Tag Archives: Blue Ridge National Parkway (US-3378)

Accessories, Field Reports, News, Portable, POTA, QRP, Videos

Exploring the Mountains-to-Sea Trail: QRP POTA with Hazel and a New KX1 Kneeboard!

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On Friday, January 5, 2024, I looked at Hazel and could tell that, despite the chilly temps, she wanted to go on a late afternoon hike. I did, too, for that matter and why not combine the hike with a POTA activation?

In addition, we were expecting a winter storm to move in that night, so hitting the trail in advance of the snow and ice seemed to make sense.

Before I could get my boots on, Hazel was waiting by the car door to jump in.

Mountains-to-Sea State Trail (K-8313)

One of the closest long trails near my QTH is the Mountains-to-Sea Trail (MST).

At 1175 miles long, the MST stretches from the Outer Banks of North Carolina to the Great Smoky Mountains (see map above).

I can actually hike to the MST from my QTH, but it takes a good hour and half to do so. It’s much easier to drive to one of the numerous nearby trailheads, and that’s exactly what Hazel and I did. I drove to one of my favorite Blue Ridge Parkway POTA spots where a short manway connects to the MST.

Hazel was so excited to hit the trail. (I was, too.)

At the end of the day (because, it was nearing the end of the day) we couldn’t hike for long if I planned to also complete a POTA activation. Sunset was at 5:29 PM local and I didn’t want to pack up and hike back in the dark.

That said, if I needed to hike back in the dark, I could have because I never go on a POTA or SOTA activation without a fully-charged headlamp. FYI: I was packing a NiteCore NU25 (affiliate link).

I started my action camera and captured the last bit of hike before Hazel and I found a great spot to set up. There were enough trees around to deploy a 40 meter EFHW and a relatively flat spot to set up my Helinox chair and KX1 station.

Since much of this section of the MST is on the Blue Ridge Parkway grounds, I checked quickly to make sure my operating site would qualify as a two-fer with K-3378.

I opened the Parceled App on my iPhone to confirm that my site was indeed on Blue Ridge Parkway property..

A KX1 Kneeboard!

If I’m being perfectly honest, I had an ulterior motive with this trailside activation: I was eager to finally put my new KX1 kneeboard into use! Continue reading Exploring the Mountains-to-Sea Trail: QRP POTA with Hazel and a New KX1 Kneeboard! →

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

POTA Postcard Field Report: Finally Snagging a Kilo on the Blue Ridge Parkway (K-3378)

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It’s funny: I’ve met POTA activators who’ve been hitting the field for only a couple of months and have already obtained a “Kilo” award for confirming one thousand QSOs from the same Parks on the Air entity. Most of my active POTA friends have multiple Kilos.

Me? Until December 29, 2023, I had never obtained a Kilo at any POTA site!

Something you should know about me: I don’t check my POTA stats or awards frequently…as in maybe once or twice a year–?  I’m the same with my YouTube stats and even website stats. I’m just not a terribly numbers-motivated person.

That said, I fully recognize that numbers give us a snapshot of how and where we activate. Only recently, I checked my awards page to see if I’d ever snagged a Kilo and was surprised to find that no, I had not.

I say “I was surprised” but truth is, my activations tend to be really short. I think my average number of logged hunters per activation is probably 20-25.

I checked the POTA website and I had 48 activations in the books for the Blue Ridge Parkway (K-3378). My total number of contacts confirmed was 994.

Yeah, I was six contacts short of a Kilo. What!?! This needed to be remedied!

So technically…

The KX2 was my NPOTA companion (pictured here at the Carl Sandburg home during NPOTA).

In truth, I probably could have achieved a Kilo much earlier because POTA allows you to submit logs from 2016’s ARRL National Parks On The Air (NPOTA) event. During NPOTA, I activated the Blue Ridge Parkway (guessing here) about 50 times; it was my most accessible NPOTA park and I hit it several times a week. However, I have not submitted my NPOTA logs to POTA, so my POTA numbers do not reflect my NPOTA activities.

Postcard field report

I’m still catching up after a challenging first few weeks of 2024. In fact, since I made that post, so much more has happened. January 2024 has been a tough month.

