Category Archives: Guest Posts

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

Offline QRP Activation

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When you have activated the same park nearly 160 times, it starts to get a bit routine. Certainly, any day that you’re alive and able to participate in ham radio is a day to be thankful for, but I have to admit that lately I’ve gotten rather bored with activating from the Presidio of San Francisco US-7889.

the Golden Gate Bridge in a clear morning.
Not a bad view from the activation location.

What could I do to spice things up a little bit? Recently, the W6CSN shack welcomed a new member into the QRP radio lineup, the venerable Heathkit HW-8. This got me to thinking about the days when the HW-8 was new, QRP was a niche part of the hobby, and the Internet was something that connected mainframes at universities.

Heathkit HW-8 Front Panel

That’s an idea! Try to activate a park for POTA without using the internet tools on which we’ve come to rely. The rules are: no self spotting on the POTA website and no looking at the POTA spots page to find stations to hunt. If you want to hunt, you’re going to have tune around and listen for stations calling CQ.

close up photo of antenna mounted to a steel post
The stainless steel vertical mounts to a fence post which provides a good counterpoise.

The HW-8 would not debut on this activation as it’s waiting on a power cord and we haven’t really gotten to know each other yet. Instead, the trusty KH1 would be the radio choice today, coupled to a quarter wave vertical on 20 meters and sending via the Bencher BY-1.

KH1 transceiver and Bencher paddles on a park bench
It is only fitting to use the BY-1 on a park bench.

I set up camp on 14.059 MHz and began calling CQ POTA with no prescheduled activation, no spot on pota.app, not even looking at my phone to see what the propagation numbers were saying. In fact, I only used my phone as a camera to take pictures for this field report.

Within a few minutes I got my first call, from Ken VE7HI. The next 40 minutes were spent calling CQ and hunting other stations until I had six contacts in the log. Then came the long, desolate hour of calling with no responses and being unable to break through any of the “pileups” around other activators. The drought ended with a P2P with NR1D/0 at Barr Lake State Park in Colorado and 15 minutes later the activation was complete with K6BBQ coming through for QSO number 11.

map showing location of contacted stations
Map of “offline” POTA activation QSOs.

While the internet certainly makes it so much easier, this activation proves that the QRPer can be successful in POTA with just a 5 watt radio and a half decent antenna. If you are looking to spice up your POTA routine, why not give an “offline” activation a try?

72 de W6CSN

Guest Posts, POTA, Travel

Cool Radio in the Hot Tropics – St. Kitts & Nevis October 2024

2 Comments

Many thanks to Bob K4RLC who shares this report on mixing vacation with ham radio with us.  If you have an article in your head and want to have it posted here, let’s keep this community going while our friend Thomas continues to help his neighbours in the wake of Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina. Draft up your story in an email with reference points to the pictures you want embedded and their captions, attach photos to the note and send it my way to vincedeon at gmail dot com and note QRPer in the subject line to get my attention.

By Bob Conder K4RLC and V4/K4RLC

Our interest in a trip to Saint Kitts began pre COVID, after my buddy Dale W4AUV and I saw an ad in the back of QST magazine by W5JON, John, for his rental villa with a complete ham radio station on this Caribbean island. What could be wrong with this scenario? Being on a beautiful Caribbean island with a complete ham radio station?

Fast forward almost five years later, when Dale and I, along with our spouses, leave Raleigh for St. Kitts.  The timing was really bad for me, as at the same time Western North Carolina was devastated from Hurricane Helene. In the past, I worked with the American Red Cross Disaster Services after hurricanes and tornadoes in my home state, as well as being deployed to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and Louisiana immediately after Hurricane Katrina. We have friends and family who live in upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina Including my best friend from high school and his family. All we could do was reach out to them with support, and donate money through reputable organizations such as Samaritan’s Purse Disaster Relief and the American Red Cross.

St. Kitts only has three POTA sites and no SOTA sites.  I had hoped to activate at least two of the POTA sites. CW is my preferred modality. These POTA sites had only been activated by phone and dubious digital.

