Tag Archives: QRP

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

DITs and DAHs from Alcatraz

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DITs and DAHs from Alcatraz

by Leo (DL2COM)

San Francisco Radio Diary – Part 1

“No way!” I said to myself when I saw that Alcatraz Island is an official Parks-on-the-air (POTA) reference which has only been activated four times by two operators.

Alcatraz Island
Alcatraz Island / POTA reference K-7888 & 2fer K-0647

It surprised me that such a historically relevant site hasn’t seen more ham radio activity in the past – or maybe it has, just not for POTA. I then got super excited as I was packing my bags for San Francisco.

I have missed this foggy beauty so much and it has been many years since I visited the city. I won’t bore you with the ordeal of our travel but it included canceled flights, multiple delays and rescheduling via Berlin and London the next day due to a hostage situation at Hamburg airport. So our already super short trip of 4.5 days shrunk into a good 3 days in SF. So which things to cross off the schedule now? It was clear that this unfortunate situation was certainly not going to eat into my activation budget. Hell no!

I admit since watching “The Rock” (1996) Alcatraz has always been a place of mystery and fascination to me. Those who are interested in reading more about the former fort, military prison and federal penitentiary can do so here.

After I learned that it was also a CW ATNO I instantly said: “Done deal. The ink is dry. I will activate with morse code in the shadows of Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage and Ed Harris”. Of course I would do it plain vanilla style throwing good ol’ wires in trees and staking pointy things in the ground. Yeah right. Sometimes passion does tend to carry you away a wee bit so a little later I gathered myself and started doing some research.

K-7888 log so far

Apparently the first POTA pioneer on Alcatraz was KC1MIJ who managed to get 5 QSOs in with an FM HT in July 2021. I’d say that’s pretty awesome for a location almost as low as sea level. The first successful activation was done on December 3rd 2021 by Elizabeth “Liz” N6LY and her husband Kevin K6YD. Since then both of them had only been back one time in December 2022 for another day to achieve a whopping cumulative 761 phone QSOs in only two days of total operation. Wow! What an achievement. No other hams have tried to activate Alcatraz since.

National Park Service Badge
The entire island is under management of the National Park Service (NPS)

I didn’t hesitate to write Liz an email and ask about her experience operating from the island as I knew it would probably require some preparation. The POTA website also stated that a permit from the National Park Service (NPS) is required. Luckily Liz replied swiftly with a lot of helpful information and I am very thankful for the email exchange. She specifically pointed out that it is in fact necessary to get a permit (even for simple HT activity) and that she had already applied in July for another day activity this coming December. They are still waiting to hear back from NPS’s office so it does seem quite hard to get approval for a “proper” activation. It is understandable that folks there want to have control over an organized operation where antennas, 100w radios, chairs etc. might need to be set up. With so many tourists visiting each day they also want to make sure that any activity doesn’t interfere with their core business especially on weekends.

Since I really didn’t want to spoil any of the hard preparatory work with NPS that Liz and Kevin had done for the ham radio community as well as respect local processes I wrote an email to the Alcatraz Rangers Office asking for a permit only a few days before my arrival. I knew it was a long shot and highly unlikely that they’d get back to me in time. So I called them every morning and afternoon the days after to follow up but was unsuccessful reaching them on any channel. By that point I had almost given up. However there were plenty of other options for activations so I had a blast in/on several SOTA/POTA references in SF which I will report on later.

Alcatraz Island Ferry
Alcatraz Island Ferry @ Pier 33

On our last day I woke up and thought “Man, I can’t just leave the Bay Area and not activate Alcatraz.” Since one of my appointments got canceled short-term I didn’t think long, jumped on an Uber to Pier 33 and off I was (yeeeees, online tickets were still available).  Continue reading DITs and DAHs from Alcatraz →

Field Radio Kits, News, Portable, QRP

Field Radio Kit Gallery: PP2PB’s Xiegu X6100 Field Kit

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Many thanks to Pedro (PP2PB) who shares the following article about his portable field radio kit which will be featured on our Field Kit Gallery page. If you would like to share your field kit with the QRPer community, check out this post.