I’m nearly a month behind on email, so if you’ve written to me with questions, you likely haven’t received a reply. I’ve simply needed a break during this time.

Speaking of busy, I have a pretty hectic day in store, but I’m eager to post one of my field reports (I enjoy this) so we’re going to do it “postcard” style. I’ll let my activation video and logs tell the story of this brilliant little activation on December 29, 2023.

Spoiler alert: I got my Kilo!

Gear:

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QSO Map

Here’s what this five watt activation looked like when plotted out on a QSO Map:

Logs

Activation Video

Here’s my real-time, real-life video of the entire activation.  As with all of my videos, I don’t edit out any parts of the on-air activation time. In addition, I have monetization turned off on YouTube, although that doesn’t stop them from inserting ads before and after my videos.

Note that Patreon supporters can watch and even download this video 100% ad-free through Vimeo on my Patreon page:

Click here to view on YouTube.

Check it out!

Thank you

Thank you for joining me on this activation!

I hope you enjoyed the field report and my activation video as much as I enjoyed creating them.

Also, thank you for your patience while I’ve been offline and spending time with my sweet family. 

Of course, I’d also like to send a special thanks to those of you who have been supporting the site and channel through Patreon and the Coffee Fund. While certainly not a requirement as my content will always be free, I really appreciate the support.

As I mentioned before, the Patreon platform connected to Vimeo make it possible for me to share videos that are not only 100% ad-free, but also downloadable for offline viewing. The Vimeo account also serves as a third backup for my video files.

Thanks for spending part of your day with me! Have an amazing week ahead!

Cheers & 72,

Thomas (K4SWL)

Field Reports, News, Pedestrian Mobile, Portable, POTA, QRP, Videos

Elecraft KH1: A Quickie Pedestrian Mobile POTA Activation!

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Thursday, November 9, 2023 was a typical “dad taxi” day for me.

By the time I got around to doing a POTA activation that afternoon (which was always on the docket) it was within 30 minutes of when I needed to pick up my daughters.

Fortunately, the Blue Ridge Parkway Folk Art Center was en route to town.

I had planned that day to pair up my Elecraft KH1 with a random wire antenna, but looking at the time, I realized that was being a little ambitious–the few minutes to deploy and pack up the antenna would cut into the activation.

Instead (since I had just received my KH1 logging tray/cover) I decided to put it to the test with a real pedestrian mobile activation using the KH1, its  whip antenna, the logging sheets I printed/cut, and the teeny space pen included with the logging tray. In theory, this all looked doable, but in practice I didn’t know if I would actually be able to log on a tray attached to the side of my radio!

I had planned to use my Zoom H1n recorder for the KH1 audio since I would be making an activation video (see below), but frankly, I simply didn’t have time to set it up. I had to make do with the KH1 wee speaker.

Speaking of the speaker…

After playing with the speaker for a few weeks now, I’ve found that it sounds much better when I run the KH1 with a wide CW filter.

I’d always assumed being a low-fidelity 1″ speaker that narrow audio would be best, but I was wrong about that. In the field, I tinker with the filter and attenuation settings for the best audio balance.

Still, it’s not perfect (the speaker is really a “bonus” feature) but it’s much improved over my initial POTA activation.

Of course, I would have been using earphones had I not been recording the activation on camera. Via earphones, the KH1 audio is excellent!

Gear:

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On The Air

I hopped on the air, started calling CQ POTA, and the stations started rolling in. Continue reading Elecraft KH1: A Quickie Pedestrian Mobile POTA Activation! →

Field Reports, News, Portable, QRP, QRP Radios, Reviews, Videos

My First POTA Activation with the New Elecraft KH1 Handheld QRP Transceiver!

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Yesterday, I posted some initial notes about the Elecraft KH1 and mentioned that I hoped to perform a POTA activation later in the day.

I’m pleased to report that I was able to fit in that activation!

I’m pushing this report and video to the front of the line because so many readers are eager to see how the KH1 performs during a field activation. Instead of focusing on the park, in this field report we’ll be taking a closer look at the KH1 and my initial impressions after performing a pedestrian mobile POTA activation with it.

