I had planned to take the week off from POTA when I received an email from Dave N1CGP asking if I was participating in the March 8th Young Ladies Relay League event. The event is an all-day celebration of International Women’s Day with POTA activations. Well, there was no way the POTA Babe could sit that out!
Young Ladies Radio League logo
My day was already packed with appointments but I had four hours in the afternoon I could squeeze in an activation. I chose to activate Canoochee Sandhills Wildlife Management Area (WMA), a 35 minute drive from my home QTH. The park would not count toward my 2024 goal as I had already activated it last year. However, it would work for this event.
Signage photo from a previous trip
Daisy and I headed out around 2:30 PM under partly cloudy skies and 73 degrees. Apple Maps took me a slightly different route than my prior trips. As I was driving along, suddenly the paved road became dirt but what a fun ride! We fishtailed a little and that put a smile on this POTA Babe’s face.
Carolina Jasmine, a vine with yellow trumpet-like flowers, bloomed along the roadside. It is the state flower of South Carolina and adaptable, growing in a variety of conditions. What I didn’t know about it before writing this article is that all of the plant is poisonous. Even deer and rabbits will not eat it and that is saying something.
At the WMA, there was only one pickup truck parked off the road so it looked like Daisy and I would have the place pretty much to ourselves. I decided to use the Chelegance MC-750 vertical since time was limited. Daisy and I donned our blaze orange gear, set up, and got down to business. I had one hour to get a valid activation. As I hadn’t used the 40 meter coil yet on this antenna, I opted to start with 20 meters. I called and called CQ but had only two takers in 20 minutes.
It was time to see if 17 meters would come to my rescue. It did! I had 22 contacts on that band in 40 minutes including Peder SM2SUM (a regular) in Sweden.
QSO Map including Sweden http://tools.adventureradio.de/analyzer/QSO Map with just US stations
The weather, while operating on 17 meters, turned cold and windy, gusty enough to blow over the antenna during one of my QSOs. I put on the hoodie I had taken off earlier and wished I was sitting INSIDE instead of outside the car.
ominous weather
At this point, I hoped to hunt a few activators, most of whom were on 20 meters. I reset the vertical for that band and began hunting but came up empty handed. The last one I tried, Melvin W3PYF, barely heard me and sent “Sri try later”. Unfortunately, I didn’t have later as I had a code buddy QSO with my best friend Caryn at 6:30 PM. Besides, I was sufficiently chilled from the weather that rolled in and was ready to head home.
This wasn’t one of my favorite activations, partially because I was pressed for time and the weather turned unpleasant. However, I did support my fellow YLs with the activation.
Sometimes, as a POTA Babe, you have to take one for the team.
Equipment Used
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On Sunday, March 3, 2024, I had a couple of errands to run in downtown Asheville and also had to pick up my daughter.
I ended up having about 40 minutes to kill and, since I had my Elecraft KH1 field kit packed in my EDC bag, I thought it might be fun to fit in a little radio time.
Since I was downtown, the only viable POTA site to hit would be the Thomas Wolfe Memorial–you might recall my activation there last year–but technically, the park was closed. It is an urban park in the middle of Asheville, and there are no gates to keep people from walking across the grounds, but still, I’d feel better activating with permission from the staff first. (I’m pretty sure they’ll grant that permission, by the way.)
Instead of activating, I decided to do a little POTA hunting.
I parked at the spot where I planned to meet my daughter and grabbed my KH1 field kit.
My good friend, Ara (N6ARA), designed a small 3D-printed adapter that allows his TinyPaddle Plug to fit the KH1 securely. He sent me (free of charge) this new key/adapter to evaluate.
The adapter is a super simple design that works with the TinyPaddle Plug (not the TinyPaddle Jack).
I hadn’t used this new adapter in the field yet–I only very briefly tested it at the QTH a couple of days prior.
I mentioned last year, shortly after the KH1 was introduced, that I expected a number of 3rd party paddles to start appearing on the market. Since the interface with the KH1 is a standard 3.5mm plug, it does open the door to 3D-printed designs and experimentation. Admittedly, it’s a small space to fit in a paddle, but it’s doable.