Main bag

  • Canvas bag
  • Xiegu X6100 (complete with hand mic, power and usb cable) with aluminium shield
  • Homemade 6Ah Lifepo4 battery
  • Earbuds (an old Zune HD pair, and yes, the Zune HD still works)
  • Aliexpress CW Paddle
  • Coax: 5m RG-316, 2m RG-316 with homemade inline choke, 30cm RG-316 jumper
  • Homemade 2m/60cm Signal Stick “clone” (The X6100 can tune it to 6m, 10m and even 12m bands!)
  • 2x homemade QRP 49:1 UNUN (one 2:14T and one 3:21T) made with FT82-43 toroids
  • 3x plastic S-Biners/Hooks for antennas, coax, etc.
  • SO239 to BNCm and BNCf to BNCf adapters
  • SD card with R1CBU alternative firmware (awesome project runs directly from SD Card without messing with original firmware) –
  • Antenna wire: 26 AWG 20m, 5m, a couple 2-3m counterpoises. And a couple 30cm alligator clip jumper cables.
  • BNC to banana adapter (for any type of improvised antenna)
  • Some generic paracord and velcro for general purpose

Support bag

I have a few generic fiberglass poles for antenna deployment that I fitted with a guying system made of paracord: simple, slim, lightweight and strong. And generic tent stakes. I only take them when needed.

This kit is my travel, POTA, SOTA kit. The main bag contains everything needed for operation, and the support bag has a few things to prolong the operating time (on multiple day trips) and for better antenna deployment.

I’m really into DIYing stuff and being from Brazil its hard and expensive to get stuff from USA, so DIY is the way to go.

The kit is about the size of a FT-857D (just the radio), and weighs less. And I have enough redundancy without getting too bulky or heavy.”

Field Reports, News, People, Portable, POTA, QRP, Travel, Videos

A welcome POTA layover with friends at Lee State Park in South Carolina

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On September 30, 2023, my uncle Reggie passed away at the age of 83. I was incredibly fond of him. His funeral was to take place in Georgetown, South Carolina on Tuesday, October 3rd.

The funeral time was confirmed on Sunday evening (Oct 1), so I made all of my travel plans that night. I decided to leave early Monday morning and drive to Myrtle Beach where I’d reserved a hotel room for one night. I’d then attend the funeral the following day and drive back to my home in the mountains. Round trip, this would amount to about 12 hours of driving.

This, of course, was a pretty somber reason to take a road trip–although it would be nice to spend time with my SC family. I wanted to make the most of my travels and fit in a little “radio therapy” along the way. I glanced over the POTA map for a park that might make for a nice break from travels.

Before hitting the sack Sunday evening, I remembered that many months ago Keith (KY4KK) told me to give him a heads-up anytime I planned to pass by Florence, SC. I knew that Florence would be a simple detour on my journey, so I reached out to Keith and asked if he and his POTA buddies Tommy (N4GS) and Steve (W4JM) might, by some chance, be available for a quick POTA activation. Of course, this was very late notice.

Keith wrote back and recommended that I activate Lee State Park–he and Tommy were both available but, unfortunately, Steve had other plans.

Monday morning, I hit the road and arrived at Lee State Park in the early afternoon.

Lee State Park (K-2905)

I pulled into the park driveway and was greeted by a number of Halloween displays. Evidently, the park staff loves decorating for holidays.

At first glance, this looks like a POTA activator that never never got their ten logged.

I pulled into the visitor’s center parking lot and immediately met Keith and Tommy.

After a quick greeting, Keith said, “Thomas, our job here is to get you on the air as smoothly as possible so you can continue your trip.”

Keith, KY4KK (left) Tommy, N4GS (right)

Herein lies what I love about amateur radio and POTA specifically: even though Keith, Tommy, and I had only just met in person, they were instant friends.

I must say, Lee State Park is the perfect POTA park; there are loads of tall trees, covered picnic areas, open spaces, ample parking, and ham-friendly staff. It just doesn’t get better than this!

We walked to a large covered picnic area and Keith suggested that we deploy his 40 meter EFHW antenna.

I agreed without hesitation!

Unlike me, Keith is adept at using a slingshot to deploy his antennas.

