FT8 stations. I did make a few QSOs while hunting but I then started calling CQ and had a bit more luck. I think because my signal was quite weak, calling CQ was a bit more efficient as only those who could hear me were calling back. While hunting, if those calling CQ were running a bit more power, I was unlikely to get in while running lower power and on a compromised antenna. I got the activation completed with 12 QSOs and packed it up and headed to the next park.

Continue reading Guest Post: Breaking 100 QSOs during two QRP SSB Activations →

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

POTA with the Icom IC-703 Plus: Working a serious SWR problem first, though!

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If you’ve been here long, you’ve no doubt noticed that I have a sizable collection of QRP radios I take to the field.

Although I have some favorites, I try to rotate all of my radios in the field and even pair them with different antenna combinations as much as possible. If I only owned one field radio, I’d shake things up by pairing my one radio with different antennas deployed different ways during my POTA/SOTA activations.

I get a real thrill out of testing different combinations, actually, and I feel like it keeps me on my toes because I don’t get too comfortable with any one setup in the field.

No doubt, using a wide variety of radios gives me a more informed perspective when beta testing or evaluating new radio models.

That said, there is one radio in my collection that has been overlooked too many times: my Icom IC-703 Plus.

Many of you have noticed this, in fact.  I’ve gotten several emails and comments asking, “So Thomas…when are you taking the 703 out again–?” 🙂

When I purchased the ‘703 from my buddy Don a couple years ago, I imagined taking it to the field very regularly. I always thought it was a cool little radio and with its built-in ATU, it’s quite compact for a tabletop-style rig.

Thing is, each time I’ve taken it to the field, I’ve had issues with the electronic keying that I did not have when using it in the shack. It’s quite sensitive to RF, so end-fed antennas seem to create unwanted dits and dashes in the keyer.

The simple fix, I hoped, was simply using an in-line common mode choke to keep the RF away from the radio. Thing is, the IC-703 has an SO-239 antenna port and two of my common mode chokes are BNC. I meant to purchase a BNC-to-PL-259 adapter at the Shelby Hamfest, but picked up the wrong item (I should have been wearing my glasses).

Then I remembered that my Chameleon 50′ RG-58C/U cable not only has an integrated in-line choke, but also PL-259 connectors. This could work! Continue reading POTA with the Icom IC-703 Plus: Working a serious SWR problem first, though! →

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

Mark’s first POTA activation with the Penntek TR-45L

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Many thanks to Mark (W8EWH) who shares the following field report:

An Afternoon POTA Activation with the PENNTEK TL-45L

by Mark (W8EWH)

I have a hard time resisting new QRP radios, and I have an equally hard time resisting getting outdoors when late October brings 70F (21C) temps to Michigan.  Days like these are especially sweet given we saw the first snow here last week (no accumulation – but still…). For me there was no better way to enjoy this unexpected weather gift than with an early afternoon POTA activation with my newest QRP radio, the PENNTEK TL-45L.

The TL-45L is the latest radio from WA3RNC, joining the TR-35 and TR-25 in his online store.  It’s a 5-band, 5-watt CW transceiver covering the 80, 40-, 30-, 20- and 17-meter bands.  That in and of itself is not particularly noteworthy.  But when you look at this radio, you’ll immediately see what makes it different.

The retro look for me is unlike anything I have seen in a modern QRP radio.  It frankly looks like it was removed from an Apollo Command Module.  From the front meter to every knob and switch, this radio just begs to be fiddled with.  And each knob and switch serve a function that means no longer needing to dig through menu after menu to find where the narrow filter is switched in because of nearby QRM, or so I can slow down when my CQ POTA is responded to by a slower CW call.

The speaker is located on the (left) side of the radio, a feature many smaller QRP radios don’t have, though headphones can be used via a front mounted jack.  The radio sounds great – I think the radio’s case provides a nice sound chamber.

The TR-45L comes with a couple of options, neither of which I chose to add to my order.  One is a built-in rechargeable battery (5200 mAh), and the other an antenna tuner.  I have plenty of batteries, and normally use resonant antennas.