I believe N6ARA was actually the first non-Elecraft paddle I used on my KH1 because his TinyPaddle Plug will fit it natively. That said, the new KH1 adapter makes it a proper secure fit–the way it should be!
Side Note: The OEM Elecraft KH1 paddles (the KHPD1s) are now in Revision 2, and all KH1 owners (who received the original paddles) will get version 2 paddles eventually via Elecraft for free.
The original KH1 paddles have a green circuit board.
I haven’t received my Rev 2 paddles yet, but I know I will before long. It’s my understanding that the Rev 2 paddles have a much better feel, and keying is more accurate.
Still…it’s brilliant that Elecraft used a standard jack so that we hams can design our own paddles if we like.
The TinyPaddle Plug
Ara’s TinyPaddle design is super simple, and while he originally designed the TinyPaddle to be a back-up option, I know a number of hams who use the TinyPaddle as their main field key.
Again, I can’t stress how cool it is to have a radio that allows you the flexibility to hit the air pretty much anywhere, anytime.
The KH1 is so quick to deploy, low-impact, and low-profile.
It’s as conspicuous as holding a transistor radio with a telescoping whip. So far (it’s still early days, let’s be honest here) no one has seen me with the KH1 and asked me if I’m a spy. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been asked this over the years of POTA activating!
As I had no appointments scheduled for Monday, February 26 during the day, I planned a POTA outing in the Augusta, Georgia area which is a two-hour drive from my home QTH. The destination: Spirit Creek Educational State Forest (K-4654).
Source: Google Maps
Apple Maps routed me west on I-16 and then northwest through Statesboro, home of Georgia Southern University (the Eagle Nation). On the drive, I passed acres and acres of farmland, some of it for cotton. I noticed a few of the fields had a reddish tinge and were full of a plant I had not seen before. I did some detective work once back home and think the plant is red sorrel, a member of the buckwheat family that is native to Europe. I am guessing the red sorrel is a cover for the field between crops.
Apple Maps also routed me through Waynesboro which is the “Bird Dog Capital of the World.” The city hosts the largest field trials in the world. Field trials are a competition to evaluate a dog’s ability to find and point coveys of quail. Waynesboro is bird dog crazy; even the town’s water tower is decorated with a bird dog. Wow – the interesting stuff I learn about my home state!
However, we aren’t here to discuss bird dogs but POTA. After sitting longer than I usually drive to a POTA destination, I arrived at my destination. The 570-acre property is surrounded by private land with the entrance tucked between two residences. The road through the forest appears decently maintained and is easier on which to drive than my previous forays into such properties.
Not far into the forest was an open area for parking and a kiosk with hunting information. Upon checking the kiosk, I read the only thing in season right now is small game and knew I’d be unlikely to come across anyone on a Monday morning hunting. However, to be on the safer side of things, I set up in the parking area rather than somewhere else in the forest.
Speaking of hunting, Bob WK2Y who lives in Atlanta, reached out to me after my Hiltonia WMA article. He emphasized the need for ops to wear blaze orange in such places whether in hunting season or not because of hunting violations which are more frequent than I realized. (I plan on addressing that topic in a future WMA article.) Because of this, I now always keep a blaze orange vest in my kit for Daisy and me. I’ve ordered a blaze orange hat as well as purchased hot pink magnetic decals for my car. (The website said “hot pink” though I think “bright pink” is more like it but close enough.)
Last month, I received a comment and question from Gordon (KO4AYC) here on QRPer.com:
“I am curious if anyone has used the AX1 with the AXE1 40 meter extender and tuned this antenna for 40 meters using the Emtech ZM-2 tuner?”
For the life of me, I couldn’t remember if I’d tried this combo before.
The ZM-2 ATU is a simple manual antenna tuner that you can purchase either as a fun-to-build kit or fully assembled and tested.
I’ve owned my ZM-2 for many years, and I believe every QRP field operator should have one. They do a brilliant job of matching random wire antennas and taking your resonant antenna to a non-resonant band. Being a manual ATU, they require no power source. If you’d like to read a quick tutorial on tuning the ZM-2, read this previous post.
I figured the easiest way to answer Gordon’s question was to give it a go!
