When life gets busy (it is now) I don’t always have the time to produce a full field report. This is especially the case when I have, not one, but two field reports and two activation videos!
I arrived at my hotel in South Myrtle Beach around 17:30 local. I checked in (thank you, Hampton Inn for the room upgrade!), dropped off my bag in the room, then immediately made my way to what turned out to be my first of two parks.
As I purchased my park ticket at the entrance gate, the park employee told me that my ticket would also allow me into Huntington State Park (just 20 minutes down the road) until end of day.
At that point, I had no intention of hitting a second park…but of course I just couldn’t resist the temptation of that free entry!
I know that some South Carolina parks are picky about antenna deployments, etc. so I stuck with my low-impact, low-profile combo of the Elecraft KX2 and AX1. It doesn’t disturb the trees, the ground, nor any park visitors.
I parked at the pier and set up at a picnic area under the trees nearby. Early October is very much off-season on the coast, so the park was relatively quiet.
Many thanks to Philip (KA4KOE) who shares the following article about his portable field radio kit which will be featured on our Field Kit Gallery page. If you would like to share your field kit with the QRPer community, read this post. Philip writes:
FX-4CR Field Kit Load-Out
by Philip (KA4KOE)
I transitioned from a full power station, consisting of a 100W radio and 40 AH of batteries. These items fit into two (2) Apache 4800 boxes. Solar panels 400W and sundries (including a field computer – Pansonic CF-53 Toughbook) went into 4 duffle bags. The antenna pole is not included, either a 10 or 12M fiberglass telescoping type. After 29 activations, I decided to trim down the setup. Fully laden, the pack weights in at 26 lbs.
Inside the pack
FX-4CR SDR transceiver in a protective Velcro wrap.
I can set up my station in about ½ hour. Putting stuff back in the pack takes about 5 minutes longer; mainly getting the pack re-stuffed correctly. With the solar panel I can essentially run all day if I have good sun.
“No way!” I said to myself when I saw that Alcatraz Island is an official Parks-on-the-air (POTA) reference which has only been activated four times by two operators.
Alcatraz Island / POTA reference K-7888 & 2fer K-0647
It surprised me that such a historically relevant site hasn’t seen more ham radio activity in the past – or maybe it has, just not for POTA. I then got super excited as I was packing my bags for San Francisco.
I have missed this foggy beauty so much and it has been many years since I visited the city. I won’t bore you with the ordeal of our travel but it included canceled flights, multiple delays and rescheduling via Berlin and London the next day due to a hostage situation at Hamburg airport. So our already super short trip of 4.5 days shrunk into a good 3 days in SF. So which things to cross off the schedule now? It was clear that this unfortunate situation was certainly not going to eat into my activation budget. Hell no!
I admit since watching “The Rock” (1996) Alcatraz has always been a place of mystery and fascination to me. Those who are interested in reading more about the former fort, military prison and federal penitentiary can do so here.
After I learned that it was also a CW ATNO I instantly said: “Done deal. The ink is dry. I will activate with morse code in the shadows of Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage and Ed Harris”. Of course I would do it plain vanilla style throwing good ol’ wires in trees and staking pointy things in the ground. Yeah right. Sometimes passion does tend to carry you away a wee bit so a little later I gathered myself and started doing some research.
K-7888 log so far
Apparently the first POTA pioneer on Alcatraz was KC1MIJ who managed to get 5 QSOs in with an FM HT in July 2021. I’d say that’s pretty awesome for a location almost as low as sea level. The first successful activation was done on December 3rd 2021 by Elizabeth “Liz” N6LY and her husband Kevin K6YD. Since then both of them had only been back one time in December 2022 for another day to achieve a whopping cumulative 761 phone QSOs in only two days of total operation. Wow! What an achievement. No other hams have tried to activate Alcatraz since.
