It’s January 1st, 2025, and I’d like to wish you a very Happy New Year!
I mentioned on Patreon yesterday that, in a sense, I’m happy to see 2024 in the rear-view mirror.
Frankly, it was a tough year for our family in many ways, but even amidst the challenges, there were moments of celebrationandjoy.
Our biggest takeaway from 2024 was experiencing the overwhelming love, kindness, and support from our community after my mother’s passing, my father and father-in-law’s (multiple) hospitalizations, and, especially, the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
This community pulled us through, and for that, we are deeply grateful. Thank you!
Looking Ahead to 2025
As we move into the new year, I’m committed to keeping an optimistic outlook. On the radio front, I hope to activate new parks and summits and attend events like Hamvention, Four Days in May, and possibly another QRP convention. I’ve a couple of radio kits I’d also like to get on the bench when things calm down.
We also hope to fit in a bit of travel this summer and restart our vacation rental after storm repairs have been completed.
A Fresh Start with Correspondence
If you know me, you know I take great pride in responding to every email I receive. I value the time and effort people take to reach out.
But even in the best of times, keeping up with correspondence can be challenging. I typically receive 12–24 personal messages daily—some days more, some days less—and that’s in addition to routine emails from our family business, organizations, charities, etc. It takes me a few minutes to respond to each, so time-wise, it really adds up.
After Hurricane Helene, I was overwhelmed by the outpouring of kind messages and support from readers. It was humbling. Between storm recovery, family commitments, and running QRPer.com, however, my ability to respond to emails virtually disappeared.
I’ve read every message, but replying takes time, and recent hand soreness from storm cleanup and chainsawing has made typing for extended periods difficult. Compounding the issue, my SPAM filter has been overly aggressive, likely deleting 30%+ of messages from new senders.
Despite my best efforts, my backlog has remained at over 350 individual messages, and I know some messages have been permanently lost.
Moving Forward
After discussing this with a friend (who is a public figure and struggles with this much more than I do), I’ve decided to implement a correspondence moratorium for 2025.
This means I’ll archive my current 2024 email backlog and start fresh.
If you’ve written to me with a field report or QRPer.com submission and haven’t heard back, please re-send it—I’ll prioritize those and get them in the pipeline.
For those who sent notes of encouragement: please know I’ve read and deeply appreciated every word, even if I couldn’t reply.
Thank you for understanding.
Looking to the Future
We’ll still be tackling storm restoration projects well into the summer, but I’m hopeful for more balance as my daughters start their university journeys this fall (we’re so proud of them). In the meantime, my family and I are incredibly grateful for your kindness and support.
Here’s wishing you and yours a 2025 filled with joy, peace, and plenty of QRP!
As I finish 2024, it is time to look forward to and set ham radio goals for 2025. Why even set goals? We all need challenges not only to maintain our skills but also progress with them. Challenges motivate us, “gamifying” our pursuits. Also, they are fun, the ultimate goal with ham radio as it is a hobby.
When setting goals, one needs to keep in mind the acronym S.M.A.R.T. Goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based. From a big picture perspective, goals should excite but also scare one a little. If they don’t scare you, then you aren’t challenging yourself.
This may not sound like much of a challenge given that my goal for 2024 was 60 new activations. According to the POTA website, there are 77 parks (46 in Georgia and 32 in South Carolina) that are within a 100-mile radius of my home QTH. Of those parks, I’ve activated 23. That leaves 54 parks within a doable driving distance for new activations.
In addition to the parks I may activate close to home, I have, as of right now, four trips already on the calendar for 2025: a camping trip with Daisy to southeast Georgia the first week of January, a short camping trip to a nearby state park with my son during his spring break, a short trip to Camden, South Carolina with Glenn, and a trip to Canada (New Brunswick, Quebec, and Prince Edward’s Island) in July.
Between the POTA sites still available close to home and the trips I am planning, I think a goal of 30 new valid park activations is an attainable goal by the end of 2025.