As I started setting up the radio, Keith aimed his slingshot and snagged a really high branch on the first go. This 40M EFHW was being deployed as a vertical!

I decided to bring along my Penntek TR-45L on this trip. I’m glad I did: it was ideal for this sort of POTA activation! Continue reading A welcome POTA layover with friends at Lee State Park in South Carolina →

Field Reports, News, Portable, QRP, SOTA, Videos

Elecraft KH1 + Speaker Wire = Pileup Madness on Bakers Mountain!

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Since the beginning of November, I’ve been pushing my Elecraft KH1 activations to the front of the line so that readers and subscribers who are considering this wee handheld radio might get a chance to see and hear it in action.

So far, I’ve used the KH1 for what it was designed to do: pedestrian mobile/handheld using the built-in whip antenna. I’ve activated a park, a summit, and even did a little parking lot POTA hunting.

I’ve decided that November is KH1 month–this is the only radio I’ll use this month.

I will start blending in some of my field reports from October (there were some really fun ones in there) that feature my other field radios and a variety of antennas starting next week. I’ll still be pushing some of my KH1 field reports to the front during that time as well. Also, I’ll likely post more bonus videos over on Patreon.

Where to activate?

On Monday, November 6, 2023, I had several hours in the afternoon to take the KH1 on another mini radio adventure. I wasn’t sure where I’d perform an activation, though.

This time, I didn’t want to do a pedestrian mobile activation. I wanted to see how the KH1 might play on my kneeboard and how it might pair with my 28.5′ speaker wire antenna. I was curious if its internal ATU would find acceptable matches on all bands.

I packed the KH1, throw line bag, Tufteln Kneeboard, Helinox chair, 2L water bag, camera gear, and speaker wire antenna in my GoRuck pack (FYI: all links and full inventory are below).

This was more gear than I’d need, but all of these items were in my radio box in the trunk/boot of my car.

I had only one errand to run that afternoon: I needed to drop off some of my wife’s illustrated Christmas cards at my friend Hamilton William’s Gallery in downtown Morganton.

After catching up with Hamilton, I had to make a decision about where to go for an activation. I knew this: it was an incredibly beautiful day, so whatever I did, it needed to include a hike!

I considered a few parks but the most convenient spot for a proper hike was Bakers Mountain. It also required the least amount of driving since it was essentially on the way back to Hickory.

Bakers Mountain (W4C/WP-007)

It being an early Monday afternoon, there weren’t many other hikers at Bakers Mountain. In fact, I never ran into any other hikers on the main loop trail.

Bakers Mountain park is (sadly) not a POTA entity. It’s a county park, so does not currently qualify. There was talk once of Bakers Mountain being turned into a state park, but it falls just shy of the amount of acreage needed to qualify.

Bakers Mountain is a one point SOTA summit, but the hike (if you do the full loop trail) is actually pretty strenuous if you take it at a nice clip. I’d consider it a moderate hike overall.

I’ve already activated Bakers Mountain this year, so this activation’s point will not add to my goal of reaching Mountain Goat (1,000 points). That’s okay, though. Unless my family life changes in a way that frees up a lot more time, Mountain Goat is a good 5-6 years in the future at my pace! I’m perfectly fine with that.

I reached the summit and found a spot to set up in the shade. Continue reading Elecraft KH1 + Speaker Wire = Pileup Madness on Bakers Mountain! →

Guest Posts, News, Portable, QRP, Stealth

Bob pairs the QRP Labs QCX+, ATU-100, and a super stealthy longwire

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Many thanks to Bob (K7ZB) who shares the following guest post:

QRP Operation with the QRP Labs QCX+ and ATU-100 on 20M CW

Bob Houf (K7ZB)

By now the QRP Labs QCX+ CW transceiver is well known, and many have been shipped by Hans.

The first unit I bought came fully assembled in the aluminum case but had a weird malfunction in the audio chain and after careful troubleshooting with Hans’ help a replacement unit was sent and worked well.

I have assembled plenty of electronics kits in 60 years of ham radio, building some from scratch and  worked as an electronics design engineer for years so having someone else solder up a board now is a luxury I am happy to pay for – but if you like the smell of solder as smoke gets in your eyes and your hands don’t shake, by all means save some money and build one yourself.

