As always there are lots of links within the article. Click one! Click them all! Learn all the things! ? Also, it’s with thanks to the management at QRPer.com who give me this outlet for creative writing.
While on business travel in Northern Alberta recently, I found myself with a slow workday and a few hours owed from lunches not taken that week. A quick plan was hatched and out the door I went after ensuring that all at work was going to be fine without me for 2-3 hours. But before I get to that story…
While travelling to and from this site, I’ve made it a mission to activate as many ATNO [All-Time-New-Ones, ie. never-activated parks] as possible within POTA. I plan these 500km trips with some small side journeys to these parks or natural areas and to break up the otherwise long drive along the foothills of the Canadian Rockies up and down the Highway 22 (aka. Cowboy Trail) corridor. It’s truly a lovely drive and I don’t mind it in the least.
Now back to my late-day lunch break adventure…
With the nearest park to me (VE-3162, Whitecourt Mountain) already activated but only on phone, I figured I’d activate it on CW and do more QSOs than the other activator just for good measure. I can’t believe that a park this close to a townsite had only one activation before I got there to activate it.
If that isn’t enough, it’s also a SOTA entity [VE6/ST-102] with a broad and not-steep slope making the activation zone quite wide. On top of that I can do this two-fer as a drive-up! This worked in my favour as I parked my truck within the activation zone! This SOTA entity had been done a couple of times already so I knew that electrical noise would be my nemesis.
For those of you that may have disremembered, I’m in shape -round- and that shape doesn’t easily climb summits, so a drive-up is totally my kind of summit. But I had to get a move on as there were only two hours left on the Zulu timeclock. At my hotel room I had more gear, but being nervous nelly that I am at times, I do not leave my KX3 in the room unless there’s a safe. Given that the KX3 gets lonely without companions, I ensure that it always has a battery, antenna and key along for the ride so they keep each other happy as can be 🙂 I had just enough of my portable kit with me to make this happen.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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→
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.
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.”
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 Andrea (IW0HK) who shares the following field report:
Cold War POTA in Berlin
by Andrea (IW0HK)
In the last week of October, I found myself in Berlin for a work commitment.
Taking advantage of two half-days off, I wanted to combine two of my great passions: radio and the history of the Cold War. I chose to visit two historical sites that also serve as a reference point for the POTA (Parks on the Air) ham radio program, allowing me to transmit with my radio in these unique locations.
The first location is a park located about a kilometer away from where I worked for a week, the headquarters of RBB, the public radio and television of Berlin and Brandenburg. This park is Teufelsberg, which literally means the Devil’s Mountain. It is an artificial hill in Berlin, created using the rubble from World War II, located within the Grunewald forest (POTA reference DA-0218).
On this hill, the Teufelsberg listening station of the American NSA in Berlin was situated, which was used to intercept radio signals from East Germany during the Cold War.
Today, you can still see the remains of the antenna covers of the listening base. I activated the Pota park that has been established around the abandoned base, and I was delighted to transmit my signals in Morse code (CW) in QRP mode in this historically significant place.
I used the small QMX transceiver from QRP Labs, a gem for operating in FT8/CW modes on the 80/60/40/30/20 meter bands.
For an antenna, I used a 20-meter wire connected to an EFHW 49:1 balun, hung above a tree. Amid families flying kites, I made 15 CW QSOs, which allowed me to validate the park activation. The program requires a minimum of 10 QSOs for activation to be valid.
The second activation took place in another symbol of the Cold War: the runway of the former Tempelhof airport. I activated this as a POTA site and transmitted CW QRP with the small QMX transceiver from QRP Labs in the fog and cold.
The Berlin-Tempelhof Airport was an airport located in the southern part of the central Tempelhof-Schöneberg district and was operational from 1923 to 2008.
It is famous for hosting the Berlin Airlift base (1948-1949), which was an incredible operation undertaken during the Cold War by the United States and their Western European allies to transport food and other essential supplies to West Berlin, surrounded by the Soviets.
Today, the airport is closed, and its runway has become a massive park (POTA reference DA-0169) used by Berliners for various outdoor activities. I activated it early in the morning on a gray and cold day, setting up my EFHW antenna practically on the runway.
Again, I used only CW, and in no time, I reached the number of 11 QSOs. The cold made me stop the activity earlier than planned, but the activation is still valid. After concluding the transmissions, I walked through the enormous park, imagining its past use and appreciating how often my amateur radio passion leads me to incredible places.