The AX1 does require a counterpoise, so before hitting the field, I did check to make sure there was continuity between the shield of the ZM-2’s BNC connector and the black binding post when the ZM-2 was switched to “GND” for coax antennas. Fortunately, there was! I loved this idea because it meant that no matter the radio, I knew I’d have an easy connection to ground for the AX1 counterpoise.
Blue Ridge Parkway (K-3378)
On Wednesday, February 21, 2024, I grabbed the ZM-2, AX1, and AXE 40M coil (since Gordon specifically asked about 40M) along with my Yaesu FT-818ND. It was time to see just how effectively the ZM-2 might match the AX1.
I store my AX1 in this Maxpedition pouch (see link in gear section below).
Upon arrival, I began setting up the station.
Even though it was approaching 2:00 PM locally, I wanted to see if the ZM-2 would match the AX1 (with AXE coil) on 40 meters first. I didn’t expect a lot of activity on that band so early in the afternoon, but I figured I could hopefully work a couple of stations.
I attached the AX1 directly to the ZM-2 antenna port and deployed the whip and 40M counterpoise.
It was a bit gusty, and I quickly realized that the AX1 might topple over in the wind. To secure the antenna, I used the handle of my GR1 backpack. It was a semi-effective arrangement (actually, the handle sort of pulled the antenna toward the pack, which wasn’t ideal either–I eventually removed it).
In calm conditions, I wouldn’t worry about the antenna toppling over; the ZM-2 provides enough of a base that it’s stable. In the wind, though, you’ll definitely need to secure the ZM-2/AX1 combo to keep it from being blown over.
My plan was to start on 40 meters, then also hit 30, 20, and 17 meters. This would give me an opportunity to see if the ZM-2 could match the AX1 on multiple bands.
Side note: I can’t remember if I mentioned this in a previous field report, but one sad bit of news for me is that there’s a new source of QRM at the Folk Art Center. It’s likely coming from the VA medical complex next door, but it raised the noise floor to at least S5 on most bands. This will make it more difficult for me to work weak signals from this particular POTA site.
Then again? My buddy Alan (W2AEW) recently pointed out to me that compromised antennas like the AX1 don’t feel the effects of local QRM as a higher-gain antenna would. I’d been thinking the same thing.
Gear:
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I hopped on the air and started calling CQ POTA on the 40-meter band. I worked one station quickly (thanks, W5GDW) and then silence. I didn’t expect 40 meters to be active this time of day, but I didn’t think it would be completely dead either.
I checked the POTA spots page and discovered that the connection to the Reverse Beacon Network was down. Even though I scheduled the activation, the system hadn’t spotted me.
Once spotted, I worked three more stations in quick succession.
On Friday, February 9, 2024, I had an opportunity to do an extended Late-Shift POTA activation in Pisgah National Forest. I couldn’t pass that up!
Once again, one of my daughters had a casting call and a Shakespeare performance that opened up an activation window from about 17:00 – 20:00 local (22:00 UTC – 01:00 UTC).
If you’ve followed my POTA activities for a while, you’ll note that multi-hour activation windows are very much a rarity. More often than not, I’m squeezing activations into 30-60 minute windows of time as I go about my work and family duties.
Pisgah National Forest and Game Lands
The closest POTA site, once again, was Pisgah National Forest (K-4510) and Pisgah Game Lands (K-6937). There are so many sites to choose from within Pisgah; it’s always a difficult decision in terms of picking a location.
In this case, I decided to stay a little closer to mobile phone service just in case my family needed to reach me during that time. I chose the Sycamore Flats picnic area and was happy to see that the picnic shelter was available.
I thought it might be fun to set up two antennas since I had so much time. For the first part of the activation, on 20 meters, I would deploy the Chameleon MPAS Lite vertical.
For the second part (the following UTC day), I would deploy my MM0OPX 40-meter end-fed half-wave as I knew 40 meters would be much more active after sunset.
EFHW Deployment
Since sunset was approaching, I deployed my MM0OPX EFHW first because it’s much easier to deploy a wire antenna in a tree when it’s still light outside.
Side note: I mention in the activation video that a good headlamp (like my Fenix) makes working in the dark quite easy. I’ve deployed wire antennas after sunset with headlamps before–it’s quite doable–but I still prefer using a throw line when there’s still sunlight. It’s just easier (for me, at least) to judge distance.