I picked up a Malahit rendition of the N7DDC ATU – mine came from Amazon and is the 100W version that uses an external power supply.

My first setup was to see if I could power both the QCX+ and ATU-100 simultaneously from a portable 25800mAH charger bank with two USB ports.  The addition of two USB-to-12VDC converter cables looked like an ideal way to minimize the size of the radio package for portable operation:

Unfortunately, although the power capability of the battery was far more than adequate, when transmitting CW for just a few seconds the battery BMS tripped the power unit offline.

So, my next move was to use my larger 12V, 6AH LiFePo4 battery to power both units which worked well.

The antenna used here is a longwire of 47’ running from the top of our second-floor balcony out to a tree.  The wire is about 25’ above ground and runs between two of the 3-unit townhouse/loft condo building units. There seems to be little interaction noticed on the signal reports received due to the physical proximity.  And, when not experimenting with QRP I routinely run 100W from my transceiver into the wire without a problem.

This time, however, I decided to use #26-gauge magnet wire instead of the far stealthier #28 wire I have run for the past year.  A tree trimming gang went through earlier in the summer and took out my #28 monofilament tether line in the tree, so I decided to go with a larger diameter wire.

In both cases I sponge a thin layer of battleship gray paint on the line which helps conceal it when looking up in the sky.

One discovery from this version is that there is a BIG difference in visibility between #26 and #28 magnet wire as seen from the ground!

I took down the #26 and will revert to #28 – which is essentially invisible at 25’ above your head.

I run the wire directly into a Common Mode Choke which then drops down to another CMC designed for other bands so that with the two in series I have no shield currents and no circuit breaker tripping or RF in the shack issues on 40, 20, 15 and 10M, even running 100 Watts:

I have a very low noise level on receive and don’t use a Balun at the feedpoint of the antenna, but I do use an antenna tuner to match the impedance, either the built-in tuner of my Kenwood transceiver or the ATU-100 for the QRP rig.

The CMC’s were designed by a friend using the K9YC cookbook approach available online and are very effective.

QCX Operation

The band conditions over the past weekend were funky with high noise level and rapid fading at times.

Despite this, I made multiple contacts in the western USA with reasonable signal reports and only one station had to send “sri no cpi”.

On Sunday evening I stumbled into the K1USN Slow Speed Contest (SST) and enjoyed making contacts from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest and everywhere in between.

Band conditions were much quieter and there were signals nearly every kilohertz from about 14.030 up to around 14.050+.

The QCX+ uses a CW filter design set at 200Hz and with 10Hz frequency resolution it was easy to copy one signal from another, despite the lack of more sophisticated filtering capability.

Since you only are putting out a 4-Watt signal you search and pounce with care and in a casual contest like the SST it makes for a very enjoyable way to spend an hour on Sunday evening before the SNF game steals you away.

Or a World Series game.

The ATU-100 was delightful to use.  Once it tuned to a decent match (1.33:1) on the wire, it was good for the entire span from the bottom of the band up to 14.060 where the POTA gang and other low power stations hang out.

In conclusion, this is a very excellent low power station, simple to use and I am looking forward to matching it with a clever 20M elevated vertical with elevated radials a fellow ham has designed:

The elevated vertical with coax connector and radials.

Once that is working, it is off to the Lost Dutchman State Park for some POTA fun…

Field Radio Kits, News, Portable, QRP, QRP Radios

Field Radio Kit Gallery: K4VOR’s Elecraft KX1 Go Box

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Many thanks to Scott (K4VOR) who shares the following article about his portable field radio kit which will be featured on our Field Kit Gallery page. If you would like to share your field kit with the QRPer community, check out this post.

My KX1 Go Box

by Scott (K4VOR)

I’ve been a ham since college but was out of the hobby for over 20 years, that is until 2020 and COVID. Suddenly I had a lot of free time (like all of us) being stuck at home and somehow the YouTube/Google machine took me down the rabbit hole that is CW.