Saint Kitts is an unquestionably beautiful tropical island, but it is still a third world nation. The driving is British style, further complicated by having only three stoplights on the island and roundabouts every few miles. We rented a Honda CRV from Bullseye Rentals, recommended by John W5JON, the owner of the villa. Given the ancient small roads where everybody drives like your drunken old aunt with dementia, this was a good vehicle choice. Since my first and primary activation was to be  Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park, a UNESCO site built starting in 1690 with guarded entryways made to fit horse drawn wagons in the 1700’s, we were relieved to have passed up the large Ford Explorer rental in favor of our little Honda SUV that barely made the entryway.

Brimstone Hill Fortress
“Stairway to Heaven” at Brimstone Fortress

Brimstone Hill Fortress, also known as the Gibraltar of the Caribbean, is an expansive stone fort originally built by the British in 1690 with African slaves. It has been through many modifications over the years, and different owners, but is essentially British. In fact, its construction reminded me of Edinburgh Castle in Scotland.  (I was later told that Brimstone was designed and built by the Royal Engineers from the UK). Now, it is a National Park, a POTA site (KN-0003), and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Continue reading Cool Radio in the Hot Tropics – St. Kitts & Nevis October 2024 →

Antennas, Articles, Field Reports, Guest Posts, POTA

64-Contacts Spanning 6-Bands, 8-Countries, 3-Continents Using A 17m Coaxial-Sleeve Vertical Dipole

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Gee, the title almost tells the whole story.  But not really.  The title is where I ended up; how I got there, is the story.

Here’s the story.

Today, I hope to activate Fintry Protected Area CA-3505 in southern British Columbia.

One of my objectives since I started POTA last year is to try to activate as many parks as I can in the Okanagan region of BC that have not yet been activated by anyone.  Nothing like a good challenge.  I expect that most of them haven’t been activated because they are quite remote and difficult to access unless one has a true off-road all-terrain vehicle.  Even at that, sometimes it still requires backpacking-in, to boot (no pun intended).  This is in part because many of the Protected Areas and Ecological Reserves are not always directly accessible by vehicle.  The roads often do not enter the park boundaries at all.  They get you close, and then you need to hoof-it in to be POTA legit inside the park boundaries.

Fintry Protected Area has never been activated before, by anyone. I’m wondering why?  Compared to many of my past activations, it isn’t nearly as difficult to access as some others I’ve been to.

The location in Fintry CA-3505 that I will be activating today is located about a 1-hour drive north of Kelowna, BC (where I live) via West Kelowna.  The last section of travel is via rough gravel roads.

Continue reading 64-Contacts Spanning 6-Bands, 8-Countries, 3-Continents Using A 17m Coaxial-Sleeve Vertical Dipole →

Guest Posts, Mobile, Morse Code, POTA, QRP, Travel

Five Park POTA Rove by Bicycle

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Many thanks to Rod VA3MZD who shares this five park POTA bicycle rove report with us.  If you have an article in your head and want to have it posted here, let’s keep this community going while our friend Thomas continues to help his neighbours in the wake of Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina. Draft up your story in an email with reference points to the pictures you want embedded and their captions, attach photos to the note and send it my way to vincedeon at gmail dot com and note QRPer in the subject line to get my attention.

By Rod Murray VA3MZD

Last year I reported, in a guest post here on QRPer, on the five POTA parks near my QTH that are linked by the Elora-Cataract Trailway, a rail trail that runs east from the quaint tourist village of Elora, Ontario, through the town of Fergus, where I live, through Belwood Lake Conservation Area and continues for approximately 45 km to the village of Cataract, on the Niagara Escarpment, well to the east. The trail passes through or near four POTA parks in my immediate vicinity, made easily accessible by foot, bicycle or vehicle, as one chooses. The Trailway is also part of the Great Trail of Canada CA-5082. In one of these nearby parks, Belwood Lake, it’s a 2-fer, making 5 parks in total.