Just as it is good to push myself and experience new parks, I also want to experience POTA in a relaxed and easy manner. Activating the same park over and over may sound boring; but I propose it doesn’t have to be. Experiencing a park over the course of the year allows you to become intimate with that landscape. I think of Aldo Leopold’s book “A Sand County Almanac.”
For those of you that don’t like math, you can skip this and the next paragraph. For jollies, I sat down and figured out that for the 47 activations this year, I had 1,193 QSOs and spent roughly 2,780 minutes on the air attaining those QSOs. That means each QSO took on average 2.33 minutes. Of course, those of you who activate know that how long an activation takes will depend on propagation, how easily and quickly you spot yourself, whether you are running a frequency or also hunting other activators (the latter takes more time), and distractions.
I need 1,000 QSOs for a kilo award. If on average it takes 2.33 minutes per QSO (what it took this past year for the parks I activated), a kilo may take 39 hours. Let’s say I am fortunate enough to activate this refuge twice a month. If so, I’ll need to spend, on average, an hour and a half on the air during each activation to reach my goal. Given this park’s close proximity and my schedule, this goal is attainable though it won’t be easy.
A worthy goal – a kilo at Savannah NWR
On the air with my straight key, cootie, bug, and paddle each weekly
Many of you know I don’t have a ham shack at my home anymore because of antenna restrictions. I am blessed to have a shack at my parents’ house. But, as it is a 15-minute drive one-way, I find it a challenge to get on the air regularly throughout the week.
There are so many ways to do this. For the paddle, I hope to activate POTA weekly. I also usually use my paddle for my weekly code buddy QSOs with Caryn KD2GUT.
As for my mechanical keys, there are QSOs with my other two code buddies – Charles W4CLW and Gary K4IIG. For QSOs with hams new to CW, I usually use my cootie or straight key as I can run slower more easily with those keys. There are also SKCC monthly events and special events – Straight Key Night (January 1st), K3Y month for SKCC (the entire month of January), K2D for International Dog Day (August), the NAQCC anniversary week in October – in which to participate. And when all else fails, there is the old standby of calling CQ.
Increase my comfort level in headcopying QSOs
Speed is not everything. In fact, accuracy trumps speed any day. Most conversational QSOs occur at 20 wpm and under, hence I’ve chosen 20 wpm as my typical speed on the air and will probably stay there for the bulk of my QSOs. I routinely head copy my conversational (ragchew) QSOs. However, I’d like to increase my comfort level and skill in doing so (don’t we all?). What is my plan for doing so?
Before Glenn moved to Savannah, he and I were code buddies and just beginning to run our QSOs at 25 wpm. Now that we live in the same area, we stopped those QSOs. We could be code buddies over vband or Zoom; however, both of us prefer to be on the air as that is why we have a ham radio license and neither vband or Zoom QSOs are valid QSOs we may put in our log. We are working on a UHF/VHF bands solution we learned about from a CW Innovations‘ alum recently. I hope to share that in a QRPer article in the future.
My goal is to have code buddy QSOs with Glenn again, at least once but hopefully twice a week. Regular practice coupled with some ICR training (32 wpm character speed) will knock the rust off my code skills from a lack of consistent practice over the course of this past year. I also plan to check into the 3905 Century Club net or OMIK net several times a month as that on-the-air experience is different from the bulk of my QSOs.
Well, I think that gives this POTA Babe plenty to chew on for 2025. An additional, unstated but most important challenge will be to maintain balance. To ensure I am driving the goals and the goals are NOT driving me. To keep in mind that the journey, not the destination, is what ultimately matters.
Ogeechee River at Fort McAllister State Park
I am curious as to your goals for next year. Please feel free to leave them in the comments below. I look forward to sharing with you my continuing journey in 2025. Best wishes for a safe and fun end of the year for all of you! As to the adventures ahead, stay tuned…
Last December, I set a goal of 60 new Parks on the Air (POTA) valid activations by the end of the 2024. When I sat down to calculate this goal last December, I figured one park a week was easily attainable. In fact, in my article about Jack Hill State Park, I laid out my vision for pursuing this goal – gathering activations during breaks in my son’s school year with some overnight camping trips sprinkled in.