Packing the KH1

I had a very hectic schedule yesterday and was on the road in/around Asheville from 8:00AM to 2:00PM before an opportunity opened to fit in an activation.

After a quick trip back to the QTH for lunch, I packed the Elecraft KH1 field kit in my EDC pack (a travel laptop bag).

Herein lies my first impression of the KH1: even though I knew I had packed the entire kit, I felt like I must have been leaving something behind.

Sounds funny, but even though I pride myself on making fully self-contained field radio kits, I felt like there must have be something else I needed. The KH1 field kit just seemed too small, too lightweight, and too compact to have included everything I needed for an activation.

Intellectually, I knew that it included everything needed, but I still did a mental inventory:

  1. Radio? Check.
  2. Antenna? Check.
  3. ATU? Check.
  4. Paddles? Check.
  5. Battery? Check.
  6. Counterpoise? Check.
  7. Log book and pencil? Check.

Hard to believe, but it was all there.

Trust me: the first time you take your KH1 to the field, I bet you’ll feel the same way I did.

Blue Ridge Parkway (K-3378)

Because I was so short on time, I decided to activate the Blue Ridge Parkway which is the most convenient POTA entity when I travel into Asheville from Swannanoa.

It was cold and blustery afternoon the afternoon of November 1, 2023. At my QTH, I checked the temperature and it was about 34F. I knew it would be a bit warmer in town which is a good 1,000 feet lower in elevation, but I still grabbed my gloves on the way out the door. Glad I did!

As I mention in the activation video below, I wasn’t exactly on my “A Game.” I had received a couple of vaccines the previous day and my body was a bit achy as if I was starting to get the flu. But, of course, I wasn’t. Still… I didn’t feel 100%.

I arrived on site and set up couldn’t have been easier:

  1. Open the KH1 pack
  2. Remove the KH1
  3. Attach the counterpoise and string out on ground
  4. Remove whip from clips and attach to top of KH1
  5. Extend whip
  6. Turn on radio
  7. Find a clear frequency
  8. Hit the ATU button for a 1:1 match!

We’re talking a 30 second process even for someone who moves slowly.

Important notes about my KH1

Keep in mind the following notes that are relevant at time of posting this field report (November 2, 2023):

  • I am waiting on a firmware update to add:
    • CW Message Memories
    • CW Decoding
    • Internal Logging
  • I purchased the full “Edgewood” package but I don’t yet have my logging tray/cover yet. Elecraft plans to ship this within the next few days.
  • My KH1 is a very early serial number because I’m in the volunteer testing group.

The KH1 Speaker

The KH1 internal speaker is located on the bottom of the radio between the AF Gain and Encoder knobs.

I consider the Elecraft KH1 speaker to be a “bonus” feature. The speaker is small (1.1 x 0.65”) and limited in fidelity.

I had planned to connect my Zoom digital recorder to the KH1 and record audio directly from the headphone port during this activation. Continue reading My First POTA Activation with the New Elecraft KH1 Handheld QRP Transceiver! →

Antennas, Field Reports, News, Portable, POTA, QRP, QRP Radios, Videos

Amazing POTA Fun: Pairing the Elecraft KX1 and AX1…but first, a little lunch!

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I was speaking with my buddy Joshua (N5FY) in mid September. He’d recently acquired an Elecraft KX1 and the topic came up about pairing the KX1 with the AX1 antenna. I realized that in all of my experimenting with the AX1, I’d never paired those two. What!?!

Time to fix that!

On Thursday, September 28, 2023, I had a nice midday window to play radio. After dropping my daughters off at their classes, I stopped by the French Broad Food Co-op and grabbed a container of their chicken noodle soup from the refrigerator section.

I then made my way up the Blue Ridge Parkway (K-3378) to the Craggy Gardens Picnic Area at Bearpin Gap–one of my favorite spots on the BRP.

Despite stunning weather and the beginnings of fall foliage, the parking lot was pretty empty. After all, it was a Thursday and a good week or two before leaf-lookers descend upon western North Carolina.