POTA Map showing the location of the four nearby POTA parks near my QTH
The All Trails Map of the Elora-Cataract Trail/Great Trail of Canada from Elora to Belwood Lake

In my original report I had also set a goal of one day activating the one nearby park I had yet to visit, and also to activate all five local parks in one day. With the summer quickly coming to a close here in South Western Ontario, and the fact that the one park I had yet to visit would close for the season in just a few days, it was time to attack my two goals with a rove! So I made plans to rise early, hope for cooperative weather and complete my 5 park cycle trip. Could I do it?

Continue reading Five Park POTA Rove by Bicycle →

Articles, Field Reports, Guest Posts, Portable Power, POTA, Solar

Pushing My 2016 Subaru Forester to its Off-Road Limits to Activate Buse Hill in CA-3287

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It’s another beautiful cloudless day in southern British Columbia (16 Sept, 2024).  My goal for today is to activate Buse Hill Lookout, located in Buse Lake Protected Area CA-3287, before the weather turns too cold and wet to venture into the area.

Buse Hill is about a 2.5-hour drive NW from Kelowna, BC where I live.  The last ¾ hour of the drive is on gravel range roads.  My wife Alexis (VE7LXE) is accompanying me on this trip, as always.

While planning for the activation, I closely studied Google Maps Satellite view, as well as Garmin GPS Birds Eye views of the activation area.  This helps me evaluate the terrain and access routes.  I also study the Gov’t of BC Mineral Titles online maps which give both satellite views and topographic views (before POTA, gold panning was my summer hobby and the BC Mineral Titles online maps were essential for knowing where to legally pan).

Access to Buse Hill Lookout, CA-3287. Ecological Reserve south-end access route. Tip: Click on images to enlarge view.

From these maps I can see that the last 1.5 Km is an undefined off-road access route.  From the satellite views, it’s very difficult to assess the viability of a route that my Forester can handle.  So, I knew there was a 50-50 chance I may be able to drive all the way up that last 1.5 Km.  With this in mind, we came prepared for two eventualities:  4-wheel it up, or backpack it up if necessary.

That means having two prepared POTA back packs; one with the KX3 for near car activations, and my KX2 backpack for hiking situations.

Continue reading Pushing My 2016 Subaru Forester to its Off-Road Limits to Activate Buse Hill in CA-3287 →

Articles, Field Radio Kits, Guest Posts, Kits, Morse Code, POTA, QRP, SOTA

The Design Philosophy of the CFT1: From concept to product

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Many thanks to Jonathan KM4CFT who shares this article with us.  If you have an article in your head and want to have it posted here, let’s keep this community going while our friend Thomas continues to help his neighbours. Draft up your story in an email with reference points to the pictures you want embedded and their captions, attach photos to the note and send it my way to vincedeon at gmail dot com and note QRPer in the subject line to get my attention.

By: Jonathan Kayne, KM4CFT

About 10 months ago, I took the plunge to design my own Morse Code transceiver. It was a crazy idea, and this was certainly a massive undertaking, but somehow, I managed to pull off this monumental task. The result of the project was the CFT1, a 5 Band CW Field Transceiver specifically tailored for POTA and SOTA operations. Doing this project was a great learning experience and despite the monumental effort and work I put into it, I really enjoyed getting to design a new product. There is something special when you see something you love and put effort into appear in the hands of others and seeing them enjoy using said product.

The purpose of this article is to outline some of the thoughts I put into when I designed the CFT1. It is not meant to go into the meat and potatoes of RF design work as there are plenty of resources out there that go over that stuff. I have yet to see much discussed on design philosophy of a transceiver so I thought it prudent to document these things. That is; what I took into consideration when putting together the radio. And as I learned in this project, when pulled off correctly, can result in a great product.

Continue reading The Design Philosophy of the CFT1: From concept to product →

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

Breaking the Speed Barrier at 1.8 Contacts Per Hour via CA-3459

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Editor note – Please enjoy this guest post from Jeff Bourgeois VE7EFF.

Sometimes the elements just aren’t in my favor.  I knew activating Echo Lake Provincial Park CA-3459 would be a propagation challenge.  This POTA Park has never been fully activated before.  Last year one operator attempted it and was only able to log four contacts. Today, I not only had mountains to contend with, but apparently significant solar storms in action as well.