Black Balsam SOTA/POTA in North Carolina – July 2024
Well, life doesn’t exactly go according to plan, and it certainly didn’t for me in 2024. The April trip I planned to Florida was cut short for personal reasons. The July North Carolina trip was cut short due to weather. The Thanksgiving camping trip with my son was postponed until next spring. Those changes reduced the number of parks I could activate during school breaks.
In addition, my personal life has undergone much change this year. After my divorce, I moved into a place of my own and became a single mom. I worked through the trauma of an emotionally abusive marriage and began to prioritize self-care. I’ve always been a busy person juggling many plates; however, at age 53, it is time to re-evaluate my priorities and savor the life God has given me.
Needless to say, the goal I at first thought would be an easy slam-dunk has proven to be anything but that.
Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park in Florida – December 2023
At this point, there are three weeks left in the year and I’ve activated 47 parks successfully, leaving me 13 short of my goal. Do I think I’m going to attain the goal I set? No. I certainly could make a concerted effort and push myself to reach 60 parks. But the older and wiser Teri is looking for balance in her life. She realizes that the journey is more valuable, more meaningful than the destination.
She sees the glass as half full, looking at what she’s gained on this journey: learning how to execute solo camping trips with her dog Daisy far from home, a better understanding of her equipment, a connection with other hams through POTA QSOs, the opportunity to share her successes and struggles through these articles.
Daisy and I at Hiltonia Wildlife Management Area in Georgia – January 2024
Just because we are nearing the end of 2024 doesn’t mean my journey with POTA or ham radio is over. No. No. No. There are many more adventures ahead for this POTA Babe. I’ve said it many times – ham radio is about relationships. I can’t begin to express how much it means to me to have all of you with me through this journey. Here’s to the adventures ahead of us.
George L. Smith State Park in Georgia – September 2023
It’s the beginning of 2024 (Happy New Year everyone!) and a lot of my radio friends have been setting goals and asking what mine are for the year.
Truth is, I’ve had so much going on during the latter half of December, I hadn’t stopped to think about 2024 goals.
This morning, with a cup of coffee fueling my brain cells, I came up with a few ideas.
Here are the goals I’ve pieced together for 2024:
Complete a CW satellite contact
Complete a POTA activation using FT8
Add 20 more parks to the number of unique POTA sites I’ve activated
Add 5 new summits to the number of unique SOTA summits I’ve activated
Update: One more…build that QCX+ a good friend Bob gave me, then put it on the air!
Out of these goals, I think the second, completing an FT8 POTA activation, will be the easiest. I’m mainly making it a goal for 2024 so that I actually carry through with doing it.
The CW satellite contact? I’ve got the gear to do it now, I believe, but this will take me well outside of my comfort zone. That’s a good ting. Making it a goal for 2024 will encourage me to bite the bullet.
The last two POTA and SOTA goals will actually be the toughest for me simply because we haven’t ironed out our travel plans for 2024 as of today. Funny part is I know some leaderboard POTA and SOTA activators that would knock these goals out in the month of January without breaking a sweat!
I’ve activated all of the low-hanging POTA fruit around my QTH (with three exceptions) so any new unique parks will be further afield and more easily achieved if we take some family road trips.
I’ve many more SOTA summits to hit here in North Carolina alone, but again, so much depends on my available free time.
Your 2024 Goals?
What are your goals for 2024? Please comment if you care to share!
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As we move into the new year, I’m committed to keeping an optimistic outlook. On the radio front, I hope to activate new parks and summits and attend events like Hamvention, Four Days in May, and possibly another QRP convention. I’ve a couple of radio kits I’d also like to get on the bench when things calm down.
If you know me, you know I take great pride in responding to every email I receive. I value the time and effort people take to reach out.
We’ll still be tackling storm restoration projects well into the summer, but I’m hopeful for more balance as my daughters start their university journeys this fall (we’re so proud of them). In the meantime, my family and I are incredibly grateful for your kindness and support.
