Sometimes, I crave a nice summit hike but don’t have enough time in the schedule to fit in a long one.
When I’m doing overnight trips to my hometown of Hickory, NC, my go-to spot for a proper hike is Bakers Mountain Park. The icing on the cake is that Bakers Mountain is also a SOTA summit (W4C/WP-007).
I wish Bakers Mountain Park was a POTA site as well, but at present the US POTA administrators aren’t including county and municipal parks–only state and national parks.
On Tuesday, August 1, 2023, I only had about 2.5 hours to fit in a hike and SOTA activation. That was plenty of time to hit Bakers Mountain!
Bakers Mountain Park has a nice long-ish loop around the perimeter of the park called the “Bakers Mountain Loop”; it’s about 2.75 miles long and has a reasonable amount of elevation change over the topography.
Adding in the spur trail to the true summit of Bakers Mountain, I’d say my total hike is about 3.25 miles or so.
Lookout platform on the Bakers Mountain Loop Trail.
Note that I actually include a bit of my hike to and off of the summit in the activation video below.
Setting up
Can you spot the MW0SAW EFHW hanging in the tree?
Once on the summit, I chose a spot to set up. Since I planned to deploy my 40 meter end-fed half-wave, I looked for a branch overhanging the summit perimeter trail.
Next, I deployed my trusty 40 meter EFHW that Steve (MW0SAW) made.
I’m on a POTA quest – activate all references in the state of Connecticut. There are 136 parks in the state and four of them are islands, only accessible by boat. Three of which are in the Connecticut River: Dart Island (K-1659), Haddam Island (K-1673) and Selden Neck State Park (K-1714).
I don’t own a boat. Plus, even if I did, I’m not sure I’d be brave enough to tackle the Connecticut River on my own. I have no experience navigating these waters, and it’s a real river, more than you’d want to try with a kayak with the currents and all. Even the POTA web pages for these islands warns “Boating experience and channel knowledge recommended.”
This created a dilemma – how do I get to and activate these islands?
I strategized for a while and decided on chartering a “river cruise” boat who actually listed visiting Dart and Haddam islands as part of their services on their web site. The boat captain hadn’t visited Selden Neck, so that was new, even to him. However, he had a radar, and depth finder on his boat that mapped the channel and gave us the depths of the waters near each island. His boat drew 3 feet, so we had to have at least that much depth in each place we stopped. He also had a small “Achilles” boat that connected to the back of the cabin cruiser that we used to get ashore.
We left from a marina that was directly across the river from Dart Island but decided first to head South to Selden Neck and then work our way back North to Haddam and Dart.
Putting aside the island access for a moment, I also had to strategize on what gear to bring along to do these activations. I am primarily a digital mode activator and have used the Elecraft KX3 and AX1 antenna in many of my travels where I needed a light kit.
However, I thought, I can use the KX3 but take along a more efficient antenna. I used my Buddipole tripod and mast with a versa-T and a 17’ 9” Alpha whip antenna and a 15’ counterpoise elevated off the ground with a Home Depot electric fence post.
Because the mast elevates the versa T to 11’ high, and the telescoping whip at another 17’ 9”, I was able to get the antenna nearly 30’ off the ground to the top. It was easy to pack and carry and provided better coverage than the AX1 would have. You’ll see just how good QRP on FT8 can be in my Dart Island coverage map.
Backup of everything in another bag in case I ended up in the water, including a spare radio and computer.
Once I decided on the KX3 and the Alpha telescoping whip, I packed my backpack with the computer, cables, the radio, batteries and extra antennas. I always have the AX1 and a Packtenna EFHW as backups and they fit easily into the backpack. Two bags would need to make it from the boat to each island, the radio gear with computer and the antenna bag with the tripod and telescoping antenna. To be safe, since it would not be easy to do this again if something didn’t work, I brought along an entire backup system, packed in a second backpack with an Icom 705 and my spare laptop.
One of my goals with POTA is local discovery, and my boat captain was very knowledgeable about the river and the various sites along the shores. I learned that a manufacturing plant owned by Pratt and Whitney still uses water from the river as part of their manufacturing processes and also that there was a sea plane airport along one bank. I saw an automobile ferry along the way that I had no idea existed and saw the site of the former Connecticut Yankee nuclear plant that was decommissioned in 2004. Continue reading POTA Quest: Conrad Activates Three Connecticut River Islands!→
Many thanks to Steve (MW0SAW) who shares the following field report:
Portable Ops in 9A Land
by Steve (MW0SAW)
Just back from a family holiday to Croatia and I was lucky enough to be able to take a QRP station with me on my travels. It’s always good to stop and review what you took and how it worked out, else you won’t be able to iterate and improve next time.
My wife and I have always been efficient minimalist travellers and even now with our daughter the traditional continues. And let’s face it, who doesn’t love to get their inner pack geek on when it comes to QRP ham radio and travel!
