by Micah N4MJL
Recently, I examined the POTA app map and discovered a new yellow dot along my work commute that I had not yet activated. I have activated most of the POTA parks between Charlotte, NC and my home in Virginia that are not too far off my route of travel.
Upon further investigation, I learned that the new yellow dot belonged to the Yadkin River State Trail (US-12320). It is over 200 miles long. I chose to attempt activating from the Yadkin River Park on the Davidson County side of the river, just off I-85.
There is a nice walking bridge over the river with benches and historical signs along the walking trail. I thought about activating from one of the benches on the bridge, but there are some large power lines going over the bridge, making some heavy RFI noise on my KH-1.
After exploring the established walking trail, I found some makeshift chairs down by the riverside. It was pretty muddy, and I didn’t feel like wallowing in the mud while throwing a wire in a tree. I decided to use my Elecraft KH-1 whip antenna in the pedestrian mobile configuration.
As soon as I started calling CQ, a swarm of mosquitoes started feasting upon me. It didn’t help that I was wearing shorts and flip-flops.
I had just finished flying a four-day trip in Charlotte (CLT) and was on my way home. I had changed out of my uniform at a rest stop right before this activation. I was supposed to fly three flights today, but because of a maintenance delay, crew scheduling had already re-crewed my last two flights. I was getting home six hours early and getting paid! It usually doesn’t turn out this well for me. Normally, I’m getting junior manned into flying into my day off.
My first couple of contacts on the 20M band came quickly. I logged 8 contacts on the 20M band before they petered out. I noticed that there was a lot of QSB fading occurring. I tried tuning in other activators throughout the country who I should have been hearing just fine on 20M with no success.
My first two contacts on 20M were from Colorado and Arizona. After the 20M band died a silent death, I put on the AXE1 40M loaded coil antenna extender and threw out the longer counterpoise. I was able to log 5 more contacts on the 40M band and 1 contact on the 30M band.
After just over one hour calling CQ, I was able to get 14 contacts with two P2P.
Some people on the POTA Facebook page have commented on my activation photos that the KH-1 whip antenna is “garbage.” I do not think this is the case.
I have lost count of the number of POTA parks that I have successfully activated using the KH-1 whip antenna. Obviously, I would prefer to get a wire up in a tree when possible instead of using the whip antenna. However, many of the parks that I have activated would not have allowed a wire to be hung in a tree. I like using a very small stealth setup that does not attract much attention. I am always surprised when stations start calling me back.
I have also failed to activate many parks due to current band conditions/choice in whip antenna. But these are the things that make ham radio fun.
Small Success Story:
Before I started the activation, I noticed this sign for Davidson County. I took a picture of it so that I would remember to give credit for specific counties in the Logbook of the World for my hunters.
During the activation, after my second contact on 20M, I started getting QRM from close-by stations. The KH1 doesn’t have great filters, and the QSB from stations fading in/out was starting to get confusing. When I finally realized that a station was calling me, sending very slowly with repeats, I realized this station was asking what county I was located in. I grabbed my phone to look at this picture and sent him “QTH Davidson County” twice. The other station responded back with “RR TU 73..”
I am pretty sure it was one of the two stations I had already finished with who was calling me back. Unfortunately, the band conditions were getting bad. The RBN had not picked me up for a bit, and another POTA station started calling CQ right on top of me. The joys of activating QRP during the current solar conditions.
As you all know, I am a very green op! Anything outside of the canned POTA QSO does get difficult for me to copy. I can run my POTA exchanges at 18–20 WPM, but in order to keep up with a ragchew, I’m operating at about the 10–12 WPM range. So for me to copy a message outside of the canned CW POTA exchange during an activation is a small victory for me on my CW journey.
Since the bands have been in pretty rough shape lately, I have been practicing more CW copying with ARRL QST Bulletins from the W1AW archives. It is an awesome resource for new CW ops like myself. You can listen to parts of QST magazine sent in CW, ranging in speeds as slow as 5 WPM up to 40 WPM. After you listen to the message, you can click on the text file to read/grade yourself on what was sent.
13 WPM Code Archive
I give myself an 80%–90% accuracy score at 13 WPM copy. Unfortunately, my copy accuracy takes a giant nosedive when I go up to the next speed of 15 WPM.
In addition to listening to W1AW, I have been playing a lot of MorseRunner. It is a free program that simulates running a contesting station with or without a simulated pile-up. I have been practicing receiving stations from 18–26 WPM. I enjoy trying to break my previous scores copying international and domestic callsigns.
During my long drives commuting to/from work, I have been using Morse Code Ninja.
Practice · Morse Code Ninja
This has been instrumental in my pursuit of head copy. There are numerous exercises, with hyperlinks to many different speeds. The hyperlinks’ default setting opens YouTube, where you can listen to the sessions.
I recommend doing the bulk downloads. This gives you the option to do a bulk download at your chosen speed to your media player of choice. I have downloaded all of the 20 WPM lessons into my iPhone podcast app for offline use. This allows me to access them without being connected to cell or Wi-Fi. I have been working my way through all of the 20 WPM lessons.
The 5-letter word lesson that I am currently working through is just over 5 hours of riveting CW material! I’m definitely not near the land of head copying, but I’m slowly working my way there!
72 and thanks for hunting!
~ N4MJL