I got my amateur radio license just after the CW requirement was lifted, so I hardly knew dit from dah. Granted, as an aviator, I had some experience “copying” morse code when tuning navaids such as VORs & DMEs.  A whopping 3 letters sent at a blistering 7 wpm! But other than that, I was as green as it gets. To make a long (3+ year) story short, I dove head-long into that rabbit hole and today I am sending around 25wpm and can head-copy around 20wpm, something I once thought impossible. Anyway, that’s my story, now on to the field kit!

Over the years I acquired several of the more popular QRP radios, such as an IC-705, QCX mini, (tr)uSDX, and the AMAZING Elecraft KX2.

I knew about the KX1 but I never gave it a second thought. I mean, it’s just a piddly little 3W CW only kit-built rig, right? Well, then one day I stumbled upon one of Thomas K4SWL’s activation videos in which he was using his KX1 – Ruby. There was something about the simplicity of it all. A unique specimen of simplicity and elegance – potentiometers for AF gain, RF gain, and filter width, three momentary push buttons and a VFO. Heck, the thing barely has a display – only a 3-digit 7 segment! That basic “stick and rudder” aspect had me intrigued, but the hook for me was the sound!

Thomas describes it as an analog sound, something you might get from an old tube radio. It’s a buttery-smooth, warm resonance – something that is rare these days with modern SDRs and DSPs.

After hearing that sound, the KX1 became my unicorn radio. After over a year of searching, I finally found mine – a meticulously built 3-bander (40/30/20) with the internal ATU. I am happy to share my go-kit built for this rig, some of which was inspired by “Ruby” herself.

The kit contains everything I need to get on the air, all in one Pelican 1060 case.

I will start with the antenna. Nothing fancy. Just a BNC binding post adapter coupled with a 27’ radiator and a 16’ counterpoise. It tunes up nicely using the KX1 internal tuner. 1.0 on 20 and 30 meters and 1.4 or better on 40 meters. The antenna winder is a 3D printer one I designed to easily fit in the Pelican 1060.

For power I am using a TalentCell 12v 3000mAh battery, which will run the KX1 for several hours.

The key is a Palm Radio Pico Paddle (no longer in production), although a K6ARK tiny paddle will rotate in and out from time to time. One day I would like to find a KXPD1 which sadly was not included with my KX1 when I bought it.

For antenna deployment, I have 65’ of “throw line”, a.k.a. masonry/construction twine, and a rip-stop nylon draw-string pouch that I to use as a throw weight by tossing a couple of rocks inside. The throwline stows away inside the nylon pouch along with a dollar store set of earbuds.

Photos: In the field

And that’s it! This has become my go-to kit that I grab whenever I think I might have the chance to play radio when I am out and about. Thanks for reading and I hope to see you on the air!

72 – Scott K4VOR

Field Reports, New Products, News, Portable, POTA, QRP, QRP Radios, SOTA, Videos

My first SOTA activation with the new Elecraft KH1 handheld QRP transceiver!

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On Friday, November 3, 2023, I had planned to activate Mount Mitchell–the highest summit in eastern North America. I need to activate Mitchell soon because I’ve yet to activate it for SOTA in 2023 and when winter weather sets in (quite early at that altitude) the park is inaccessible.

Unfortunately, last week, the National Park Service closed an 8 mile portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway due to (no kidding) park visitors feeding and trying to hold bears at the Lane Pinnacle Overlook.

I won’t get on my soapbox about how people are so out of touch with nature that they feel human interaction with bears is a good thing. It breaks my heart because as we natives of WNC say, “a fed bear is a dead bear.” Bears that become comfortable with humans become (at best) a nuisance and (at worst) aggressive.  This is bad for people and it’s bad for our bears who are otherwise shy and avoid humans.

Okay, I said I wouldn’t soapbox about this…

That 8 mile section being closed meant that what would have been a 50 minute drive to the summit of Mitchell turned into a 90 minute drive. Round trip, I simply couldn’t fit that in my day, so I made alternate plans.

Another summit on my list to activate before year’s end was Richland Balsam.

Richland Balsam is actually the highest summit on the Blue Ridge Parkway and is, in fact, at one of my favorite points along the parkway.

That  Friday morning, I dropped my daughters off at their classes and drove an hour or so to the Haywood-Jackson Overlook.