I’m very lucky to own several QRP radios, Elecraft KX2, FT-818, IC-705, but for minimalist ops they are all a/ too expensive and/or b/ too heavy & bulky. The choice naturally brought me to a CW rig and after some deliberating I chose my Venus SW-3B over my newly constructed QCX mini. The Venus is just more versatile having 3 bands and SSB RX.
So the item I spent weeks torturing myself about prior to the holiday was the antenna. You have to try to imagine from where you will operate. I don’t think you can beat a wire antenna like the K6ARK EFHW however you need trees or a mast, I thought I was most likely to operate from the hotel room balcony. I came to the conclusion, despite the extra bulk, that the Gabil 7350T and Tripod would be my companions.
And how did I get on? Well the first time I setup the station on the balcony the electrical interference was terrible, and I could not hear any signals. So I had to adapt and go for plan B. Which actually turned out to be a stunning spot.
Operating on a small jetty next to the salt water on the island of Sveti Nikola near the town of Porec in the early mornings, I deployed my station and called CQ. You can see from the RBN that my 5 watt signal was making a good impact, however only had a couple of European stations come back to me from my calls.
I decided to switch to hunt and pounce mode, and I was amazed to work several USA, VK and ZL stations over a few days. It’s such a great feeling to work DX with such a modest setup. The icing on the cake for an already special family holiday. I think you will agree such a beautiful place.
So overall I was very happy with my station choices.
Kit list:
(Note: Note that Amazon links are affiliate and support QRPer.com)
Until my next QRP adventure.
Best 73
Steve
9A/M0SAW (MW0SAW)
UPDATE:
I didn’t mention it in my report (above) as he hadn’t replied to my email, but I did work Peter Parker VK3YE (he has a good YouTube channel). I’m in his video about 10mins 45seconds in:
Since nearby Tuttle Educational State Forest is closed on Mondays in the summer, I chose to visit South Mountains State Park (K-2753) instead–it was only a few minutes further afield than Tuttle.
After leaving Table Rock, I picked up a quick lunch in Morganton and drove to the main entrance of South Mountains and set up at the equestrian picnic area.
South Mountains State Park (K-2753)
The weather that day was beautiful and so was the drive.
I decided to deploy my Chelegance MC-750 this time, just to shake things up a bit. If you know me, when I do little roves like this, I typically like to use different radios and/or antennas at each site.
I paired the MC-750 with my Yaesu FT-817ND. My reasoning for picking the ‘817 was because I could use the SO-239 connection on the back of the radio. The new cable assembly/feedline I was using had PL-259s on each end.
Speaking of the new assembly, at the Dayton Hamvention this year, I popped by the ABR Industries booth and Chuck gave me (full disclosure–at no cost to me) a new product to test in the field: a 20 foot PL-259 to PL-259 assembly made with their ABR240-UF cable and with 5 in-line ferrites. What makes this cable unique is that it sports a bright orange flexible webbed jacketing which makes it very easy to see on the ground.
They’ve been informally calling it their “POTA cable.” I immediately knew why this would appeal to POTA ops: one of my constant fears is that someone will unknowingly trip on my feedline while I’m in the middle of an activation. Black coax cable on the ground is very difficult to see (I’ve even tripped on my own lines)–this high visibility jacketing makes cable very conspicuous. Just check out the photos above. Continue reading Pairing the Yaesu FT-817ND and Chelegance MC-750 at South Mountains State Park→
Just like last year, my family and I combined a visit to my parents near Berlin, Germany in the summer with some extra days in the region. As in last year, we went to Łagów (German: Lagow) in Poland. The reasons we chose Łagów again, was a lovely holiday house, directly on a beautiful lake with a beach – all not too far away from Germany – and the good memories we had from our previous stay.
There is also a SOTA summit, which was only activated once in the 5 years when we visited the area last year. As I started with POTA this year and there are also a couple of POTA spots around, I thought it would be worth another visit.
The area around Łagów has been populated since the Bronze Age, i.e. >1000 BC. In 1251, the area came under German rule and the first mention of the town was in 1299. In the 14th century, the Knights Hospitaller built a castle that exists to this date. For the year 1367, it is documented that the convent of Lagow consisted of seven knights and one priest of the order.
At the foot of the fortress, a settlement for craftsmen and servants emerged, secured by defensive walls and two gates.
Gate in the middle
It is obvious that the builders of the gates did not have modern cars in mind when planing the size of the gates.
During the Thirty Years’ War, one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, Lagow was captured and destroyed by the Swedes in 1640. The hand drawn map below from 1662 already shows Lagow.
During the fighting at the end of World War II in the spring of 1945, the castle and the village did not suffer mayor damages. After the war’s end in 1945, Lagow was placed under Polish administration, and Polish migrants settled in the area. The local Polish authorities expelled the native German residents who had not fled. The spelling of the town’s name was changed to Łagów.
