Tag Archives: Matt (W6CSN)

Field Reports, Guest Posts, Morse Code, Portable, POTA, QRP, Travel

UK POTA Rain and Shine

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by Matt (W6CSN)

Bletchley Park

Most readers of this blog are probably familiar with Bletchley Park and the significance of this place in breaking the codes used by the axis military forces during the second world war.

The electromechanical systems developed and used here to aid the codebreakers in their daily work led directly to the electronic digital computers of the mid-twentieth century, and then to the modern world as we know it.

After boarding the London Northwestern Railway at Euston station, the hour long train journey took us from central London, through the suburbs, then the pastoral English countryside to the station at Bletchley, just south of Milton Keynes.

Bletchley Park is a five minute walk from the train station at Bletchley, the town of the same name. In keeping with the formerly clandestine nature of the work at Bletchley Park, there are no loud signs to welcome you, just the Union Jack flying over the nondescript visitor center in Block C.

Exiting the visitor center, any ham will quickly spot the three-element SteppIR Yagi perched atop a roof-mounted tower. Also from the tower, a folded dipole extends over the the Block B building which houses the Alan Turing museum exhibits. The other end of this antenna farm is plugged into GB3RS, the amateur radio station for the National Radio Centre of the RSGB.

The friendly and helpful staff of amateurs at the NRC played a crucial role in my hoped-for plan of activating Bletchley Park for Parks On The Air.

Surprisingly, the POTA page for GB-0507 showed only a handful of activations of this iconic location. Seeing as this is a heritage site, I sent an email to the NRC about week before my visit asking for advice on how to be a welcome guest POTA operator.

Note, the NRC is colocated on the grounds of the museum but they are not a part of Bletchley Park. The NRC is a separate organization.

Martyn G0GMB, the Director of the NRC, kindly responded to my enquiry and informed me that individual amateur radio activity is not generally permitted on the grounds of Bletchley Park due to the number of visitors they receive and concerns about RF safety. This could explain the low number of activations.

The sharp eyed will spot the GB3RS beam across the pond.

Martyn suggested I could set up in the overflow car park few minutes walk down the road from the visitor center. While not on the grounds of Bletchley Park proper, the parking lot operation would still be in the spirit of POTA and would reasonably count as a valid activation location.

When I arrived at Bletchley Park on Friday afternoon, I was met by Mervyn G4KLE who was expecting me thanks to a note left by OM G0GMB. Mervyn asked where all my equipment was and I motioned to the pack on my back.

Because my radio and antenna was a low impact, minimal footprint QRP setup, I was told that I could make use of the picnic table just out the side door of the GB3RS shack, with my antenna setup just beside it. This dead-end spot was not on any of the paths frequented by park visitors and my antenna would not be easily visible.

The antenna is low profile

This was a much better arrangement than trying to activate from a car park without a car! I quickly deployed a GRA-GNT micro tripod with center spike pushed easily into the soft ground. The GRA-7350T loaded vertical and a set of short radials provided an SWR of 1.05 to 1.

I chose the QMX as a travel radio while in Britain because with it, the overall kit is very lightweight and compact. With the exception of the tripod the whole kit fits in my carry-on. The GRA-GNT antenna mounting kit has to fly in checked baggage due to several aggressive looking spikes that would certainly be flagged by airport security. Continue reading UK POTA Rain and Shine →

Field Reports, Guest Posts, News, Portable, POTA, QRP

The Adventure You Get

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Many thanks to Matt (W6CSN) who shares the following post from his blog at W6CSN.blog:

The Adventure you get is not always the adventure you expect. Recently I’ve been plotting a unique activation of the De Anza National Historic Trail, but that particular POTA activation is going to need a good antenna and just as importantly, time.

This day afforded a few hours in the morning for outdoor radio but not enough to retrace the steps of the De Anza expedition. Instead, I headed down to the San Francisco Bay side for a quick outdoor amateur radio session.

Marina entrance light from years gone by

Since it was was a Saturday, my usual spot at Presidio East Beach was heavily impacted by weekend recreation enthusiasts, so I continued for a quarter mile to the practically empty parking lot east of the St. Francis Yacht Club.

Small dry beach on the marina side of the jetty

Thence on foot past the old stone light tower and the clubhouse of the Golden Gate Yacht Club, you find yourself of the path to the end of the breakwater where a unique art installation sits.

Alcatraz Island at anchor off the point

The Wave Organ is a curious sculpture that uses tubes and cavities between old cemetery stones to channel and amplify the watery sounds of waves as the tides move in and out of the Bay.

