Tag Archives: Postcard Field Reports

Welcome to another Postcard Field Report!

I’m still in Dayton after Hamvention weekend, but didn’t want to skip my field report and activation video, so a hope you enjoy the slightly shorter report below:

Zebulon Vance Historic Birthplace (K-6856)

On Tuesday, April 25, 2023, I once again stopped by my weekly POTA spot, the Vance Birthplace. By mid-May, I will no longer be passing by this excellent little POTA site on a weekly basis, so my activations here will be much less frequent. A shame because I do love this site and its staff!

For this particular activation, I’d planned to test my almost perfectly trimmed QRPguys Tunable EFHW antenna, but I left it at home. Not a problem, actually, because after this activation, I discovered it’s not as resonant as I’d like on the 20, 15, and 10 meter bands, so I may tinker with the toroid windings a bit–perhaps removing one.

Instead, I deployed my MM0OPX EFHW which I thought was actually a great choice considering propagation had been incredibly unstable the previous few days.

Since I also had my Elecraft KX2, I knew I could use its built-in ATU to move to non-resonant bands like 17 and 30 meters.

This activation video is a long one because I had quite a lot of time to play radio and, frankly, it was nice taking things at a casual pace.

After deploying the antenna (twice!) I set up the radio, connected my Begali Traveler, and hopped on the air! Continue reading Postcard Field Report: Pairing the Elecraft KX2 and MM0OPX EFHW to face dubious propagation →

CW, Field Reports, News, Portable, POTA, QRP

Postcard Field Report: Pairing the Elecraft KX2 and Packtenna 9:1 Random Wire at Holmes Educational State Forest

May 15, 2023 Thomas Witherspoon 6 Comments

Well, I’m off to Hamvention in two days and trying to prepare for the trip. There’s so much to do!

If you are attending Hamvention this year, I’d love to meet you. Stop by the Ham Radio Workbench/Halibut Electronics table (#3011) and introduce yourself.

Since my travels this week are imposing on my field report time, I’m going to share another, shorter, Postcard Field Report. I hope you enjoy it:

Holmes Educational State Forest (K-4856)

On Friday, April 21, 2023, I had a short window of time to fit in an activation while my daughter was attending her high school robotics class.

Her robotics class lasts nearly two hours, but it’s 30 minutes away from all parks and summits, so traveling to/from a site takes about one hour.

I didn’t care because I had a particular park in mind: Holmes Educational State Forest (K-4856).

It had been one year almost to the day since I last activated Holmes.

I arrived on site around 13:30 local, and there were only a few other people floating about.

I walked up the main loop path in search of a good picnic table that was out of the way and with ample trees about.

In a pinch, any of the picnic table sites would have sufficed, but since I practically had the whole park to myself, I could afford to be picky!

The sign above reminds me that Educational State Forests in North Carolina have hours that vary by season and truly cater to school groups, thus are primarily open during the school day. Always check those hours before embarking on a journey to this type of park.

One great thing about our Educational State Forests is that they almost always have a nice covered picnic shelter for school groups. If they’re not occupied, they’re perfect for POTA activators who’d like to escape heavy rains. You can see the one at Holmes off in the distance in this photo:

I ended up choosing the same picnic table I used last time–it had more room around it to set up an antenna without crossing the path.

I didn’t have a lot of time to set up and operate, so I chose to use one of my speedier deployment combos: the Elecraft KX2 and PackTenna 9:1 Random Wire. Continue reading Postcard Field Report: Pairing the Elecraft KX2 and Packtenna 9:1 Random Wire at Holmes Educational State Forest →

CW, Field Reports, News, Portable, POTA, QRP, Vintage

Postcard Field Report: Pairing the Elecraft KX3 and Tufteln Random Wire

May 8, 2023 Thomas Witherspoon 3 Comments

Believe it or not, the 2023 Hamvention and Four Days In May is only ten days away at time of posting.

Where in the world did the time go–?

If you’re going to Hamvention, I hope to meet you there. When I’m not floating around, I’ll be hanging out at the Ham Radio Workbench/Halibut Electronics table: 3011.

I’m super excited about attending, but I’ve so much to prepare in advance. Every day between now and then is planned out to the max with family activities and projects.

That, and being an introvert (this might surprise some of you), I have to mentally prepare myself for hanging out with 30+ thousand other human beings. I’ll need ten days for that alone. If I appear tired at Hamvention or FDIM, you’ll know why! Ha ha!

Postcard Field Report

I’ve got a load of videos in the pipeline and to keep from falling behind publishing them, you’re going to see more of my slightly shorter “Postcard Field Reports” for the next couple of weeks during my travels.

These postcard reports contain all of the core information, just less wordy. (In theory!)

Tuttle Educational State Forest (K-4861)

On Wednesday, April 5, 2023, I had a bit of time in the early afternoon to do a POTA activation. Tuttle Educational State Forest was low-hanging fruit as my errands that day took me within a stone’s throw of the park.

I arrived a bit before noon and took some time to record a Hike and Talk video (which will be published in the next couple of weeks).

After the hike, I set up my Elecraft KX3 and paired it with my Tufteln End-Fed Random Wire antenna. Continue reading Postcard Field Report: Pairing the Elecraft KX3 and Tufteln Random Wire →

Antennas, CW, Field Reports, News, Portable, POTA, QRP

Postcard Field Report: Pairing the Mission RGO One with the Elecraft AX1 at Lake James for some QRP DX

February 20, 2023 Thomas Witherspoon 12 Comments

Welcome to my first Postcard Field Report!

If you’ve been following QRPer.com and my YouTube channel for long, you’ll notice that I typically post two field reports with videos per week when my free time allows. Each report takes about four hours to produce along with a video. I’ve currently got a small backlog of videos I need to post, so in order to squeeze them into my schedule, I’m going to use a slightly more abbreviated field report format: a “postcard” format!

My Postcard Field Reports will still be information-packed, just slightly more concise and distilled than my average field report. I’ll primarily post these for sites I visit frequently.

Speaking of which….

Lake James State Park (K-2739)

Thursday, February 2, 2023, was a rainy, dreary day so the perfect time to play a little POTA, right? I made time in my morning to visit Lake James State Park (K-2739).

When I arrived at the Catawba River Access, the parking lot was empty. Not too surprising considering it was a Thursday morning on a chilly, rainy day.