I deployed the EFHW in a tree and in the brush between two pathways. While it would have been easier to deploy it on a path, I always try to deploy my wire antennas in a way that hikers and other park guests wouldn’t easily walk into them–especially at dusk when even high-visibility line colors are difficult to see.
Chameleon Carbon Fiber Tripod
The second antenna deployment was my Chameleon MPAS Lite vertical, and this activation gave me an excuse to test the new Chameleon carbon fiber portable tripod.
In January, Chameleon sent me a box with a few of their smaller accessories/promotional items. I plan to give away everything, save the tripod, in an upcoming QRPer giveaway.
I’ve been eager to test the tripod because it’s lighter and easier to transport (in my SOTA pack) than the stainless spike that comes with the MPAS Lite antenna system. This tripod will also come in handy when operating at parks that don’t allow stakes in the ground. Continue reading POTA by Lantern Light: One Activation in Two Days with Two Antennas!→
Many thanks to by Mark (W2ITG) who shares the following field report:
Elecraft KX3/AX1 Field Report
by Mark (W2ITG)
I’m an avid POTA activator and wanted to try an experiment to see if I could complete an activation using just the Elecraft KX3 & AX1 on 40 & 20m SSB. I’ve seen others do it on CW but not on SSB. My CW learning is not going well by the way.
This was at K-1635 Washington Rock State Park 02-07-2024, with a beautiful view of the NYC skyline approximately 20 miles away.
My 1st attempt was a failure because I ran into SWR issues on 20m when I picked up the microphone & RF was getting into the audio as well. This was with the antenna mounted directly on the side of the radio using a 90 degree elbow connector, the AX1B bipod & an elevated radial connected to one of the case screws of the radio, unfortunately it didn’t work.
It’s a good thing I had brought along my Tuftln EFHW and telescopic carbon fiber fishing pole as well because it saved the day which allowed me to complete the activation. When activating make sure to have a backup plan, so far I have no incomplete activations.
Fast forward to 02-27-2024 I’m making another attempt but using a clamp mount, clamped on to the side of the picnic table, 25’ of ABR Industries RG-316 with built in CMC choke, the Elecraft AXT1 tripod adapter, and an elevated counterpoise.
I was much more successful, but barely. I did get my 10 contacts, 7 on 40m and 3 on 20m. This really took me by surprise as the AX1 is more of a compromise on 40 than it is on 20m.
Radio set up at a different picnic table.This clamp mount was taken from one of my BuddiStick setups.Notice the electric fence post in the background to elevate the counterpoise.The QSO map, it took me an hour and a half to get these 10 contacts.
Using the AX1 was quite the challenge to say the least. It does prove that even with a very limited antenna you can make contacts. My guess as to why it didn’t work as well on 20m, is poor band conditions. Living in the very populated northeast is what I believe allowed me to make more contacts on 40m.
Would I recommend buying this antenna? Most definitely, just as long as you know what it’s limitations are. I will try another attempt, but by trying 2 elevated counterpoise wires instead of 1. This antenna can use all the help it can get.
It’s funny how sometimes one small accessory can have a huge impact on a field radio kit.
When I first learned about the Elecraft KH1 (basically, the day I was invited to join the volunteer testing group), I felt like Elecraft had designed my ideal QRP radio. The KH1 is super compact, weighs 13 oz completely loaded, covers my favorite bands, and has features I would expect in much pricier radios. It reminded me of my beloved KX1, but even more portable with more features.
The KH1 caters to handheld or pedestrian mobile operating–at least, that was the overarching design objective. It accomplishes this amazingly well. It’s so easy to operate handheld, and there’s nothing else quite like it on the market. I suspect that when others copy the design (I’m sure they’re already doing so–!) it won’t be as versatile, functional, and lightweight.
At the end of the day, though, I feel like I’m only using the KH1 pedestrian mobile about 30% of the time I have it on the air. Of that 30%, I’d say that only 10% of the time I’m pedestrian mobile while activating, and 20% of the time I’m doing little impromptu radio sessions in parking lots, ballparks, while visiting family, and even on my own mountain property.