Surrounded by saltwater at the end of this jetty, which by my reckoning is within the boundary of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (US-0647), this location was perfect for the “no impact” operation afforded by the Elecraft KH1.

This granite wall served as the operating bench

My plan was to see if I could complete an activation of making 10 contacts entirely by hunting other POTA activators, perfectly reasonable given it was a weekend with no geomagnetic storms to disrupt radio propagation.

An entire station in the palm of your hand

What I did not count on was that it was a contest weekend with both 20 and 15 meters wall-to-wall with rapid fire contesters. As a QRP station, finding the POTA needles in that haystack was going to be tough.

The wave organ is a naturally contemplative environment

I retreated to 17 meters which should offer good daytime propagation and no contesters. There on 18 MHz, I was was able to collect five park-to-park contacts in a span of 23 minutes.

At that point I’d exhausted all of the 17m active CW stations on the POTA spots page and didn’t really have time to wait for more to show up. Therefore the “all hunting” activation strategy was abandoned and I commenced calling “CQ POTA.”

A fresh charge delivers nearly 6 watts into a matched antenna on 17m

The activation was “validated” with a call from Dave, AA7EE as the 10th QSO and then completed with one more park hunted, K9DXA in US-1001. Most of the contacts were with stations east of the Rockies.

http://tools.adventureradio.de/analyzer/

One thing I learned from earlier outings with the KH1 was to not cut the log sheets too small, as might be suggested by the lines printed on the page. Without enough paper under the top and bottom tabs of the logging tray the sheets can easily be caught and snatched away by the wind.

Leave enough margin on the logging sheets and they are easily secured in the tray, even in the face of brisk Bay breezes.

Looking across the marina entrance toward Fort Mason

The “hunting only” activation plan didn’t quite work out but it was a great time out playing radio at scenic spot in San Francisco Bay.

Sailing season is well underway on SF Bay

While I didn’t expect to activate from the wave organ today, it turned out to be a fun adventure and an excellent spot from which to get on the air with the KH1.

73 de W6CSN

Field Reports, News, Portable, POTA, QRP

Change Is Good

7 Comments

by Matt (W6CSN)

Recently, OM Witherspoon (K4SWL) wrote a blog here and shared a POTA activation video in which he described the benefit of changing up your operating location within a large park to keep things fresh or simply to be able to activate within a given schedule.

Activation zone looking over the Pacific

That got me to thinking about my own “home” park, Presidio of San Francisco US-7889, a large park which is also part of an even larger reference, Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) US-0647. Recently my XYL, who is very patient, has been subjected to my complaining about being bored by doing the same activation over and over.

Classic vistas from the Presidio of SF

My typical POTA outing is after work, I drive ten minutes down to the East Beach parking area, set up a base-loaded vertical on the roof of my car and plug in the trusty FT-818. Mind you, this is not a bad setup. The location combined with repeatable antenna installation reliably produces contacts and I usually have a complete activation in about 30 minutes.

GRA-7350T antenna deployed

The XYL’s suggestion was, “hey, why not play radio somewhere else?” and K4SWL’s blog and video were an inspiration as well. So I left the FT-818 in the shack, packed up a QMX kit, and headed for the high bluffs in the Presidio that overlook the Pacific Ocean to the west. I setup on an out of the way granite bench that was part of a World War II memorial to servicemen who perished in the coastal waters of the Pacific.

World War Two commemorative wall

My plan was to get on 15 meters in the hope of catching some early JA’s or other Pacific rim DX. The vertical antenna deployed easily and though the location was substantially protected from the strong wind gusts, I did stake the tripod down with a pair of tent pegs.

Tent pegs keep the tripod secure

With an SWR of below 2:1 on 21 MHz I set to calling CQ and posted a spot on pota.app advertising that I was in US-0647 GGNRA, even though I was also still in US-7889. Turns out 15 meters was dead, for me at least. Not a single nibble after 15 minutes of calling.

Good SWR on 15 meters

After a QSY to 20 meters, another half hour brought in only four QSOs! This location and radio combo was certainly a nice break from the usual and even though the QSO pace was glacial, it was quite satisfying and refreshing to do something different.

The QMX station ready for action

Since the clock read just after 00 UTC there was plenty of opportunity to gather the needed contacts for a complete activation. If necessary I could even come out the next day before 23:59 UTC. But since I had no particular time constraint for the evening, I decamped for East Beach where I was pretty sure I could wrap up the activation in short order.