This was the first test of this “minimal” POTA kit with the QMX transceiver, the 20-meter EfHw antenna, and the XTPower XT-16000QC3 12v power bank.
I must say that the test was successful. This is an excellent little radio that I want to use and take with me on every work trip. The POTA program continually takes me to incredible places, both in terms of nature and history, as it did in this case in Berlin
Many thanks to Bob (K4RLC) for the following guest post:
Field Trip to Greece: September & October 2023
Bob (K4RLC)
A trip to Greece had been on the bucket list for my YL Alanna K4AAC and me for several years. In fact, we had to postpone the trip twice due to COVID. An opportunity arose to take a unique trip to Greece with the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, rather than a more touristy cruise. It’s always good to have fellow Tar Heels around, to share experiences.
This trip involved a few days in Athens, seeing the classic archeologic sites such as the Parthenon and the Acropolis, as well as exploring the packed downtown markets, such as Plaka and Monasteraki Square. Then the group would travel to the South of Greece on the Peloponnesian Peninsula staying in a fishing village called Gytheio, founded in the 5th Century BC, and port to the Spartan warriors. From there, there would be day trips to historic sites. These included a trip to Areopoli, where the Greek revolution against the Turks started in 1821. Another trip would be to Monemvasia, an island fortress founded in 50 AD. Other trips would be to Mystras (the last outpost of the Byzantine Empire) and ancient Sparta. On the return trip to Athens for departure, the tour would stop in Ancient Corinth, which had been civilized by the Greeks by the 8th century BCE and where the Apostle Paul preached ethics to this Sin City of ancient Greece.
As I had taken the KX1 and KX2 to various places overseas, I, of course, wanted to operate portable radio in Greece. Past treasured memories included enjoyment operating with the KX1 on Suomenlinna Island, in the Bay of Finland, and with the KX2 in various Caribbean sites, including St. Lucia in 2019.
One of the first things I did was to consult the SOTA Summits Database for peaks we might be near. In the Peloponnesian (PL) region, there are about 180 sites, many of which had never been activated. Once we got there, we found out why. The peninsula is extremely mountainous, with steep barren peaks up to 4000 feet, rising quickly from the shore. In fact, talking with Cristos, our guide in Areopoli and a local young man, he said that he and his friends would hike about 6 to 8 hours to a summit, then spend the night in a cave before returning home. Obviously, this would not fit in with our somewhat rigid tour schedule.
I was very excited to see that Mt. Mystras, where we would visit, also was a SOTA site (SV/PL-012), as well as a UNESCO World Heritage Centre.
I found it curious that Mystras had not been activated since 2017. I found the name of the last ham who had activated this site, and took a chance of sending him an email at his QRZ address. I was very pleased to get a nice reply from Cristos (a common name in Greece, named after Saint, or “Agios” Christopher), who said that he lived in the north of Greece some distance away and had not been back. I asked him if he had to seek permission to activate there. Cristos said they just didn’t ask anybody, but that I should be “careful of the guards” as I’m not a local.
I took his caution under advisement and reached out to the Greek Radio Union. I received a very nice email from Takis, Vice President of the Greek Radio Union. He advised me that my call sign on the Peloponnesian peninsula would be SV3/K4RLC/P. That is, in Greece the geographic location of operation still matters, while it doesn’t in the United States. And I also should use the designator P, identifying as a portable station. Takis went on to write that radio operation in many the archaeological sites is now “prohibited” by the Greek Ministry of Culture and Antiquities. I filed that away for consideration.
The tour was culturally enriching, taking in the incredibly long and complex history of each ancient site we explored. Just as memorable, we were extremely well fed with local cuisine, including fresh fish caught that day, especially eating by the water in Limeni on the West Coast of the Mani Peninsula. I have to admit we ate spanakopita at least once for 10 consecutive days (it’s even served at breakfast)!
The trip to Mystras also included a trip to ancient Sparta, civilized in the 6th and 5th centuries BC. We were fortunate to have an archaeologist who is currently excavating Sparta as a guide to the fascinating history here. On the trip to Mystras, three miles to the west of Sparta, the bus stopped at the tavern where we would return to eat later that afternoon, for a pre-tour bathroom break. Bathrooms are few and far between in ancient sites, and most of our group could be considered geriatric and needed proximity to a bathroom. Mystras is a 682 meter sharp peak over the town (see photo). Continue reading Bob pairs the KX2 and AX1 for ultralight travel-friendly SOTA in Greece→
Lately, I’ve been kitting out another fully self-contained field radio kit that would be small enough to fit in my EDC (everyday carry) laptop bag–something super compact.