The entire island is under management of the National Park Service (NPS)
I didn’t hesitate to write Liz an email and ask about her experience operating from the island as I knew it would probably require some preparation. The POTA website also stated that a permit from the National Park Service (NPS) is required. Luckily Liz replied swiftly with a lot of helpful information and I am very thankful for the email exchange. She specifically pointed out that it is in fact necessary to get a permit (even for simple HT activity) and that she had already applied in July for another day activity this coming December. They are still waiting to hear back from NPS’s office so it does seem quite hard to get approval for a “proper” activation. It is understandable that folks there want to have control over an organized operation where antennas, 100w radios, chairs etc. might need to be set up. With so many tourists visiting each day they also want to make sure that any activity doesn’t interfere with their core business especially on weekends.
Since I really didn’t want to spoil any of the hard preparatory work with NPS that Liz and Kevin had done for the ham radio community as well as respect local processes I wrote an email to the Alcatraz Rangers Office asking for a permit only a few days before my arrival. I knew it was a long shot and highly unlikely that they’d get back to me in time. So I called them every morning and afternoon the days after to follow up but was unsuccessful reaching them on any channel. By that point I had almost given up. However there were plenty of other options for activations so I had a blast in/on several SOTA/POTA references in SF which I will report on later.
Alcatraz Island Ferry @ Pier 33
On our last day I woke up and thought “Man, I can’t just leave the Bay Area and not activate Alcatraz.” Since one of my appointments got canceled short-term I didn’t think long, jumped on an Uber to Pier 33 and off I was (yeeeees, online tickets were still available). Continue reading DITs and DAHs from Alcatraz→
Many thanks to Pedro (PP2PB) who shares the following article about his portable field radio kit which will be featured on our Field Kit Gallery page. If you would like to share your field kit with the QRPer community, check out this post.
Some random length of fishing line (its my throwing line) and a heavy bolt
Notebook for logging
Some more generic paracord
Homemade pi match manual antenna tuner made with a couple of AM/FM radio variable capacitors and a little coil with a tap. Handles 100W SSB with ease.
I have a few generic fiberglass poles for antenna deployment that I fitted with a guying system made of paracord: simple, slim, lightweight and strong. And generic tent stakes. I only take them when needed.
This kit is my travel, POTA, SOTA kit. The main bag contains everything needed for operation, and the support bag has a few things to prolong the operating time (on multiple day trips) and for better antenna deployment.
I’m really into DIYing stuff and being from Brazil its hard and expensive to get stuff from USA, so DIY is the way to go.
The kit is about the size of a FT-857D (just the radio), and weighs less. And I have enough redundancy without getting too bulky or heavy.”
On September 30, 2023, my uncle Reggie passed away at the age of 83. I was incredibly fond of him. His funeral was to take place in Georgetown, South Carolina on Tuesday, October 3rd.
The funeral time was confirmed on Sunday evening (Oct 1), so I made all of my travel plans that night. I decided to leave early Monday morning and drive to Myrtle Beach where I’d reserved a hotel room for one night. I’d then attend the funeral the following day and drive back to my home in the mountains. Round trip, this would amount to about 12 hours of driving.
This, of course, was a pretty somber reason to take a road trip–although it would be nice to spend time with my SC family. I wanted to make the most of my travels and fit in a little “radio therapy” along the way. I glanced over the POTA map for a park that might make for a nice break from travels.
Before hitting the sack Sunday evening, I remembered that many months ago Keith (KY4KK) told me to give him a heads-up anytime I planned to pass by Florence, SC. I knew that Florence would be a simple detour on my journey, so I reached out to Keith and asked if he and his POTA buddies Tommy (N4GS) and Steve (W4JM) might, by some chance, be available for a quick POTA activation. Of course, this was very late notice.
Keith wrote back and recommended that I activate Lee State Park–he and Tommy were both available but, unfortunately, Steve had other plans.
Monday morning, I hit the road and arrived at Lee State Park in the early afternoon.
Lee State Park (K-2905)
I pulled into the park driveway and was greeted by a number of Halloween displays. Evidently, the park staff loves decorating for holidays.
At first glance, this looks like a POTA activator that never never got their ten logged.
I pulled into the visitor’s center parking lot and immediately met Keith and Tommy.
After a quick greeting, Keith said, “Thomas, our job here is to get you on the air as smoothly as possible so you can continue your trip.”