I pretty much had the picnic area to myself (there was one other person there). I picked a picnic table at the top of the hill under the trees.

Mahlzeit!

When my wife and I lived and worked in Munich, the salutation I learned before any other was “Mahlzeit!” At Siemens, I remember walking through the hallways and people I’d never met before exclaimed “Mahlzeit!” as I passed by.

I quickly learned that Mahlzeit essentially meant “Lunch Time!” and I still say it today to my family when I’m about to make or grab some lunch. Funny how these things stick with you.

Now where was I–? Oh yes…

First thing I did at Craggy was set up my stove to start heating the soup. I show this in my activation video below.

If interested, here are the components of my stove kit:

Quick continuity check!

Next, it dawned on me that I would need to attach the AX1 counterpoise to the KX1. I didn’t bring one of my copper clamps to attach to the outside of the AX1’s BNC connector, so I needed to find another grounding point on the KX1.

I then remembered that the KX1 has two thumb screws on the bottom of the radio. Knowing Elecraft, I assumed that these screws could be used as an attachment point for a counterpoise, but I wanted to confirm that the screw itself had a direct connection to ground.

Fortunately, I keep a small multimeter in my supplemental gear bag in my car. It’s an inexpensive Allosun Pocket Multimeter. I use it for things like this: testing.

I set the multimeter to read continuity and then placed one probe on the outside of the KX1’s female BNC and the other on one of the thumb screws. Sure enough, there was a direct connection to ground. I didn’t need to worry about the KX1 chassis paint insulating the connection to ground because the thumb screw had a direct connection. Perfect! Continue reading Amazing POTA Fun: Pairing the Elecraft KX1 and AX1…but first, a little lunch! →

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

Nail-Biter of a Quickie POTA Activation on the Blue Ridge Parkway!

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Monday, July 3, 2023, was a day absolutely chock-full of running around town. I had projects that morning to take care of, a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon, and I needed to chauffeur my daughters to/from a meet-up with friends.

I didn’t even have time to properly debate if I could squeeze in an activation. Before I left home, I simply grabbed a radio backpack and put it in the car just in case. If a window of time opened, I’d be at the ready, but there was no real way to predict in advance.

Even though I always have a radio at the ready in the car, I don’t carry all of the things necessary to film activation videos. That’s where my POTA pack comes in.

Since Hamvention, I’ve been using my GoRuck GR1 as a POTA backpack. It easily holds my radio and camera gear.

During the early afternoon, I could see a very short window of POTA opportunity opening: about 30 minutes (start to finish…or set up to take-down) to complete an activation.

Blue Ridge Parkway (K-3378)

Since time was so limited, I also chose to hit the closest predictable site: The Blue Ridge Parkway Folk Art Center. I could have easily set up at a slightly closer spot on the parkway, but if I wanted to include an activation video it would have taken longer to set up the chair, tripod, etc. Those minor details would eat up valuable on-the-air time, especially since I knew in advance that propagation was once again in the dumps (our local star has been in quite an activate state of flaring and spewing CMEs!).

So that I wouldn’t have to do an introduction once I arrived on-site, I started the activation video in the car as I was driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway. In the video, you’ll see the full set-up, activation, and pack-up. Continue reading Nail-Biter of a Quickie POTA Activation on the Blue Ridge Parkway! →

Accessories, Articles, Field Radio Kits, Field Reports, Grab And Go, Morse Code, News, Portable, POTA, QRP

Testing my new Headrest QRP POTA Field Kit!

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I love field radio kits.

If you’ve read my “Anatomy of a Field Kit” series, you’ve likely gathered that field kits are a bit of an obsession. [Yeah, understatement alert!]

My field kits roughly fall into two main categories: modular and fully self-contained. My modular kits are ones where components like the battery, antenna, throw line, key, and radio are in separate pouches and can easily be combined to make a complete station before I leave for an activation.

My fully self-contained kits are ones that quite literally have everything needed to perform a park or summit activation in one pouch or box. A good example that I’ve documented here is my MTR-3B field kit.

For more on this, again, check out my “Anatomy of a Field Kit” series.