With the Monday late morning temperature approaching 70 I packed the car with radio gear, and my wife, and we headed out to Island Lake State Recreation Area (POTA K-3315) to activate this park with the TR-45L for the first time.  My wife is not a ham but often comes with me to POTA activations.  While I set up, activate, and then pack up, she enjoys the outdoors with a magazine and crossword puzzle, and sometimes, like today, a light lunch.  Usually, once the activation is complete, we’ll go for a hike on park trails.

Island Lake is about a 20-minute drive from my house.  Its 4000 acres is a mix of open fields and hardwood forests surrounding Kent Lake and the Huron River.  Today it was warm enough that someone was using a paddle board on the lake.

I have found a set of picnic shelters on elevated ground overlooking Kent Lake as a great place from which to activate.  I worked North Pole Alaska from this location on 20M CW using my IC-705 with 10W into an EFHW last May.

Once at the shelter I set up my EFHW (KM4ACK kit) in a sloped configuration using a conveniently located mature tree and my throw line.  It was roughly in an East/West orientation. Over the preceding weekend, I added PowerPole connectors to the provided power cord, and programed both internal CW keyer memory slots.  These are activated using either dit or dah paddle when I toggle Play using the provided switch.   Of course, I did a little POTA hunting using the home antenna to familiarize myself with the TR-45L’s operation.  The learning curve is short with nothing hidden deep behind any menus.

With the radio and antenna ready to go, I set up HAMRS on my iPad, spotted myself on the POTA website, and started calling CQ POTA on 14.0615.  Over the course of the next 35 minutes, I worked a total of 30 stations on 20M and 40M (most on 20M) at which point I basically ran out of hunters.  Not bad for a weekday afternoon.  I packed up and went on a couple mile hike with my wife.

The TR-45L is an absolute joy to use.

I forgot to put it in CW Narrow mode at first, and when nearby QRM popped up, I was able to add this in with the throw if one switch. QRM gone.  (Note, this setting – wide vs. narrow filtering – must not be retained after the power is shut off or the battery is disconnected.)

It sounds wonderful.  I used the side speaker the whole time as my wife doesn’t seem to mind, although the random guy who wandered in with a laptop to get some work done on a warm fall day decided to find somewhere else to work.  There are front mounted jacks for headphones, paddles and a straight key.  Even a rear mounted jack for an external speaker.  The built-in speaker can be turned off and on via a toggle switch.  The two CW memory slots are easy to fill using your paddle.  The front meter can show power output or SWR based on toggle switch position, and you are alerted to high SWR via a front mounted red LED.

I waited a while to get this radio.  Recent supply chain issues caused unexpected delays, but it’s available for order now in factory-built form and most definitely worth the wait.  Kits will eventually be available.  Check out all the TR-45L details here.

Mark Yergin

W8EWH

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

POTA in the Dark: Problem solving as the sun sets and the clock is ticking on my UTC day

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Have you ever had an activation that didn’t quite go to plan?

Yeah. Me too.

Truth is, it’s just the nature of field radio that things sometimes break, behave erratically, and/or some key component goes missing. When you’re lugging your gear around in a pack and deploying it outdoors in a wide variety of settings it’s a much less “controlled” environment than, say, in the shack.

When a problem arises, you have to work that problem in the field to get on the air and complete the activation.

If you watch my activation videos, you’ll note that I try to include everything in them–including mistakes and mishaps.

Mishaps that lead to a failed activation happen less frequently than they did when I first got started in the world of field radio. Over the years, I’ve refined my field kit and made sure I’ve got the right spare components and tools to solve minor issues I might encounter.

That said, I felt like my activation attempt of Lake James State Park on Wednesday, October 5, 2022 was a total comedy of errors. It seemed like an extra layer of complication presented itself each step along the way as I tried to activate that park.

Lake James State Park (K-2739)

The plan was to leave my home around 17:15 local, arrive at the park around 18:00, set up my Icom IC-703 Plus, pair it with a 40 meter end-fed half-wave, hop on the air and work stations until about 19:00 (23:00 UTC) at the latest, then pack up and continue driving another hour to my final destination.

Here’s how it actually played out…

I had all of my bags packed and ready to go at 17:15, but as I was ready to leave, I discovered a plumbing leak under our kitchen sink. It required immediate attention (obviously) so I grabbed my tools, pulled everything out from under the kitchen sink, found the leak, and sorted out the issue. Thankfully, I had some spare plumbing parts at the house. This only delayed my departure about 30 minutes.