Sunset over SF Bay

Even though I was back at my “usual” spot, starting the activation somewhere else was the change I needed to break the routine. Six more QSOs validated the activation in a matter of minutes. I swear being down close to the waters of San Francisco Bay adds at least 3db to my signal. There is a reason I frequent this particular spot.

Sun going down behind the Golden Gate

I feel fortunate to have so many locations within US-0647 and US-7889 that are quite close to home. I plan to take advantage of this diversity of operating spots, knowing that the “East Beach Amplifier” is always available if my QRP is not cutting it.

72 de W6CSN Matt

P.S. I did, in fact, log this activation as a two’fer.

Articles, Field Reports, Guest Posts, How To, Kits, News, Portable, POTA, QRP, QRP Radios, Reviews

QMX – From Kit to Field!

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by Matt (W6CSN)

The Radio

The QMX by QRP Labs is a five band, multi-mode radio introduced by Hans Summers G0UPL at FDIM in 2023. The QMX is the next logical step in the radio development journey at QRP Labs, bringing together the innovative approach to FSK modes like FT8 from the QDX and the CW performance of the QCX series. This is all done in same enclosure as the QCX-Mini which is not much larger than a deck of playing cards.

Size of the QMX compared to standard deck of playing cards.
The QMX is about the size of a deck of cards.

The keen observer will notice that the QMX also sports a built-in microphone which, along with associated circuitry, supports future introduction of voice modes by way of firmware update. Other notable features include SWR metering with protection as well as solid-state “PIN” diode T/R switching, plus the option for “high band” coverage of 20 through 10 meters in addition to the original 80m-20m version.

Most hams have, at one point or other, forgotten to throw the antenna switch, adjust the tuner, or even connect an antenna before transmitting. The SWR meter and protection really sets the QMX apart from earlier QRP Labs radios. There are plenty of sad tales on the QRP-Labs forums from QCX or QDX users that “smoked” the BS170 mosfet finals in a moment of operating into a badly mismatched load. It’s remarkably easy to do, ask me how I know!

The Build

Based on experience with the QCX-Mini and having put together several QDX’s, I admit to being hesitant to starting assembly of this radio. The level of integration in the QMX as a multi-band, multi-mode unit is probably the highest yet to come out of QRP Labs. The components that were merely small in earlier radios are absolutely tiny in the QMX, specifically the LPF toroidal cores. The main board, internal switching power supplies, display, and controls board are all sandwiched together in a tight fit for the custom enclosure.

photo showing a partially completed circuit board
Most of the electronic components installed on the main board.

The build started with a slow and methodical approach of doing a little bit each day and working in the morning when my mind was fresh and there was good light on my workbench, a.k.a. the dining room table.

The first “disaster” happened when performing the factory recommended modification to Revision 2 boards shipped in 2023. The mod calls for a protection diode to be installed across a SMD mosfet. Several leaded 1N4148 diodes were available in my “junque” box so I attempted to carefully fit one of these in the right position on the board. While soldering the diode in place I managed to lift C508, a microscopic .1uF SMD capacitor, clean off the board!

photo of circuit board with modifications
The suggested modification adding a protection diode.

Given the tools at my disposal, there was no way I was going to be able to get that capacitor back into place. Therefore, I grabbed a standard through hole .1uF cap and painstakingly got it connected in the right place, verified by lots of continuity testing.

Once finished with all the electronic components on the main board, I was feeling pretty cocky and also the completion of the project was more clearly in view. The cautious and methodical approach gave way to a faster build pace, which directly lead to the second “disaster.” While installing the headers that connect the main board to the display board, I failed to CAREFULLY READ THE ASSEMBLY MANUAL and soldered the male pin headers where I should have installed the female sockets!

This misstep might have ended the project right then and there if I had not at some point in the last year bought a proper desoldering tool. This is not an expensive automatic vacuum pump powered solder re-work stations, but rather a heating tip and manually actuated solder sucker built into one tool. Twenty-two unsoldered connections later, we were back on track. Continue reading QMX – From Kit to Field! →

Field Reports, Guest Posts, News, Portable, POTA, QRP, Videos

Matt’s Weekend POTA Roundup!

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Many thanks to Matt (W6CSN) who shares the following post from his blog at W6CSN.Blog:

Weekend POTA Roundup

by Matt (W6CSN)

It’s been a stormy past several days here in Northern California, but if anything, the weather only amplifies my motivation to go outside and get on the air.