I’ve been getting some great ideas from those of you who have added your kits to the Field Radio Kit Gallery.
[By the way, if you’ve submitted your kit to the gallery and haven’t seen it yet, note that I’m posting these in the order received and there are many in the pipeline!]
I’ll likely build my EDC field kit around the Elecraft KX1 or the Mountain Topper MTR-3B, then pair it with a good wire antenna.
But this process got me thinking: if money was no object, and I wanted the most compact and versatile multi-band field kit, what radio and antenna system would I choose?
My answer? A kit built around the Elecraft KX2 and AX1 antenna.
In my experience, the KX2 AX1 combo is hard to beat. It’s compact, effective, low-profile, and you can set it up pretty much anywhere.
Let’s explore my reasoning here keeping in mind–in my world–this is a very deep rabbit hole to go down. I’ll do my best–no promises–to keep this as concise as possible:
Compact, Low-Profile, Self-Supporting, and Simple
Here are all of the components of my typical KX2 AX1 field kit:
This is all that is needed for a field activation.
And if you’re an SSB operator? You don’t really need a microphone because one is built into the KX2 (that said, I’d suggest you build a compact mic if you plan to do a lot of SSB operating).
If I wanted to make this kit even a bit more versatile? I’d add a kneeboard to the list. This gives one the ability to operate without a picnic table.
What makes this field kit so portable is that the KX2 is one of the most compact general coverage HF transceivers on the market.
It’s certainly the most compact (at time of posting) when you realize that two important components–the battery and ATU–are internal options.
The AX1 antenna is also incredibly compact–it comes apart in such a way that no one component is longer than about 6 inches. What you see in the photo above is the entire radio and antenna system.
Yes: A Compromise
Sure–and let’s get this out of the way right up-front–the AX1 is a compromised antenna, and being a massive fan of simple wire antennas myself, I know a properly deployed wire in a tree is going to provide better gain each and every time.
Guest Post: The Full Moon, Eels, and /P Operation on Mount Peyton, NL, Canada
by Scott (VO1DR)
Introduction
I have been eyeing Mount Peyton in central Newfoundland for years as an attractive spot for /P HF operation. Even before my radio adventure to Mount Sylvester (reported earlier in QRPer.com), I have been seeking a way to get up Mount Peyton. Like Mount Sylvester, Mount Peyton is an inselberg of granite protruding above the glacial plain of central Newfoundland. However, Mount Peyton is even larger and higher; an elongated ridge about 800 m long reaching up to 487 m (1,599 ft) above sea level. For SOTA enthusiasts, it is designated VO1-CE-005, multiplier 4.
Figures 1 and 2 show the location local topography around Mount Peyton.
Mount Peyton is a case of “so near and yet so far”. Just west of Gander, this ridge is visible in the distance south of the Trans-Canada Highway (the main arterial highway traversing the island of Newfoundland). However, in summer there is no trail directly to the top, and access to its base is only via rough ATV tracks and wet bogs. One must get to the base of the mountain, then hike overland to the south side and climb a long inclined cleft in the hillside to the top. This cleft is the surface trace of a fault in the underlying granite (see route on Figure 2). By contrast in winter, Mount Peyton is a popular and readily accessible snowmobile destination with dozens of machines roaring up this same cleft on a thick blanket of snow.
The Full Moon and Eels
Looking at maps and Google Earth, an approach on foot would entail a three-day hiking trip. While this sounds delightful, my current living situation would not permit this, and in addition I have no hiking buddies able and willing to make such a commitment. So, it became clear I needed all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) to get quickly to the base, so we could do the entire trip in one long day.
I don’t own an ATV and after multiple attempts over this summer to find any ATVers interested in such an adventure, there were no takers. Apparently ATVers like to ride, but don’t like to get off their machines ?. I finally found a local outfitter (Paul) who not only could supply ATVs, but had hiked multiple times to the top of Mount Peyton – a perfect fit. For safety, I needed at least one extra person to go to the top. All other potential radio or hiking companions fell by the wayside for various reasons, so it became just me and Paul.
As is common in rural Newfoundland, Paul is a Jack of all trades and is also a commercial eel fisherman. American Eels (Anguilla rostrata) have a fascinating life history (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_eel) and inhabit freshwater rivers and streams in Newfoundland. Paul harvests them in conical net traps anchored to the stream bottom (Figure 3).