Germany lost large parts of its territory as a consequence of the wars it has started after both major wars of the last century. Lagow was part of the lost territory depicted in the green area below.
The territorial gain probably wasn’t something Poland was very happy about, as the Soviet Union annexed a significant portion of Eastern Poland at the same time and incorporated the previously Polish soil mainly into the Soviet Union republics of Ukraine and Belarus. Consequently, the country experienced an effective westward shift.
Red: Pre-war Poland, Pink: Post-war Poland
Over a long time, expelled Germans were very vocal about claims to return the area to Germany and yet rather quiet about their share in the terrible events that unfolded between 1933 and 1945. Therefore, Germany’s eastern border was not recognized until 1990 by the German government. However, the issues resolved over the time and today, 33 years after the official acceptance of the border, no one I know even thinks about this as an issue any more. Additionally, the Polish side appears to be more relaxed about this topic. I have seen a lot of bilingual information panels and some memorials for former German inhabitants. Nice to see the wounds heal.
The Activations
The holiday house was within the borders of a POTA park. Having a 7-year-old “early bird” son, helped my to wake up early enough to get my 100 contacts for the POTA Early Shift Activator Award. I walked to the edge of the facility and raised my SOTABEAMS Band Hopper III linked dipole for the 20-, 30- and 40 meter bands as soon as my son woken me up and ended my activity around 9:00 local time nearly every day.
Although I had a bunch of other antennas with me, I made all activations during my journey with this antenna and an Icom IC-705.
The logical choice was Table Rock Fish Hatchery since it’s such a short drive from Lake James and I always enjoy activating that particular site.
The weather that morning was beautiful and so was the drive.
Table Rock Fish Hatchery (K-8012)
I pulled into the driveway of the picnic area and–no surprise here–I had the place to myself.
In fact, according to the POTA website, I’ve activated this site 12 times and I’ve never seen another soul in the picnic area save my canine friends, park staff, and one guy who was hunting muskrats in the creek. That’s about it. Never anyone actually hanging around the picnic area.
On the drive over, I hadn’t considered what antenna or radio to use–I had a few in the back of my car.
I thought about using my Elecraft KX1, but then realized I didn’t have an extra shielded audio cable to connect to my Anker Soundcore Mini speaker nor did I have my in-line digital audio recorder. Without those things, I wouldn’t be able to make a video of the activation.
My next choice was the Yaesu FT-817ND and, in fact, it would be ideal. I was looking forward to putting the ‘817 on the air again–it’d been a couple of months!
First, though, an antenna. I pulled out the 40 M End-Fed Half-Wave Steve (MW0SAW) made for me some time ago.
This antenna has been in heavy rotation lately because it’s been in my main radio backpack as I’ve been traveling around the region.
Many thanks to Bob (K4RLC) who shares the following POTA field report from December 2022:
K4RLC’s December 2022 Adventure: Stone Mountain State Park North Carolina
by Bob (K4RLC)
As 2022 was coming to an end, I wanted one last Summits on the Air/Parks on the Air (SOTA/POTA) activation. Stone Mountain North Carolina is around 3 hours away in Northwestern North Carolina, near the Appalachian Trail and the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is a huge state park of over 14,000 acres and some wilderness areas.
A little background about this year might be helpful.
Earlier last year, both Alanna K4AAC and I were diagnosed with COVID, which turned into long serious COVID, lasting almost 3 months of acute illness, followed by several months of recovery. We are both healthcare professionals, and were vaxed and boosted and being very cautious, so it’s somewhat of a mystery what happened. One of us does have multiple medical risk factors which may have added to the complexity.
Nevertheless, we did what a lot of Americans did last winter and spring, with buying RVs and campers, and bought a Winnebago Solis camper van.
The Solis is Winnebago’s smallest van, built on a Dodge Pro Master commercial chassis. What appealed to me is that you can be completely self-sufficient, boon-docking with it. It has a 140 Watt solar panel on the roof which charges two 100 amp hour AGM batteries.
Off the grid, this powers a small refrigerator, house LED lights, water pump, and a ceiling fan.
The Solis also has a 20-gallon propane tank, which runs a two-burner stove and a really nice furnace for cold nights. It sleeps two comfortably with a Murphy bed. Also has a sitting area with a table for dining, which can be used as a desk or an operating position for the radio.
Since getting the Solis, we have really enjoyed making trips to the beaches and mountains of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. In addition to enjoying exciting POTA/SOTA activations, we have been replenished by nature’s beauty and feeling safe in the fresh air.
Returning to my Stone Mountain adventure, I guess not many people camp in the middle of the week in December in the mountains. Initially, I was the only person in the large campgrounds. Eventually, a couple with their dog and a trailer set up at the far end. We never had any contact. It was really eerie, especially with the pea soup fog that hung around.