While handheld operating is simply a game-changer, I knew I wouldn’t do this 100% of the time with the KH1. It’s for this reason that my very first bit of proper KH1 feedback to Elecraft, well before I had my hands on a prototype, was that a right-angle adapter for the whip antenna would truly round out the KH1’s field prowess.
This would basically give my KH1 the same functionality of my beloved KX2 and AX1 antenna combo, but in an even more portable package.
Turned out, Elecraft already had a right-angle adapter on the design board!
Fast-forward to present day…
Last week, Elecraft sent me a prototype of the right-angle adapter to test and evaluate. They’ve given it the model number KHRA1.
Full disclosure: Elecraft also gave me permission to post a video and article about this new accessory even though (at time of publishing) it’s not even showing up on their website. I will, however, link to it here as soon as Elecraft makes it available. This is an item I would otherwise have tested in private–thanks, Elecraft!
The KHRA1 is a simple adapter. Other than metal attachment hardware, most of it is lightweight and 3D-printed from a durable material (I assume the same material they use in the KH1).
Attaching it to the KH1 is very easy.
First, you unthread the large metal thumb nut from the KHRA1. You will need to hold together the remaining KHRA1 components (legs and attachment bracket) so that they don’t come apart before you attach them to the KH1. This is actually pretty easy to do, but users should know to follow the KHRA1 instruction sheet. If these parts fall apart in the field, it might require a bit of searching the ground for the pieces.
You simply thread the large thumb nut onto the KH1’s whip antenna antenna port, then thread the rest of the KHRA1 bracket/legs onto the large thumb nut.
Check out Elecraft’s illustration:
I then position the KHRA1 legs as shown above, then tighten the KHRA1 adapter so that everything is secure.
It’s super simple to do, and you can see this process in my activation video below.
Speaking of an activation…
On Saturday, March 2, 2024, (yes, only two days ago) I had my first small window of opportunity to squeeze in a POTA activation and test the KHRA1.
That day, my daughters and I had a number of errands to run, then a three-hour round-trip drive to pick up my wife. We were on a very tight schedule, but I had a 30-ish minute window of opportunity to fit in some POTA radio therapy.
I set my sights on the easiest-for-me-to-hit POTA site on the Blue Ridge Parkway: the Folk Art Center.
Amazingly, I discovered that morning, that the KHRA1 fits in my Pelican M40 Micro case along with my KH1, whip, counterpoise, key, spare N6ARA key, and earphones.
With the KHRA1, this means my M40 field kit can do both pedestrian mobile and tabletop operating. Woo hoo!
The weather that morning was simply glorious. A very wet front swept through the previous day leaving behind clear skies and warm temps. Frankly, it was a bit odd activating without wearing a jacket or hoodie.
Gear:
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Setting up was quick and easy, even though this was my first time using the KHRA1 in the field.
I hopped on the air and started calling CQ. Once spotted (for some reason the RBN auto-spotting feature wasn’t working again), the contacts started flowing in.
I worked a total of 18 contacts in 16 minutes. It hardly gets better than that for a CW activation!
I had to call QRT after my 18th contact. Even though I had a 30-minute window to POTA, nearly 14 minutes of that was taken up with my intro and summary for the activation video.
I called QRT with a small pileup still in place. I really hate doing that, but I had a schedule to keep!
QSO Map
Here’s what this five-watt activation with a 4′ telescoping whip antenna looked like when plotted out on a QSO Map:
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.
The KH1 works amazingly well as a tabletop radio when combined with the KHRA1 adapter.
At the end of the day, the KHRA1 is a very simple piece of hardware, but it effectively transforms the KH1 from a handheld radio to a tabletop.
Of course, I’ve used the KH1 numerous times with wire antennas in a tabletop configuration (I’m a massive fan of wire antennas) but the ability to use the 4′ whip antenna and internal KH1 loading coils means that I can operate anywhere I have a surface.
Herein lies the thing I love about my KX2/AX1 pairing as well. It’s just with the KHRA1, the KH1 makes for an even smaller, lighter-weight field kit.
Any negatives? The only one I’ve come up with is that the KH1 is so lightweight that I realize I need to carry a small piece of shelf liner (something like this) to provide the KH1 with a bit more grip on a slick park table, especially those composite ones.