I arrived at Lake James around 18:30 and had the entire park to myself.

My real goal at the park was to take the Icom IC-703 Plus out for a little fresh air. It had been ages since I put it on the air in the field. The last time I tried to use it in the field, the internal keyer was tripping up due to a little RF coming back to the radio from my end-fed half-wave. This is a known issue with the Icom IC-703–it’s more sensitive to RF than any other radio I own.

This time, I planned to eliminate the RF with the inline common mode choke built into my Chameleon 50′ cable.

I grabbed my throw line, MM0OPX EFHW and had the antenna deployed in record time.

You can’t tell from the photos because my iPhone does a great job with low-light, but the sun was setting quickly even as I set up the IC-703. I knew I’d be finishing the activation in the dark, but I had a headlamp handy so wasn’t concerned (again, never leave home without a headlamp!).

I turned on the ‘703 and the 40 meter band was chock-full of signals. A very good sign!

Then I switched the 703’s meter to the SWR setting and sent a couple of dits on an open frequency to confirm a low SWR.

The SWR was off the charts poor, pegging the SWR meter at 9:1 (or worse?).

What–?

Continue reading POTA in the Dark: Problem solving as the sun sets and the clock is ticking on my UTC day →

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

Rich activates the very POTA-friendly Santa Fe Prairie State Nature Preserve (K-7839)

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Many thanks to Rich (KQ9L) for sharing the following field report:

Activating K-7839 with lessons learned from my last portable POTA activation

by Rich (KQ9L)

Here in Chicago, we have been blessed with unseasonably warm weather these past two days. I decided to build on my last successful POTA activation and apply some of the lessons I learned from that activation while working this one.

Close to my home is Park K-7839, the Santa Fe Prairie State Nature Preserve (K-7839) in Cook County, IL.

The preserve was established in 1997 and is staffed and maintained solely by volunteers. The park’s mission is to preserve a section of land for people to observe and admire the natural Illinois Prairie Landscape before it was altered by man.


The park itself is a thin sliver of land west of Chicago and is boarded by the Des Plaines River to the south and the rail yard / industrial park on the other there sides. If you look carefully in the second picture below, you can see some Sante Fe trains in the distance.

The park is easy to reach by car and right off the main park road are several picnic tables which I’m sure a ham in a wheel chair can easily access.

There are a number of features of the park which facilitate a POTA activation.

For example, in the picnic area, a Boy Scout Eagle Scout project resulted in the building of a 22ft flagpole. The flags are long gone, but the sturdy pole has been made available to hams for the hoisting of antennas. There are pulleys and easy tie down points to erect and inverted vee antenna.

To the east most section of the park is a lookout deck and at the east and west of the deck are trees with pulleys and lines permanently mounted. I’ve been told by the staff that the distance between the trees is a perfect fit for a 20m dipole. Continue reading Rich activates the very POTA-friendly Santa Fe Prairie State Nature Preserve (K-7839) →

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

An evening POTA activation with the Penntek TR-45L, a pileup, and buddy Steve

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Last month, my buddy Steve (VA3FLF/KM4FLF) was in North Carolina visiting family and we hoped to meet up in person at some point.  Thing was, both of our schedules were pretty busy with various family activities and projects.

On Wednesday, September 21, 2022, we found an opening in the evening that coincided with a trip to do a little caregiving for my parents. We agreed to meet up at Lake Jame State Park (K-2739) which was on my way and also convenient to Steve.

Steve is also a fan of Parks On The Air, so why not fit in an activation? No better way to spend time with POTA family than at a POTA park, right? Right!

I arrived at the park around 18:30 local (22:30UTC) and set up MM0OPX’s 40 meter end-fed half-wave.

I only had one radio with me at the time: my prototype Penntek TR-45L.

At that point, the TR-45L had not yet been released and was in the very final stages of Beta testing. I was waiting on one more firmware update to bring the radio up to what would eventually be version 1.

Since I was still waiting on the final update that sorted out the CW message memory recording function (and boy did it–the final version is benchmark) I didn’t use message memories during this outing.

I offered Steve a hand at the TR-45L, but he claimed he wasn’t a heavy CW operator–he was interested in helping me with logging, though. How could I refuse that?

Continue reading An evening POTA activation with the Penntek TR-45L, a pileup, and buddy Steve →