What initially made this activation so challenging is that Echo Lake is located on a valley floor and that it is surrounded by mountains on almost all sides.  I picked this particular spot to operate because it is the only location in the park that has a small window of opening to the South or South-South-East.  I was hoping I could hit enough stations in the USA to make a successful activation of 10 contacts.

Echo Lakes is about a 2-hour drive NE from my home in Kelowna, BC, and about 45 minutes ESE of Lumby, BC.  The last half-hour or so is on gravel roads. Now that we have arrived, my wife Alexis, VE7LXE, helps with unloading the gear,

This photo shows my narrow window of opportunity for southerly HF propagation.  Mountains on the left, mountains on the right, and mountains behind me.

As you can see below, the eastern direction is mostly blocked by a mountain and SE is the direction where I typically have the best success of traversing the USA.  I generally can’t rely on NVIS propagation; there just aren’t enough Canadian POTA chasers within NVIS range for me to make a successful activation.

Today,  I’m using my recently acquired Chameleon CHA Porta-Mount to support the 34’ (really only ~ 32’) carbon fiber telescopic mast.

Once again, I’m also testing my homebrew coaxial sleeve dipole, now cut for the 17m band.  I constructed it with RG-8X coax and terminated with a Fair Rite #31, 2.5” core as the RF block choke. My KX3 antenna tuner will take care of any SWR issues on all bands that I operate on.

Because I’m using a carbon fiber telescopic mast, I’ve previously noted that the mast has “significant” detuning effect on the antenna.  Thus, I operate it as a slanted coaxial sleeve dipole. This moves the antenna away from much of the mast influence.  The slant should also help with raising the propagation angle to hopefully clear the mountain tops (but not enough to make it NVIS).

The weather report was supposed to be mostly sunny.  However, it turned out to be just the opposite and was cloudy, threatening to rain, and somewhat cold. It’s colder outside than I care for and the fact that it is threatening to rain, I decide to operate from inside my 2016 Subaru Forester.  I only operate from inside my car when it isn’t viable to operate outside. Besides, I don’t want to risk getting wet today.

Now that my KX3 is fired-up and connected to the Bioenno 4.5 Ah battery and the antenna, I’m all set to see if anyone can hear me.  I should mention that I’m operating at 10W today so I guess that disqualifies me as a QRP operator. 😊

Here is the play-by-play report:

I started calling CQ on 20m at 16:55 UTC (09:55 PDT). My first contact came 15 minutes later with KN7D in Utah.  It took another 15 minutes to snag my next contact with WM2V in Arizona.

There’s not much happening for me on 20m, so I switch up to 17m.  At 17:40 UTC I log N5RLH in NM.  That’s it for 17m. Moving up to 15m, I snag a contact in NC with N4EX at 17:52. That was my only 15m contact of the day.

I went on to try 12m, 10m, and even 30m.  Absolutely nothing over the next hour of calling CQ on those 3-bands. Back down to 20m.  One contact with KE4KE in Minnesota. It took an hour and 15 minutes more to land just one more contact on 17m with KB6FPW/P in California at 21:00.

I’m definitely not breaking any speed records today. A tortoise could probably log more contacts than this.

Another hour passes until I land a contact with K0SX in Colorado on 20m.  Suddenly, 20m picks-up steam and I land 4 more contacts on 20m – two in California and two in Colorado between 22:00 and 22:47. I’m almost at the end of the POTA UTC day for this park, but I’m determined to try to pick up more contacts before 00:00 UTC.

Last crack at 17m band.  At 23:13 I land KJ7BS in Arizona. As my final contact of the UTC day, I snag KD7DUG in California at 23:15. I keep calling CQ for the next 45 minutes with no more results.  It is now 00:00 UTC and the POTA day is over.

But something drives me on to keep calling CQ. I keep thinking propagation will get better.

At 00:05 I log my last contact of the day on 20m – a P2P QSO with AF0E in Colorado.  I realize that this contact will have to go into the next day’s POTA log, but a contact is a contact. At the end of the day, I logged 13 valid POTA contacts, plus 1 into the next UTC day.


Tip:  Click on the map for a larger image view.