Vehicle kit

If you’re a devoted park and/or summit activator, I think it’s important to keep a dedicated kit kit in your car at all times. Why?

  • It’s ready to grab for impromptu activations
  • It’s handy in case of road-side emergencies in remote areas
  • It’s always  accessible to demonstrate amateur radio to those who are curious
  • It’s always always there for those times when you hadn’t planned to play radio, but the opportunity presents itself

I always have a full radio kit in my Subaru and over the years, I’ve changed and adapted it. For the most part, though, it’s been located in the trunk/boot and lives with anything and everything else I keep back there. Sometimes, it’s in the way when we need to fill that trunk space with family items for a trip or when we’re hauling things around town. Other times, it’s floating/sliding around freely in the back.

On long family trips, I’ve been known to store radios under the floor, but it’s a true hassle to remove them because I have to remove anything in the trunk before lifting the floor.

Contraband I hid in the car during our two month Canada trip last year.

I’ve always wanted a way to store my kit in the car in a dedicated space. In the past, I’ve tried to make a kit that could fit under the driver’s seat–thinking that might be ideal–but there’s very little clearance under it and it’s difficult to remove.

Enter the BROG Headrest Pouch Kit

Before I placed my initial order for the Blue Ridge Overland Gear (BROG) Gadget Bag, I checked out other items on their website. One that immediately caught my attention was their Headrest Kit.

It consists of a Velcro panel that fits around a vehicle headrest and a pouch (or pouches) attach to it.

BROG caters to Overlanders and vehicle storage/organization is huge in that community. The headrest kit makes a lot of sense: it’s using space that’s accessible, doesn’t interfere with any passengers, is off the floor, and is otherwise underutilized!

The big questions, of course:

  1. would the pouch offer enough space to store an entire radio kit,
  2. and would the kit weight too much for the Velcro back to hold it in place?

I asked for the Headrest Pouch Kit ($47.99) to be sent with my Gadget Bag order.

BTW: Big thanks to BROG for giving me flexibility with this order. Since I had no experience with their gear, I asked that they send me a list of items and allow me to evaluate them, then pay (full price) for what I decided to keep. 

Would it work?

I knew I’d need to store a very small transceiver in this dedicated pack. A few could potentially fit the bill–namely the:

  • Mountain Topper MTR-3B
  • Venus SW-3B
  • QCX-Mini
  • TEN-TEC R4020

I eliminated the QCX-Mini from this list because it’s mono band (mine is set for 20M) plus, I really love the field kit I already designed for it. Same for the MTR-3B–the kit I built for it is now time-tested and I love it as-is. The R4020, while quite compact, is the largest in this group of wee rigs. Continue reading Testing my new Headrest QRP POTA Field Kit! →

Articles, Field Reports, Hams, Morse Code, News, People, Portable, POTA, QRP, Skills, Videos

Join Brooks (KO4QCC) on his First CW POTA Activation–!

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Friday, March 24, 2023 was a very special day for Brooks (KO4QCC) and for K4SWL.

I’m so excited to share this with you.

You might recall that, last year, I met up with Brooks at Tuttle Educational State Forest as he performed his very first POTA activation in SSB. He did such an amazing job!

Since I first met Brooks, he’s always had a goal of learning CW and activating parks and summits using Morse Code.

I’ve been in touch with Brooks regularly over the past year and have followed him as he progressed on his CW journey.

Though, like me, he has an active family life, Brooks has found the time to practice CW both through lessons and actual on-the-air contacts. Fortunately, this is all possible because–again, like me–his wife and family are very supportive of his amateur radio adventures!

Early this year, we met on 80 meters and had a good one hour rag chew at about 12 words per minute. I could tell he was ready to do his first POTA activation in CW.

To give him a little real-world practice, we decided to hit the field on a day when I was performing an activation and he could log for me in real-time.

I could tell by how well he was logging as I worked stations at 18WPM  that he was ready to perform his first activation, so we made it a goal to do so within the next couple weeks.

Fast-forward to 8:30 AM on March 24 when Brooks and I met at the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Coincidentally, this is the same location where I performed my first CW activation!