Rather than do a separate writeup for each, this post is a roundup of my last four POTA activations, from Friday, February 2nd through Sunday, the 4th.

A faint rainbow splashes down in front of Angel Island

Thursday and Friday had been wet, with one storm in a series moving across the Bay Area. However, by Friday evening the cold front had passed and there was a break in the rain. This was a perfect opportunity to try an after work activation at the Presidio of SF (K-7889).

I hadn’t used the QCX-Mini in a while, and this activation reminded me why. I believe what is happening is that being so close to the antenna, RF interference causes clicking while keying, nearly to the point of distraction. I need to experiment with RF chokes on the key and audio lines to see if that improves the situation.

Fed up with the RFI on the QCX-Mini, I switched over to the MTR-4B which doesn’t seem to suffer the same issue. I wrapped up the activation after netting 21 QSOs in the cold west wind.

All QSO maps in this post are from http://tools.adventureradio.de/analyzer/

The next bout of rain wasn’t due to arrive until later Saturday afternoon. This was a change in the forecast that subsequently altered my plan to stay in Saturday soldering on my QMX Hi-Bander project.

Initially I went to Fort Point (K-0819) in the hopes of changing it up from my usual activation park but there were just too many people there. So seeking relief from crowds, I crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and went up on the slopes of Mt. Tamalpais.

I parked at Trojan Point at an elevation of approximately 1800 feet. See this post for more views from this location. The temperature was in the mid-40s, which is cold for us coastal Californians. Besides, the winds were picking up ahead of the next storm so I operated from the comfort of my vehicle using the Gabil 7350T base loaded vertical antenna on 15m and 20m.

This activation used the FT-818 and yielded 23 contacts, including JH1MXV from northwest of Tokyo, Japan coming in fairly strong on 21 MHz.

Driving back to San Francisco takes me right through the Presidio of SF (K-7889) and noticing that it was after 00:00 UTC, I made the last second decision to divert to East Beach to see if I could work in another activation before the anticipated rain.

At my usual spot for activating this park, it took only moments to raise the MFJ-1979 20m quarter wave and do a quick deployment of the MTR-4B on the trunk of the car. The wind was picking up, but not nearly as strong as it was up on the mountain.

After seven QSOs, the skies began spitting raindrops, this was going to be close! I closed the cover of the Maxpedition pouch to protect the radio and battery while the Bencher paddles could tolerate a little bit of moisture.

I was happy to have a Rite-In-The-Rain notepad for logging [Amazon affiliate link], because now I was certainly writing in the rain! Three more contacts and the activation was concluded with a hunt of Jim, WB0RLJ, in K-4011. Continue reading Matt’s Weekend POTA Roundup! →

Field Reports, Guest Posts, News, POTA, QRP

Matt’s Rainy Day POTA Activation

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Many thanks to Matt (W6CSN) who shares the following post  from his blog at W6CSN.Blog:

Rainy Day Activation

by  Matt (W6CSN)

It’s late December and one of a series of winter storms is driving into northern and central California. The previous day, my plans for a combined Summits On The Air and Parks On The Air activation fell apart due to weather. Today most of the UTC day had passed with only light drizzle, and itching to get on the air, I hatched a plan for an activation at my nearby park reference K-7889, the Presidio of San Francisco.

Typically when activating at this park from the “East Beach” area, I will back into a parking space, setup the radio on the trunk lid and run the coax a short distance to a 17 foot vertical telescoping whip antenna which is clamped to a short steel post.

Today however, I chose to operate from inside the vehicle so both myself and the radio equipment would stay dry. Not wanting to leave the coax unsupervised where someone could trip over it, I deployed the Gabil GRA-7350T antenna with a triple mag-mount on the roof of the car.

The CW Morse paddles mounted to a steel clipboard on the center console.

The GRA antenna is a short, loaded vertical with the whip portion maxing out at about 8 feet in length. It works well on 20 meters, but it’s less of a compromise on higher frequencies. On 18 MHz, only a small amount of the loading coil is needed to achieve an acceptable SWR, so with the bands in pretty good shape I brought the Yaesu FT-818 so I could get on 17 meters.

There weren’t many spots for 17m on the POTA web site, but I posted my spot anyway and started calling CQ. It wasn’t long before KX0Y responded, followed by more hunters from across North America and Alaska. The Golden Gate Bridge was visible from my vantage point at the start of the activation, but as the rain intensified the bridge became enshrouded by the incoming weather front.