Keith, KY4KK (left) Tommy, N4GS (right)
Herein lies what I love about amateur radio and POTA specifically: even though Keith, Tommy, and I had only just met in person, they were instant friends.
I must say, Lee State Park is the perfect POTA park; there are loads of tall trees, covered picnic areas, open spaces, ample parking, and ham-friendly staff. It just doesn’t get better than this!
We walked to a large covered picnic area and Keith suggested that we deploy his 40 meter EFHW antenna.
I agreed without hesitation!
Unlike me, Keith is adept at using a slingshot to deploy his antennas.
As I started setting up the radio, Keith aimed his slingshot and snagged a really high branch on the first go. This 40M EFHW was being deployed as a vertical!
Many thanks to Jesse (VE6JTW) who shares the following article about his portable field radio kit which will be featured on our Field Kit Gallery page. If you would like to share your field kit with the QRPer community, read this post.
VE6JTW’s lightweight SOTA kit
Good Day Thomas & all readers of QRPer.com,
I was Licensed Late in 2020 and I have been actively doing Summits on the Air since early 2021 here in Alberta, Canada. I started out using a Xiegu G90 but realised very quickly that CW operations where much more efficient especially in VE6 land where our 4 point summits sometimes have 1000+ meters of gain (3280 feet), your knees get tired fast on those big descents with a pack that can easily start weighing in the 30lb range.
So I started teaching myself CW a few months into activating and also started looking into the QRP world. How awesome is it to make worldwide contacts with 5 watts and a wire from a mountain top, am I right?
VE6VID EFHW
I started activating CW that fall and I have gone through a couple of different radio setups. My first QRP rig was a QRP Labs QCX-mini for 20m which I did not use for long. Then my wife bought me a Venus SW-3B for Christmas and that little rig is excellent in my books; it is very basic but effective. I used that for quite a long time with a trapped EFHW Malen (VE6VID) made for me. It covers 40, 30 and 20m, along with the very last N0SA SOTA paddle ever made by Larry.
Venus SW-3B in a custom enclosure
Fast Forward to 2023 and My SOTA kit contains the LNR Precision MTR-4B. This radio is amazing as the receiver is strong and I can pull callsigns out from the noise very well. My antenna is still the trapped EFHW, and I now use the Bamakey TP-III paddle. For audio I have a set of JBL headphones for when it is super windy out and I also use an Amazon speaker as seen in the photo. Everything that fits in the bag weighs just 2 pounds and 4 ounces. The bag that holds all the gear is from Colonel Mustard.ca.
The whole kit in use on a summit
My mast is a fiberglass telescoping fishing pole from Amazon with a fishing eyelet at the peak to run the wire through. I lashed some line to the base of the mast with three loops then epoxied them to the fiberglas so they won’t move when guying the mast.
I carry two 1100 MAH 3s 11.1v LIPO batteries and get about 2 really good 30 min activations per battery, they are both from Amazon.
Since the beginning of November, I’ve been pushing my Elecraft KH1 activations to the front of the line so that readers and subscribers who are considering this wee handheld radio might get a chance to see and hear it in action.
So far, I’ve used the KH1 for what it was designed to do: pedestrian mobile/handheld using the built-in whip antenna. I’ve activated a park, a summit, and even did a little parking lot POTA hunting.
I’ve decided that November is KH1 month–this is the only radio I’ll use this month.
I will start blending in some of my field reports from October (there were some really fun ones in there) that feature my other field radios and a variety of antennas starting next week. I’ll still be pushing some of my KH1 field reports to the front during that time as well. Also, I’ll likely post more bonus videos over on Patreon.
Where to activate?
On Monday, November 6, 2023, I had several hours in the afternoon to take the KH1 on another mini radio adventure. I wasn’t sure where I’d perform an activation, though.
This time, I didn’t want to do a pedestrian mobile activation. I wanted to see how the KH1 might play on my kneeboard and how it might pair with my 28.5′ speaker wire antenna. I was curious if its internal ATU would find acceptable matches on all bands.
