Sunday, May 18, 2025, was the final day of Hamvention. It’s typically the slowest day, and I’ve even been known to skip it in favor of doing POTA with friends instead.

This particular Sunday, though, my dear friend Vince (VE6LK) was giving a mid-morning presentation about building go-boxes, so Eric (WD8RIF), Miles (KD8KNC), Len (W8VQ), and I headed to the Greene County Expo Center to attend.

Vince’s presentation was well-attended—most impressive for a Sunday morning!

As tempting as it was, I didn’t abscond with any of Vince’s radio kit!

Carillon Historic Park

Around 12:30, Eric, Miles, Len, and I left Hamvention and ventured into Dayton. We planned to do an activation at one of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park sites (US-0732).

Eric chose Carillon Historical Park as our activation site for US-0732. It’s an ideal POTA spot in many respects, with a large open field, several trees, and plenty of parking. That said, when we pulled into the site, we realized there was a public event underway and the parking lot was nearly full.

Fortunately, the parking attendants motioned us to park in a field close to where we would set up our stations. The music event was taking place on the far side of the park, so it didn’t interfere with our activation.

Eric, Miles, and Len made their way to a clearing and set up my Chelegance MC-750 antenna.

I picked a broad maple tree that provided a perfect shady spot for my station. The canopy not only kept me cool, but also offered a bit of stealth—not that stealth was necessary at this site, but with so much activity in the park, I wanted to keep my entire station contained in a safe, tidy space that wouldn’t trip up children running around nearby.

I set up my Helinox chair next to the trunk and deployed my throw line nearly vertically using the “granny shot” method—a technique I rarely use. It took two tries to get the line placed in a way I felt would support the antenna well. By shooting the line upward from underneath the canopy, both the antenna and throw line stayed in a tight footprint right beside me and entirely under the tree.

My antenna

Speaking of antennas, I was using a homebrew end-fed random wire sent to me by one of my readers and subscribers, Bryan (AD8HK). I believe Bryan may eventually offer a variation of this design commercially, but at present it’s still in development. He sent me this one purely for evaluation.

This particular antenna features a 9:1 transformer with a 17 ft 9 in radiator and an 8 ft 10.5 in counterpoise. With a wide-range ATU—like the one built into my KX2—it matches from 40 meters and up.

With my full station deployed, it was time to hit the air and see if the ionosphere had any charge left in it.

Gear

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Radio

Elecraft KX2 with Windcamp X2 Side Rails and Cover

Antenna & Supports

AD8HK Homebrew End-Fed Random Wire with 17ft 9in radiator and 8ft 10.5in counterpoise

Logging Supplies

Camera/Audio Gear

DJI OSMO 4 action camera with Joby Telepod Sport Tripod
DJI Wireless Microphones

On The Air

Band conditions during Hamvention weekend were pretty dismal. I’ll admit, I was fully prepared to call CQ for a couple of hours, if necessary, to complete the activation (Eric felt the same way). We had no other plans for the afternoon, so time was on our side.

The great thing about pairing a small random wire antenna with my KX2 is the incredible frequency agility I get using its internal ATU. And during this particular activation, I definitely needed it. Continue reading Post-Hamvention POTA: A Challenging but Relaxing Activation with Friends in Dayton →

Many thanks to Len (W8VQ) who writes:

I have been working CW a bit in my upstairs QRP station. Last night, 40 meters was alive. Lots of POTA and general QSOs and a few SKCC. I used my new straight key. I thought you’d enjoy a critique.

I used the new key for two SKCC QSOs and three POTA hunter contacts. Here it is between my mini straight key and mini Iambic. Those are small keys, as the ruler shows;

It absolutely works, and I suspect by the way it is designed and manufactured, it will work well beyond my years. It would be excellent for travel as there is little you could do to damage it or throw it out of adjustment, short of using it to play catch.

It does not provide you with any sort of positive CLICK feedback when keying. A vintage Kent Morse Op like myself finds this a negative when keying. I like that positive click (or TAP if you prefer that description) on contact while using a straight key. This key is more of a touch-key because of the design.

If you look at the “Spring”, it’s a manufactured pseudo torsion disc spring that functions both as a spring and a stanchion for the key knob. It’s made to be both supportive and slightly flexible.

There is not enough flexibility in that spring nor space between contacts to give you enough smooth travel to get a positive click. You can get a click if you back the bottom contact screw all the way out, but it’s minimal and you have to hit the key harder than normal to get that minimal click. The spring is strong by design. This key is designed to give you more of a “Touch-Contact” that you hear via sidetone rather than feel via tactile feedback.

Some ops said that you best leave it at the factory setting, but I played with the contact set-screw in the bottom and I think I adjusted it a bit better for my fist. It comes factory adjusted with a very light touch, almost feathery. I now have it on a medium-to-light touch. There is just no “Click” or “Tap”.

Is it the best key (as one op stated in the reviews) I ever used? No.

Is it a cool and unique key that works well? Yes, as long as you don’t expect that mechanical click-on-contact that I like in a straight key for “Pounding Brass”.

There will be no brass pounding with this particular key. But I’m glad I added it to my collection. The fit, finish and manufacture is very well done, IMO. Especially for the price. And it’s unique. I may add it to my POTA kit instead of any other straight key.

Click here to check it out on AliExpress.

-Len

What a unique key! Thank you, Len, for the mini review!