With 00 UTC approaching, the rain now coming down harder, and 13 QSOs in the log I called QRT. Rather than carefully stowing the antenna and mag-mount, I simply broke it down as quickly as possible and tossed it all the back seat since I would have to bring it inside to dry anyway.

The following equipment was used in this activation:

[Note: All Amazon and CW Morse links are affiliate links that support QRPer.com at no cost to you.]

Thanks to all the hunters that responded and made the activation a success.

73 de W6CSN.

Field Reports, News, Portable, POTA, QRP

W6CSN Activates Fort Baker in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area

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Many thanks to Matt (W6CSN) who shares the following post  from his blog at W6CSN.Blog:

Fort Baker On The Air

by Matt (W6CSN)

Fort Baker is a former U.S. Army post situated at the north of side of the Golden Gate, opposite Fort Point and adjacent the town of Sausalito, California. The post is now part of the sprawling Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) which is also known as K-0647 for POTA.

Many of the good POTA spots in the GGNRA are heavily used for recreation and sightseeing on weekend days such as this, but Cavallo Point is out of the way enough that there was still ample, free parking today. This location offers spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge, the city of San Francisco, and Alcatraz and Angel Islands at anchor in San Francisco Bay.

Today the “pull of POTA” was strong as I wanted to get another activation done before the arrival of an anticipated solar storm as well as rains predicted for the coming week.

During the week leading up to this activation the Bay Area has experienced fine weather with mild daytime temperatures and light winds, but driving in, the sound of rigging slapping loudly against the aluminum masts of the sailboats docked in the Presidio Yacht Club marina told me that it was windy down here.

A short series of wooden staircases lead up from the parking area to Battery Yates, named for Captain George Yates of the U.S. Cavalry who fell in the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876.

The gun battery is a reinforced concrete structure which once sported six rifles that fired a three inch caliber cartridge to provide for naval defense inside of San Francisco Bay. The guns were manned through the middle of World War Two when, by 1943, they had been moved to more strategic locations.

Today I had hoped to use the same steel pipe which supported a fiberglass mast and EFHW in an earlier activation from this spot, but unfortunately the pipe was too thick to get the jaw mount securely attached.

I went with plan B which was to use the pipe railing at the back edge of the gun pit. Being unsure whether or not the galvanized steel railing made any electrical connection to what surely must be rebar embedded in the concrete, I deployed the 17 foot vertical whip with three radials just in case.

Whatever was serving as a counterpoise, it was doing a great job, providing an SWR reading of 1.0 to 1 on the Mountaintopper MTR-4B. This was probably the third activation on this Lithium-Ion battery pack, so the power was down to 3.7 watts, still plenty for a CW activation with a resonant antenna.

The activation was scheduled ahead of time on the POTA web application so all I had to do was just start calling CQ POTA and let the RBN do the spotting. I soon heard from KG6HM from right across the Bay, followed by stations from Washington, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico.

I was starting to think it would be only western states calling in, but the band opened up a bit, bringing N3RT from Delaware. Now we had a proper coast-to-coast activation, and, I bagged a hard-to-get state needed for an informal CW “Worked-All-States” achievement.

By this time, the wind really started to pick up and with the sun so low in the western sky, it was becoming chilly. Satisfied with the 14 QSOs in the log, we packed up, made our way back down the pathway to the car, and then to a fancy coffee house in Sausalito for a nice warm cup.

Equipment Used

73 de W6CSN

Articles, Guest Posts, News, Skills

Guest Post: Watch Your Tone

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Many thanks to Matt (W6CSN) who shares the following post  from his blog at W6CSN.Blog:

Watch Your Tone

by Matt (W6CSN)

In this modern era of radio technology, where even analog radio is largely digital, we amateurs are accustomed to perfect signal quality all the time.

Nevermind the perfunctory 599s that are handed out during contests, for activities like Parks On The Air and Summits On The Air I believe most of us like to send and receive an honest RST report.

R-S-T from the 1938 edition of the ARRL Handbook

Although subjective, readability (R) and signal strength (S) are pretty well understood quantities. But what about tone, the T in R-S-T ? When was the last time you sent or received a tone value other than “9” (the highest value) ?

Last evening, at the end of one of my frequent activations of the Presidio of San Francisco (K-7889), I struggled to pull a barely readable and very weak signal out of the noise. For what it’s worth, the natural noise floor was very low, with the geomagnetic field listed as “Inactive” on qrz.com.

One of these stations had a distorted signal ?