I packed the KH1, throw line bag, Tufteln Kneeboard, Helinox chair, 2L water bag, camera gear, and speaker wire antenna in my GoRuck pack (FYI: all links and full inventory are below).
This was more gear than I’d need, but all of these items were in my radio box in the trunk/boot of my car.
I had only one errand to run that afternoon: I needed to drop off some of my wife’s illustrated Christmas cards at my friend Hamilton William’s Gallery in downtown Morganton.
After catching up with Hamilton, I had to make a decision about where to go for an activation. I knew this: it was an incredibly beautiful day, so whatever I did, it needed to include a hike!
I considered a few parks but the most convenient spot for a proper hike was Bakers Mountain. It also required the least amount of driving since it was essentially on the way back to Hickory.
Bakers Mountain (W4C/WP-007)
It being an early Monday afternoon, there weren’t many other hikers at Bakers Mountain. In fact, I never ran into any other hikers on the main loop trail.
Bakers Mountain park is (sadly) not a POTA entity. It’s a county park, so does not currently qualify. There was talk once of Bakers Mountain being turned into a state park, but it falls just shy of the amount of acreage needed to qualify.
Bakers Mountain is a one point SOTA summit, but the hike (if you do the full loop trail) is actually pretty strenuous if you take it at a nice clip. I’d consider it a moderate hike overall.
I’ve already activated Bakers Mountain this year, so this activation’s point will not add to my goal of reaching Mountain Goat (1,000 points). That’s okay, though. Unless my family life changes in a way that frees up a lot more time, Mountain Goat is a good 5-6 years in the future at my pace! I’m perfectly fine with that.
Many thanks to David (W8GM) for sharing the following guest post:
My CW QRP Journey Begins
by David (W8GM)
It is not really a beginning but for some reason it feels like it.
This a summary of my second ever CW QRP POTA activation which includes a summary of my radio path to this point and a unique encounter that shows how amateur radio operators can be so separated by distance but still somehow manage to build and maintain a sense of community.
Life can sometimes be so strange. I had an interest in amateur radio some 30 years ago but what stopped me? Morse Code.
No way would I learn a dead language so I could talk on a radio! Fast forward to the fall of 2021 when I discovered there was no longer a code requirement to become licensed.
It happened fast. I took the tests, explored the bands from 70cm to 80m and simply felt my way around amateur radio. I discovered POTA and I activated my first park on January 2nd, 2022. I have enjoyed camping, hiking and the outdoors my entire life and I realized that POTA had the potential to bring the outdoors and amateur radio together. However, I was simply a weekend POTA warrior. Most of my activations were from a car or sitting at a picnic table while I was camping.
During this time, I discovered websites such as QRPer.com and The Long Island CW Club and I watched oodles of videos of people combining hiking or remote camping with small radios and practicing amateur radio. I was jealous. However, I knew I only needed to put the pieces of the puzzle together and I could be like those YouTubers I was jealous of.
So really, this is where the journey began. I joined LICW completely ignorant of what a wealth of CW information and education this club offers. I soaked up a lot of that education and continued to follow the QRPers of the world.
Unfortunately, in June of 2022, I took off a full year from amateur radio. But in July of 2023 I was able to return, and I resumed my QRP goals. Once again LICW was there to support me and what follows is the story of my second ever CW QRP POTA activation.
Activation time
I pulled into my parking spot thinking “Wow, I’ve been coming here for over 15 years.” That thought quickly disappeared when I looked at my dash and saw it was 26 degrees Fahrenheit. Southwest Michigan’s first cold week of fall. I grabbed my pack and started heading to my secret spot.
My plan was to set up and then explore the woods most of the morning. Hiking around would keep me warm through the cold morning and I’d try to play radio in the afternoon after it had warmed up a bit. I arrived at my spot and, once again, I found it undisturbed. My leftover firewood was still sitting there in a neat pile. Over the last 15 years I have come here countless times, for as short as an hour and as long as 3 days and never once has anyone disturbed my little 20-foot patch of earth.