The Contacts Map above does seem to confirm that my narrow corridor of propagation was primarily due-south or SSE – squeezing through the mountains opening.  Some magic of propagation handed me North Carolina and Minnesota.

This is by far the hardest I’ve ever had to work to get sufficient contacts to activate a new park.  I was determined to get this park activated, though.  It took 7 hours of calling CQ to log 13 contacts. That’s a record 1.8 contacts/hour!

I don’t think the antenna is the real culprit for today’s weak results, especially considering that 6-days earlier I logged 68 contacts including 8 DX stations in Europe via Inonoaklin Provincial Park CA-3626 using this same antenna configuration. I wont get any awards for logging the most contacts per hour – but perhaps I qualify for an award for the least number of contacts per hour!  They could call it the Snail Award.  😊

Between being surrounded by mountains and muffled by solar storms, it was a challenging day. Time to pack-up and make the 2-hour drive back home before it gets dark.

Equipment list:
Elecraft KX3 with internal antenna tuner
Elecraft KXPD2 paddle
Bioenno 4Ah battery
Gigaparts 32ft carbon fiber telescopic mast
Home brew ½ λ 17m experimental coaxial sleeve vertical dipole made with RG-8X and Fair Rite #31 2.5” core.

73 de Jeff, VE7EFF

FT4, FT8, Guest Posts, News, POTA

Conrad has a sunny and beautiful activation at Silver Sands State Park

2 Comments

Editor note – Please enjoy this guest post from Conrad Troutmann N2YCH.

Thank you “deputy” Vince, VE6LK, for assisting in managing some guest contributor posts for QRPer.com. I’m so happy to hear Thomas and his family rode the storm out safely and send him my best wishes and hope things return to normal soon. Here’s my contribution to help keep QRPer.com going while Thomas gets his house back in order. 73, Conrad, N2YCH

 

September 22, 2024

Lately, the high frequency bands (15/12/10 meters) have been hit or miss, largely due to recent space weather events. Today, taking a look at WSPR beacon reception at my QTH on the Top Spotters web site, I noticed that 10 meters was open and I was spotting quite a few stations on the band.

Top Spotters Ranker – https://wspr.rocks/topspotters/

The weather here was sunny and beautiful and my batteries were all charged up, so it seemed like all signs were pointing to a POTA activation at Silver Sands State Park, US-1716. I usually activate on 20 meters, however with 10 open, I thought I’d try for some DX and give hunters that don’t normally hear me on 20 a chance to get the park. When I was trying for my Worked All States POTA award, I appreciated it when the Hawaii and Alaska activators activated on the higher bands so I had a chance to get them all the way from the East Coast. I like to return the favor when I can.

I decided to give my Elecraft KX2 a workout as well. Paired with my Buddipole vertical up 10’, I figured I would do well.

Buddipole Vertical with Elevated Counterpoise using Electric Fence Post
KX3, Samsung Computer and Bioenno Battery with a view looking towards Long Island Sound at Silver Sands State Park in Connecticut

I got set up, checked and adjusted my computer time using JTSync and started calling CQ POTA on FT8. I called and called and no one answered. I checked PSKReporter and I was being spotted, but still, no answers. I was receiving well, in fact, I was picking up stations as far away as South Africa. “Hello, is this thing working? Can you hear me now?”

Just to be sure my equipment was working, I shifted to “hunt and pounce” mode. Rather than call CQ, I started answering stations who were calling CQ. It’s not my preferred way to get the QSO’s needed to officially activate the park, but sometimes that’s what you need to do. I have JTAlert set to sort received stations from strongest received signals to weakest. I’ve found based on prior experience that my chances of completing a QSO are much higher with stations that I’m receiving with strong signals. So, I answered a CQ for a station in Texas coming in at +19 and he answered right away. One in the log.

I did this for the next 30 minutes or so and managed to get six stations, about half I called and the other half answered my CQ. I moved around the waterfall looking for openings, but it was busy and challenging. Just for grins, I decided to see if FT4 was active. Sure enough, I was receiving many stations there as well. I called CQ and immediately had stations answering. I did the rest of the activation on FT4 and had a steady stream of callers. I completed the activation with 17 total QSO’s, my map is below.  I make these maps using the Adventure Radio log analyzer. You can import the same log you upload to the POTA page and put the grid square in and it generates the map.