Again, I will update this post when Elecraft announces KHRA1 pricing and availability.
Thank you
I still can’t believe the entire kit fits in this small case. Even when I put the KHRA1 thumb screw on backwards!
Thank you for joining me on this quick little tabletop activation!
I hope you enjoyed the field report and my activation video as much as I enjoyed creating them!
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.
I successfully activated Silver Sands State Park, K-1716, for Parks on the Air using the FT8CN Android app and a QRP Labs QDX transceiver. Here’s my field report.
Thinking about ways to further shrink down my mobile kit, I wondered if WSJT-X would run on a mobile phone. After some internet searching and reading various groups.io messages, I discovered that FT8CN is a digital modes app that runs on an Android device. It is also single wire compatible with the QRP Labs QDX transceiver carrying both the CAT control and audio. My goal was to see just how light and compact I could make my digital mode kit. Here’s a look…
Lenovo Android Tablet, QRP Labs QDX transceiver and a Bioenno BLF-1203AB 12V Battery
The Android device is a Lenovo Tab M8 (4th Gen), which can be found on Amazon[affiliate link]for about $80. It has an 8” screen, which is slightly larger than my mobile phone. I was happy to have the extra screen real estate since there’s a lot going on in the app and the size made it easy to see it all.
The FT8CN software can be found at N0BOY’s github site, https://github.com/N0BOY/FT8CN/releases. The most recent revision as of this writing is version 0.92. It’s an .apk file, which to install, you need to give your Android device permission to download via the browser. This is a direct download to the device and not going through the Google Play store, so it hasn’t gone through any security checks or validations. As with any of the software we use in ham radio, caveat emptor, or buyer beware. I would carefully consider this before downloading it to your primary mobile phone.
With that said, if you Google FT8CN, you’ll find plenty of videos and online resources to guide you on how to install it and set it up, so I won’t go into those details here. It’s fairly intuitive and each configurable field has an information button you can click for in-app instructions or explanations of what each does.
The Lenovo tablet has a single USB C port used for charging and connecting external devices, so I used a USB C to USB Type A adapter to connect to the QDX cable. Since this setup only requires a single wire, I plan to use a USB C to USB Type B cable so no adapter will be needed. For the first outing, it worked just fine this way.
The QDX’s on-board audio card and the transceiver control are all integrated into the application. It supports a number of popular transceivers including the QDX. When I connected the USB cable to the tablet, it automatically launched the application and presented a screen to click with the USB port. Once selected, the app displays a message saying the connection was successful.
I brought my Bioenno BLF-1203AB 12 volt battery to power the radio, which is actually larger than the QDX. That’s another opportunity for me to downsize the kit, finding a smaller LiFePo battery. I know some QDX owners use a standard 9 volt battery, that would certainly lighten the load. My QDX is built for 12 volts but it is possible to build it configured for 9 volts and still get full power out.
As pictured above, the entire setup was the 8” tablet, a USB cable connection to the QDX, a power cable from the battery to the QDX and an antenna cable. For the test, I used my Buddipole with a 17’ whip and counterpoise, which I knew would be resonant on 20 meters. I wanted to avoid needing to use a tuner. There is a compact tuner available which is about the same size as the QDX called the ATU-10, which works well if you need one and is about the same size as the QDX. I think it would be great to pair this kit with a Packtenna EFHW 20 meter wire antenna, which is also resonant and tiny enough to pack in a small bag with the rest of the kit.
I did a quick test of my antenna using the RigExpert antenna analyzer and at 14.074 MHz, I had 1.5:1 SWR, so I didn’t need to worry about damaging the final power amplifier on the QDX.
A windy day bending my vertical to one side at K-1716, Silver Sands State Park, ConnecticutAntScope shows a decent match at FT8 frequency.
Once everything was connected, I immediately started receiving stations. Here’s a screen shot of the decodes screen (below). The waterfall is on the left and decode list is on the right. Odd and even cycles are easy to see with light and dark shading behind them. They are also labeled “0” and “1”.
I think one of the coolest features of this application is the labeling of the stations in the waterfall.
Here’s the same screenshot rotated to see the waterfall more easily.