We deployed his MFJ-1984MP 40 meter EFHW (End-Fed Half Wave) and connected it to his Xiegu X5105 transceiver in very short order. Brooks also chose his lucky CW Morse paddle for this activation.

But before hopping into the field report, let’s back up just a bit…

First CW Activation: Getting there…

Brooks very kindly wanted to share a bit about his CW journey in this field report. He writes:

From the moment I knew of its existence, becoming a POTA activator using CW has been at the top of my “radio bucket list.”

It seemed like the ultimate challenge and I knew I would never be satisfied until I was able to confidently activate parks using CW. There is also a bit of mystique to CW that other modes lack, making it inherently more interesting to me. In this article, I am going to share the path I took to learn CW and how it culminated in a very successful CW activation.

Continue reading Join Brooks (KO4QCC) on his First CW POTA Activation–! →

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

Postcard Field Report: Cheap POTA thrills with the TEN-TEC R4020 and Chelegance MC-750

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Welcome to another Postcard Field Report!

My Postcard Field Reports are information-packed, just slightly more concise and distilled than my average field report so that I can publish them on a busy day.

T-T R4020

One of the least expensive radios I’ve ever purchased is my TEN-TEC R42020 two-band CW only radio. I believe I paid $120 for it (shipped!) a couple years ago and it sat on my shelf unnoticed for months until I took it on a POTA activation last year.

Here’s the admission:  I really love this little radio!

It is not a feature-rich radio, and the sidetone sounds like a 1080s handheld arcade game, but it works a charm! The receiver and audio are fantastic and it sports two of my most useful POTA/SOTA bands: 40 and 20 meters.

What’s not to love?

POTA time!

I had an early morning doctor’s appointment on Thursday, February 23, 2023. As a little reward  for doing my annual physical I decided to add a POTA activation to my morning. This was a last minute decision, so only a couple minutes before leaving the house that morning, I grabbed my TEN-TEC R4020, the Chelegance MC-750, and my Spec Ops Backpack (filled with all other field accessories), and I hit the road!

I chose the MC-750 that day because I needed an antenna that could be configured to be resonant on 40 meters since the R4020 has no internal ATU. That and I couldn’t remember if I’ve configured the MC-750 for 40 meters in the past. I know I’ve deployed the MC-750 with the 40M coil, but I think I may have used an ATU to match it.

I arrived at the Blue Ridge Parkway (K-3378 NC) mid-morning and set up in very short order. Continue reading Postcard Field Report: Cheap POTA thrills with the TEN-TEC R4020 and Chelegance MC-750 →

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

Lunch Box POTA: Pairing the Elecraft AX1 with the Penntek TR-45L!

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As I mentioned in previous posts, I’ve been using the Elecraft AX1 in heavy rotation this year. I made a commitment to myself to do a string of activations with it in January and February and also pair it with a wide variety of radios beyond the Elecraft KX2 and KX3.  So far, I’ve paired the AX1 with the:

In truth, the AX1 can be paired with any radio when you use a tripod mount.

It’s a bit trickier when connecting the AX1 directly to a radio and using the Bipod as a support because 1.) the antenna connector on the radio mustn’t be too high off of the surface, 2.) there needs to be enough clearance on the back of the radio to accommodate the bipod legs and 3.) ideally, it’s nice to have a ground point on the radio, else you’ll need to clamp the counterpoise to the shield of the BNC connector.

In addition, if your radio doesn’t have a built-in ATU of some sort, then you’ll also need a capacity hat or external ATU to finish off the impedance match. (For more notes about the AX1 and AX2, check out this previous post.)

Of course, you don’t have to use Elecraft’s bipod to support the AX1 when directly connected to a radio–you can build or 3D print your own support–but the bipod is really convenient when it does work.

Objective: Lunch Box Radio

One radio I’ve been eager to pair with the AX1 is the Penntek TR-45L.

Why? Because I love the form-factor.

Something about having a lunch box-sized radio sitting on a table with a telescoping whip protruding out the back and, with that combo, the potential of making contacts all over the globe. Continue reading Lunch Box POTA: Pairing the Elecraft AX1 with the Penntek TR-45L! →