I set up my coffee kit, chair, antenna, and radio kit. I used a Packtenna 40m EFHW for an antenna and hung it in a sloper configuration. I did it just like all those QRPing YouTubers do it. I tossed a weighted throw line in the air and had the high end up about 40 feet. The radio was an Icom IC-705 and I put an Elecraft T1 ATU tuner in line for some extra insurance. I plugged in my cwmorse.us paddle and battery pack and I was good to go. But first I headed off to do some exploring before I returned and powered up the radio.
After getting back from exploring, I was ready for some coffee and that was made next. I powered up the radio and thought I’d try starting out on 10 meters. I had learned that a huge advantage of CW is you can be auto spotted on the POTA page. Cell reception at my spot is hit and miss. Some days it is there and others you have nothing but SOS on your phone.
No worries about spotting today. CW wins again.
I called CQ for quite some time and was starting to get nervous until a faint station broke through. And of course, it was the last thing a rookie CW operator needs. The call sign was wrong, or I was failing. Continue reading Guest Post: W8GM’s CW QRP Journey Begins→
Many thanks to Bob (K7ZB) who shares the following guest post:
QRP Operation with the QRP Labs QCX+ and ATU-100 on 20M CW
Bob Houf (K7ZB)
By now the QRP Labs QCX+ CW transceiver is well known, and many have been shipped by Hans.
The first unit I bought came fully assembled in the aluminum case but had a weird malfunction in the audio chain and after careful troubleshooting with Hans’ help a replacement unit was sent and worked well.
I have assembled plenty of electronics kits in 60 years of ham radio, building some from scratch and worked as an electronics design engineer for years so having someone else solder up a board now is a luxury I am happy to pay for – but if you like the smell of solder as smoke gets in your eyes and your hands don’t shake, by all means save some money and build one yourself.
I picked up a Malahit rendition of the N7DDC ATU – mine came from Amazon and is the 100W version that uses an external power supply.
My first setup was to see if I could power both the QCX+ and ATU-100 simultaneously from a portable 25800mAH charger bank with two USB ports. The addition of two USB-to-12VDC converter cables looked like an ideal way to minimize the size of the radio package for portable operation:
Unfortunately, although the power capability of the battery was far more than adequate, when transmitting CW for just a few seconds the battery BMS tripped the power unit offline.
So, my next move was to use my larger 12V, 6AH LiFePo4 battery to power both units which worked well.
The antenna used here is a longwire of 47’ running from the top of our second-floor balcony out to a tree. The wire is about 25’ above ground and runs between two of the 3-unit townhouse/loft condo building units. There seems to be little interaction noticed on the signal reports received due to the physical proximity. And, when not experimenting with QRP I routinely run 100W from my transceiver into the wire without a problem.
This time, however, I decided to use #26-gauge magnet wire instead of the far stealthier #28 wire I have run for the past year. A tree trimming gang went through earlier in the summer and took out my #28 monofilament tether line in the tree, so I decided to go with a larger diameter wire.
In both cases I sponge a thin layer of battleship gray paint on the line which helps conceal it when looking up in the sky.
One discovery from this version is that there is a BIG difference in visibility between #26 and #28 magnet wire as seen from the ground!
I took down the #26 and will revert to #28 – which is essentially invisible at 25’ above your head.
I run the wire directly into a Common Mode Choke which then drops down to another CMC designed for other bands so that with the two in series I have no shield currents and no circuit breaker tripping or RF in the shack issues on 40, 20, 15 and 10M, even running 100 Watts:
I have a very low noise level on receive and don’t use a Balun at the feedpoint of the antenna, but I do use an antenna tuner to match the impedance, either the built-in tuner of my Kenwood transceiver or the ATU-100 for the QRP rig.
The CMC’s were designed by a friend using the K9YC cookbook approach available online and are very effective.
QCX Operation
The band conditions over the past weekend were funky with high noise level and rapid fading at times.
Despite this, I made multiple contacts in the western USA with reasonable signal reports and only one station had to send “sri no cpi”.
On Sunday evening I stumbled into the K1USN Slow Speed Contest (SST) and enjoyed making contacts from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest and everywhere in between.