Parks on the Air offers a diversity of properties. In addition to those that commonly come to mind like state parks, forests, and national wildlife refuges, there are wildlife management areas (WMA) about which I’ve written and fishing lakes. This past week the POTA Babe visited Evans County Fishing Lake (K-7464) here in Georgia.
Source: Google Maps
The drive to the property was pleasant and relatively quick. On the way, I drove through the town of Pembroke. According to Wikipedia, this small community was a railroad town and turpentine shipping center and named after an early resident, Pembroke Whitfield Williams.
I took to heart Thomas’ advice in his recent post “Building Positive Park Relations” and contacted the office managing the property before my visit. I spoke with an employee who confirmed they had no problem with me putting a temporary antenna in a tree at any of the properties that district office manages. I also made a point to introduce myself to the DNR employee on site when I arrived. As soon as I said the words “ham radio operator”, he responded that they love having ham radio folks on the property! (Kudos to all those who have activated there before and were good ambassadors for our hobby.)
park office
Fisherman enjoying the gorgeous day
As I did for the Hiltonia WMA activation, I checked the satellite view of the property on Google Maps beforehand. There are three lakes with Bidd Sands Lake being the largest. (Bidd Sands is named after a beloved member of the local community who gave his life in Vietnam in support of the men he was leading.) At the east end of the lake is a dyke. That seemed a great place to set up, partially because of the openness but also I was likely to not be in anyone’s way.
Source: https://georgiawildlife.com/evans-county-pfaSource: Google MapsClose-up view of the dyke. Source: Google Maps
It was still rather chilly despite the sunny sky overhead so I chose to operate from the car rather than set up my Helinox chair and be out in the open. At the end of the dyke was a large oak tree just begging for the Tufteln EFRW antenna. I had the new Chelegance MC-750 with me but I’ve grown partial to putting antennas in trees. I love the flexibility of effortlessly changing from one band to the other without adjusting a whip and/or counterpoise as you have to do with a vertical. Continue reading The POTA Babe Goes Fishing (Sort of)→
In the spirit of full transparency: he sent this at no cost to me, and, as a reminder, Chelegance is also an affiliate of QRPer.com.
I’ve been eager to take the 80-meter coil on a POTA activation because 1.) if it proved effective, it would be great to have such a low-impact, low-profile antenna for 80 meters, but 2.) it’s been very difficult to fit in an evening POTA activation with my family life.
It would have been difficult to gauge how effective an 80M antenna performs in the late morning or early afternoon when I typically activate local parks/summits.
On Wednesday, February 6, 2024, a two-hour window of opportunity opened. One of my daughters had a dress rehearsal that night, and I knew of a nice, quiet, secluded POTA spot only 25 minutes away.
Pisgah National Forest (K-4510) and Game Land (K-6937)
My original plan was to arrive at the Looking Glass Falls’ picnic area, deploy the antenna, fire up the stove, make some coffee, eat on-site, then begin my activation after the start of the UTC day.
So why wait for the new UTC day?
Mainly because once you hit the new UTC day, it counts as a new activation. That really works in your favor as an activator if your goal is to complete a valid activation (with ten contacts) and you’ve enough time to do that before the UTC rollover. If you time it all correctly, you could activate double the parks with a minimum of 20 contacts (split 10/10). In my case, that would mean a total of four parks activated in one evening (since this was a two-fer).
I decided fitting in an activation prior to the UTC rollover simply wasn’t worth the rush.
Once I arrived on-site, however, I was already changing my mind.
I started my activation video, deployed the MC-750, and looked at my watch. I had roughly 15 minutes before the UTC rollover.
It would be tight, but I decided to give it a go and try logging ten contacts before 18:59:59 local (or 23:59:59 UTC).
If I couldn’t log ten before the UTC day, who cares!? It would be a fun challenge for sure, but I wasn’t going to cry if I couldn’t gather enough contacts for a valid activation.
There was another factor, too: operating 80 meters with a 17′ loaded vertical isn’t exactly “efficient.” My theory, though? It doesn’t need to be efficient. It’s crazy portable, convenient, and as a POTA activator, I only need enough performance to get the job done.
Time to hit the air!
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