The most prominent feature of Stone Mountain State Park is Stone Mountain itself.
It is known as a “Dome Monadnock,” as it is a large dome of granite/quartz still standing from the Devonian Age about 400 million years ago, while the earth around it has eroded over thousands of years. (Stone Mountain Georgia is the same geologic feature). Continue reading K4RLC’s December 2022 Adventure at Stone Mountain State Park→
Many thanks to Mike (KE8PTX) who shares the following field report:
One of my best POTA activations on a whim.
by Mike (KE8PTX)
Monday 8/15/2023
Doing some late afternoon POTA chasing from the back deck home QTH, contacts on 5 watts seemed to be coming fairly easy so I started to think I should have a go at it and activate a park.
One in one hundred times I activate QRO, so I decided to take the FT-891 and blow the dust off the finals.
When filling my pack, I had a last minute change of heart and decided to stick with QRP. Bagged up the never fail KX2 field kit and hit the road.
The park was Port Huron State Game Land (K-6762) a nearby game land with many activation spots. As I never do look at the solar reports, this time was no different. I feel the solar reports more times than not would keep me home. With a QRP mind set we all feel we have something to prove by just doing it.
So off to the park we go!
After a short 20 minute dive through the countryside of the Michigan thumb, I arrived at my location only to be welcomed by a flock of Michigan state birds: the mighty Mosquitoes. I came prepared with my trusty Thermacell. Fired it up 5 minutes before exiting the car to give it a head start.
My deployment of gear is simple and quick. My go-to antenna is a 40m EFHW inverted V configuration running North to South.
There are several Parks On The Air eligible parks in San Francisco and the northern tip of the peninsula of the same name. One would expect that a POTA activator that calls this city home, would have logged activations from all of these parks, but so far this one has eluded me.
The National Park encompasses an area that includes the municipal pier, aquatic cove with its small public beach, the art deco style Maritime Museum, and Hyde Street Pier with its floating collection of historic ships.
The historic ships alongside Hyde Street Pier
For various schedule and logistical reasons, K-0757 was the one park in the city that I had not yet activated. So today, when my daughter wanted to visit the ships, I made sure to have my lightweight POTA “go” pack with me in case I found an opportunity to attempt an activation.
I’d say the main attraction at Hyde Street Pier is the Balclutha, a steel hulled, square rigged, cargo ship built near Glasgow, Scotland and launched in 1886.
Balclutha – a survivor from the Age of Sail
Balclutha is continually undergoing restoration and maintenance by the Park Service and skilled volunteers. Her many careers on the world’s oceans are documented with numerous interpretive stations and exhibits, both topside and below decks.
We wrapped up our tour of the vessels on the pier by exploring C.A. Thayer, a 219 foot long sailing schooner built in 1895 near Eureka, California to serve the coastal timber trade.
Eureka is a steam powered ferry that served on SF bay.
I was thinking about where to activate and not really looking forward to setting up on or around the public beach. Between the Aquatic Cove swimmers, people enjoying the beach, and tourists going to and fro, there wasn’t really an “out of the way” location to setup even a small station.
Hyde Street Pier itself was actually pretty quiet, but I wasn’t about to set up my station there without prior approval of park staff. Just as we were about disembark from Thayer I noticed an NPS employee near the gangway, and so I took the opportunity to inquire about setting up my low impact, leave no trace, POTA station.
It turns out the person I talked to on the deck of C.A. Thayer was the supervisor of the SF Maritime National Historic Park! He is keenly interested in radio and was even aware of recent solar activities that have given us amateurs a mixed bag of propagation conditions. He agreed to my request to set up at the end of the pier, past Balclutha’s gangway.
Is Balclutha’s steel hull a reflector of radio waves?
On Monday morning (July 31, 2023) I left the QTH with POTA on my mind.
As I mentioned in a previous post, July was a busy month and I was in desperate need of some POTA Therapy! Fortunately, I had the full morning to play radio, so I plotted a two (or possibly three) park rove, starting with Lake James State Park.
Lake James State Park (K-2739)
I arrived at Lake James a little after 9:00 AM and pretty much had the park to myself.
In order to keep my setup time a little on the short side, I chose a picnic table next to my car.
I grabbed my throw line cube and (1st gen) Red Oxx Micro Manager pack in which I’d packed my Discovery TX-500 and accessories.
Since it was in the morning, I planned to spend time on the 40 meter band and, hopefully, work a number of hunters in the surrounding states.
For this activation, I paired my Discovery TX-500 with MW0SAW’s 40 meter end-fed half-wave antenna.
I powered the TX-500 with a homemade 5Ah LiPo battery my friend Joshua (N5FY) sent me a couple months ago.
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Sometimes, I crave a nice summit hike but don’t have enough time in the schedule to fit in a long one.