Band conditions were much quieter and there were signals nearly every kilohertz from about 14.030 up to around 14.050+.
The QCX+ uses a CW filter design set at 200Hz and with 10Hz frequency resolution it was easy to copy one signal from another, despite the lack of more sophisticated filtering capability.
Since you only are putting out a 4-Watt signal you search and pounce with care and in a casual contest like the SST it makes for a very enjoyable way to spend an hour on Sunday evening before the SNF game steals you away.
Or a World Series game.
The ATU-100 was delightful to use. Once it tuned to a decent match (1.33:1) on the wire, it was good for the entire span from the bottom of the band up to 14.060 where the POTA gang and other low power stations hang out.
In conclusion, this is a very excellent low power station, simple to use and I am looking forward to matching it with a clever 20M elevated vertical with elevated radials a fellow ham has designed:
The elevated vertical with coax connector and radials.
Once that is working, it is off to the Lost Dutchman State Park for some POTA fun…
Many thanks to Evan (K2EJT) who shares the following article about his portable field radio kit which will be featured on our Field Kit Gallery page. If you would like to share your field kit with the QRPer community, read this post.
K2EJT’s Venus SW-3B Field Kit
by Evan (K2EJT)
I’m big on small. When it comes to field radios, especially ones I’m going to have to carry any distance, I prefer them to be small and light. I don’t mind lugging a big heavy rig around if I’m going to be 20 feet from my truck, but if I’m hiking five miles into the woods, I want to measure my kit weight in grams, not pounds. That’s where this little kit comes in. Weighing in at only 733g, this kit fits the bill perfectly:
The stuff sack is from Dutchwear Gear. It’s crazy light, and the entire kit fits in the palm of your hand. Inside you’ll find everything you need to do a field activation.
The rig is a Venus SW-3B. I really like this radio, especially for what it costs. While it’s not as nice a radio as say my MTR-4B, you can get two of them for the price of one LNR radio, and get them in half the time! The one thing that you need to be careful with on this radio are the rotary encoder and the gain knobs. They protrude from the face of the radio, and I’m not sure how robust they are. Because I was concerned about how much abuse they’d handle, I 3D printed a set of side rails and a cover for the radio to protect them.
The key is a cwmorse.us N0SA paddle. I have two of these keys. One lives in this kit, and the other lives with my KX1. They’re really nice keys for their size and weight. There are downsides (like the sides being open), but aside from that I really enjoy sending on them.
As for an antenna, I’m running a Spark Plug Antennas 64:1 EFHW. The wire is cut for 40, 20, 15, and 10, and is made of 24ga silicone jacketed wire with a tiny plastic clip on the end to attach to the throw line. I really like this antenna. It’s a great combination of small size, low weight, and good durability. It works very well. In fact, I like it so much I own two.
The coax is 15’ of RG316 from Amazon. I don’t generally like to drag expensive coax into the woods. I’ve killed enough of it to know it’s not worth spending a fortune on something that’s likely to get destroyed.
The throw bag and line are the same setup I run with my KX1. It consists of a ripstop nylon bag with a paracord loop sewn in at the open end, and velcro across the top to close it. Fill the bag with rocks, close the velcro, and you’re ready to go. The line is 65’ of high viz, reflective 1.8mm cord. The throw bag doubles as a stuff sack for the cord when not in use.
The headphones are a set of old Skullcandy earbuds I’ve had forever. The kit also includes a Rite in the Rain pad and a pencil for logging, the power cable for the rig, and the radio instruction manual.
Powering the whole thing is a set of four AA size LiFePO4 batteries in a 4 cell holder. The four batteries combined are a little over 13V fully charged, and are about 2600mAh. They can power this little radio for a LONG time. I get multiple activations out of a single charge. I threw a set of Anderson Powerpoles on it to connect to the power cable on the radio.
This is the kit I carry when I want to go light. As always, I could go lighter, but then I’d have to make compromises I’m not willing to make. I’ve done plenty of activations with this kit, and it never lets me down. You can see a description of the kit here:
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