What made the signal particularly difficult was that it sounded quite distorted. The problem I faced was how to tell the OM that it sounded like his signal had been through a blender. The numbers in the Tone scale go from 1 to 9 but I did not have any understanding of the specific defects encoded by the scale. I needed to send a report, and quick, so I dashed out a “225” followed by “DISTORTED.” But I was unhappy that I needed to send an extra, unexpected word to explain the reason for the “5” tone.

Tone

1–Sixty cycle a.c or less, very rough and broad.
2–Very rough a.c., very harsh and broad.
3–Rough a.c. tone, rectified but not filtered.
4–Rough note, some trace of filtering.
5–Filtered rectified a.c. but strongly ripple-modulated.
6–Filtered tone, definite trace of ripple modulation.
7–Near pure tone, trace of ripple modulation.
8–Near perfect tone, slight trace of modulation.
9–Perfect tone, no trace of ripple or modulation of any kind.

http://arrl.org/quick-reference-operating-aids

When I got home I resolved to refresh my knowledge on the R-S-T system so that I could have it at my disposal while operating and on the rare occasion when a tone value other than 9 is warranted.

May your signals always be strong and pure.

73 de W6CSN

Field Reports, Guest Posts, News, Portable, POTA, QRP

Matt’s “Crackadawn POTA” Field Report

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Many thanks to Matt (W6CSN) who shares the following post  from his blog at W6CSN.Blog:

Crackadawn POTA

by Matt (W6CSN)

This is the weekend in October that features the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels taking to the skies over the Bay Area. The air show takes place over the Bay waters, which means the beaches and shorelines around San Francisco will be packed with people and traffic. Since my usual POTA operating location is right by East Beach, I had pretty much given up on the idea of activating K-7889 this weekend.

Lights of the Golden Gate Bridge reflecting off the still Bay waters.

The airshow is on Saturday and Sunday, but the Blue Angles practice on Thursday and Friday, weather permitting. So here I was on Friday morning, awake at 5AM watching K4SWL on YouTube doing POTA when the idea of getting out for an early activation got into my head.

It was still dark when I tossed my backpack, which was already loaded for POTA from the previous activation, into the car and headed down to the East Beach in the Presidio of San Francisco National Historic Site (K-7889).

The sky getting lighter in the East before sunrise.

Given the early hour and low light conditions I didn’t relish the idea of doing my usual picnic table and tripod antenna setup. Not long ago I had acquired one of those “mirror” antenna mounts with the jaw clamp arrangement, and this was a great opportunity to try it out. Between the parking lot and the beachfront promenade there is low fence constructed of short steel posts and strands of stainless cable. The fence post was a perfect place to attach the clamp and the MFJ-1979 17 foot telescopic whip, which is a quarter wave on 14 MHz.

Close up of the MFJ-1979 whip antenna clamped to steel fencing.

I was ready to string some radials out to give the antenna a ground plane to work against, but wondered if the post, being sunk into the ground by the Bay and the steel fencing cables might provide enough of a counterpoise. A quick check of the SWR on the meter built into the MTR-4B showed a 1.2 to 1 – no need to even bother with radials with an SWR like that right out of the box.

Low SWR on the quarter wave vertical as the Bay wakes up.

The other advantage of this antenna setup was that it is right next to the car. However, I don’t really like operating from my vehicle as it’s not very sporting nor is it comfortable. Instead, I simply set the station on the trunk lid and completed the activation from a standing position. The other advantage of this arrangement was that I could closely guard the RG-316 coax going from the radio to the antenna to keep any humans or canines from getting entangled. Continue reading Matt’s “Crackadawn POTA” Field Report →

Field Reports, Guest Posts, News, Portable, POTA, QRP

Matt’s Low-Profile POTA Activation at the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park

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Many thanks to Matt (W6CSN) who shares the following post  from his blog at W6CSN.Blog:

SF Maritime NHP POTA Activation

by Matt (W6CSN)

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.

Muni Pier (closed) across Aquatic Cove

The San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park (K-0757) sits at the northern edge of the city, right next to the Fisherman’s Wharf area that is so popular with tourists visiting San Francisco.

NPS Map of SF Maritime NHP

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?

I used the Gabil GRA-3750T antenna with its stock telescopic whip tuned for 20 meters. This is the most low profile antenna I can field for HF. Yes, it’s a compromised antenna system but as you’ll see it works good enough. Continue reading Matt’s Low-Profile POTA Activation at the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park →