He told me that eels run during the new moon and stay put near the full moon. Now doesn’t that ring deep bass notes of evolutionary biology!? Since eel fishing is an important part of Paul’s income, we agreed to fit in my radio around his eel-catching. He would be available around the full moon when the eels were sluggish; toward the end of September, the moon was full on the 29th. Given the local weather, we settled on Tuesday, September 26 as our day. Isn’t life fascinating – the moon controls eel movement, which controls human movement, which controls our /P radio expedition!
Getting There was Half the Fun
I drove from St. John’s to Paul’s cabin west of Glenwood, NL on the afternoon of Sep 25, on the beautiful shores of Indian Arm Pond (Figures 4 and 5).
We planned an early departure on the ATVs. Sun-up was around 7 am and sun-down was about 7 pm, so we had 12 hrs of daylight to work with. September 26 dawned bright and clear (Figure 6) and we were soon packed and underway on two ATVs (Figure 7). We drove for over 2 hrs on a wide range of roads, tracks, and rough trails to a point where we dropped the ATVs and started hiking (one way distance 26.7 km or 16.6 mi).
This trip reinforced that I am not a motor sports guy. The ATV ride was long, bone-jarring, and noisy. Buying an ATV at great expense and doing this for “fun” is a mystery to me; and forget about seeing any wildlife. But, hey, the ATVs got us there; we couldn’t have done this trip without them! Continue reading Guest Post: The Full Moon, Eels, and /P Operation on Mount Peyton, NL, Canada→
Another W4 SOTA Fall Campout is in the books! What amazing fun.
This year, the campout was held at Lake Rabun Beach Recreation Area in north Georgia.
Once again, Joshua (N5FY), and I shared a campsite. He arrived Wednesday afternoon and I showed up Thursday afternoon around 2:30 PM.
There was quite a lot of wet weather in the forecast, so I opted to bring my large 6 person tent (the orange one above) instead of my two person ultralight tent. My thinking was that, if need be, we could us the large vestibule on this tent as shelter while eating and cooking.
Joshua was way ahead of me, though, and brought a canopy for the picnic table.
After pitching my tent and setting up, Joshua and I discussed how we should spend the rest of the afternoon. One thought was to try to squeeze in a SOTA activation, but we would have been fighting sunset at the end of it.
Instead, Joshua suggested that we build some antennas.
It was then I noticed that Joshua’s picnic table canopy had a built-in spool of 26 gauge wire!
I shouldn’t have been surprised. Joshua is the fellow behind the Tufteln brand of antennas. Turns out, he brought along a full antenna-building station.
I built a long random wire antenna and started a 30M EFHW.
That evening, we had friends pop by the campsite, ate dinner and fit in a quick POTA activation.
As always there are lots of links within the article. Click one! Click them all! Learn all the things! 🙂
The backstory
For those of us that work from home there are good and not-so-good things about it. One of the not-so-good things is that I’m not getting out somewhere every day like I used to, thus I embrace corporate travel as it represents a mini-escape from the day-to-day activities that would normally happen. It also gives me an opportunity to operate in the field and away from the comfort of sites nearby my home.
In late September I was in the Edmonton Alberta area for work and, as always, I brought along a set of gear to play radio. Where I’d normally drive up and park my F-350 within the boundaries of the park and operate from the cab of the truck, this time I was in a rental vehicle so I had to be well-equipped for the unknowns. I also didn’t pre-plan my stops like I normally would, I just wanted to roll up and do my best to make it work.
Not really pre-planning an activation is a stark contrast to how I normally roll as I usually pore over maps and satellite views on multiple websites to visualize where the park entrance is and where I’ll set myself and what I may encounter for surroundings when I get there. I know exactly where I’m going and just about down to the parking space. I build a set of kit up to support that/those activation/s.
With the lovely autumn weather we were experiencing in Alberta, my plan was to activate after work opportunistically around Edmonton – something I’d not yet done despite many trips to the area – and set up and operate right around 0000z. This time is after my workday, so a nice mental break from the day’s activities before kicking back for the evening. I think to my self that I’ll roll into a site nearest to where I was working arriving just before midnight UTC (1800h local) and get set up and start calling once the clock ticked over into a new day. From there I would then head to the hotel (or home) and grab a bite to eat and close my day off on a high note.
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