Activation QSO Map made with the Adventure Radio Log analyzer

Interestingly, all of the USA contacts were on FT8 and when I moved to FT4, I picked up all of the EU ones. I was happy to see after I uploaded my log to the POTA site that almost all of the hunters who got me were active POTA hunters and had accounts at the POTA web site. In fact, one was actually a park-to-park QSO. PA4PA was at the Sluiswaai Nature Reserve, NL-0219 in the Netherlands.

Equipment I used for this activation included:

 

Mission accomplished!

73 de N2YCH

Antennas, Field Reports, Guest Posts, POTA

Uncharted Trek into Trout Creek Ecological Reserve, CA-4221

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My goal for this summer is to do more backpacked day-trip POTA activations while I’m still physically able to. This is my 4th backpacked-in activation this past week or so. And a thank you to Thomas K4SWL for letting me share my adventures from the Canadian out-back.

Today’s goal is to activate Trout Creek Ecological Reserve, CA-4221 which is about one-hour drive south of Kelowna, BC, Canada, which is where my wife Alexis (VE7LXE) and I (VE7EFF) have lived for the past 12 years. Alexis accompanies me on all my POTA activations.

It is a beautiful late August day. The temperature is expected to be about 31℃, or 88℉.  The one-hour drive is just the beginning of the day’s adventure. We were able to conveniently park at the Summerland Golf and Country Club, but this is where all conveniences end for us.

Trout Creek Ecological Reserve has never been activated before – I’ll be the first. It’s no surprise this reserve hasn’t been activated before. It’s all wilderness with no trails to follow. I have to rely on my Garmin 66sr GPS and Pixel8 smart phone with Google Maps with Satellite View to help me navigate to and through the reserve in search for an optimal operating location.

I expected the trek to only be about 1 Km in with about 600 ft elevation gain. It’s all uphill, all the way. From the golf course parking lot, the hike starts out relatively easy. At first, there appears to be some semblance of a trail.

Continue reading Uncharted Trek into Trout Creek Ecological Reserve, CA-4221 →

Field Reports, Guest Posts, Portable, QRP

VA2NW at Chillycon

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Many thanks to Tom (VA2NW) for this report on Chillycon, aka Chilicon – Vince.

Canada’s capital, Ottawa, is the home of the Ottawa Valley QRP Society. The group holds an annual weekend camp-out at the Rideau River Provincial Park (POTA CA-0365) in early fall and it’s affectionately called Chillycon (also known as Chillicon). This year’s camp-out ran from September 20th through 22nd with some folks arriving a few days earlier. It’s a low key gathering which largely consists of casual operating, socializing, sharing tips and tricks, and checking out everyone’s portable radio gear.

On Friday morning I packed up my van with radio gear, camping equipment, and enough batteries to get me through a weekend of operating and cell phone recharging. Rather than tent camping, I decided to set up a sleeping pad in my minivan. The trip from Gatineau Quebec took a little under an hour, and I arrived just after 2:00pm local time.

Entrance to Rideau Provincial Park in Kemptville Ontario Canada

I brought my new toy with me, the Venus SW-6B (metal case + internal battery configuration). In just a few minutes I was on the air with the radio, an AlexLoop Hampack antenna, American Morse Equipment Mini-B paddle, and Apple EarPod wired headphones. I made several POTA contacts before it was time to start my shift as the Straight Key Century Club’s Canadian Straight Key Month special event station VC3Y/VE3. Conditions weren’t great and there wasn’t a lot of SKCC activity in the middle of a work day, so I only made one SKCC contact that day. After SKCC hour, I joined in on the weekly K1USN Slow Speed Test (SST). I contacted a few regulars, and then I returned to POTA and made another dozen or so contacts to bring the total up to 17 QSOs.

Reading ‘The CW Way of Life’ by Chris Rutkowski by the (citronella) candlelight

Continue reading VA2NW at Chillycon →