In the valley, as I started my drive to the parkway, past the Cradle of Forestry, it was 30F/-1C. I was concerned that on the summit–nearly 4,000′ higher in elevation–that the temp would be closer to 20F. Fortunately for me, as I gained elevation, the temperature climbed too. We were having inversion that day so the higher altitudes were actually warmer than lower altitudes. This is not uncommon in the fall and was very welcome that particular Friday morning!

Richland Balsam (W4C/WM-003)

Only three weeks earlier, there would have been no free parking spots at the Haywood-Jackson Overlook overlook–it would have been packed.

Fortunately for me, all of the leaf-lookers had gone and I literally had the place to myself. What a luxury!

And the temperature? A balmy 43F/6C.

The hike to Richland Balsam is one of the easiest along the parkway.

At the north side of the parking area, you’ll see a trailhead for the Richland Balsam Nature Loop Trail.

I wish my iPhone camera could haver truly captured how the moon looked in the sky.

The trail isn’t long; I believe the entire loop is just shy of 1.5 miles.

Although I didn’t set out to do this, I ended up making a video of the entire loop trail hike along with the activation (of course, you can skip over those parts in my activation video below).

Sadly, one thing you won’t be able to enjoy in my video? The smell. The air is filled with the fragrance of balsam trees along the entire trail–it’s just amazing!

The summit of Richland Balsam is at 6,410 feet ASL (1,954 meters).

The summit is covered in trees which is brilliant for SOTA activators. Another luxury is that there are two benches within the activation zone. I did pack my Helinox Zero chair as a backup, but didn’t need it.

SOTA with the KH1

Setting up my KH1 for a SOTA activation couldn’t be easier or faster. I show the whole process in my video at a very casual pace. Continue reading My first SOTA activation with the new Elecraft KH1 handheld QRP transceiver! →

New Products, News, Pedestrian Mobile, Portable, QRP, QRP Radios

Elecraft KH1 Super Power? Anytime/Anywhere POTA/SOTA Hunting!

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Photo from morning SOTA activation on Richland Balsam.

Yesterday morning, I took my Elecraft KH1 to the summit of Richland Balsam and performed a SOTA activation using only the KH1’s whip antenna on 20 meters (I ran out of time to hit 17 and 15M).

It was insane fun. Without really intending to, I actually filmed the entire hike to the summit, entire activation, and the hike back to the car. I’m not sure I’ve ever done that before.  I plan to post the video by Monday (Nov 6) if at all possible (again, trying to push my KH1 videos to the front of the line for a little while).

Parking Lot Pedestrian Mobile

After the SOTA activation, I drove back to town to pick my daughters up at their acting class. I arrived about 20 minutes before the class ended and thought, “why not pull out the KH1 and see if I can hunt some POTA activators–?”

I opened the trunk of the car, grabbed the KH1 from my SOTA pack and then decided to even film this short, impromptu hunting session.

As you’ll see in the video below, it took no time at all to deploy the KH1, hop on the air and work a couple of stations.

Short Video:

Click here to view on YouTube.

I could have also chased some SOTA activators, some DX, or just looked for a random ragchew with someone calling CQ.

I like hunting/chasing POTA and SOTA activators, though, because the time commitment is manageable. For example, by the time I ended this video, my daughters and one of their friends were already hopping in the car to hit the road. I didn’t have to apologize to anyone for ending a QSO early. 🙂

November is KH1 month

I decided that I’m only going to use the KH1 both in the field and in the shack during the month of November. The only exceptions will be other radios I need to test or if I need to make contacts outside of the 40-15 meter KH1 window.

One of the big reasons for this level of commitment is that I am in the testing group of the KH1. This is how we flesh-out any minor issues that may have gone unnoticed.

Another reason is I do plan to post a comprehensive review of the KH1 eventually and I only feel comfortable doing this after I’ve spent dozens of hours with a radio.

If I’m being honest, another reason is that I absolutely love this anytime, anywhere radio. It’s so insanely portable, I take it with me everywhere. The KH1 and I have been inseparable since last Monday when I took delivery. And, yes, I’m still contemplating what her name will be.

Note that I will post some of my other activations videos this month (I’ve quite a few out there!) and I will also post the occasional bonus video exclusively on Patreon. Indeed, I posted a video on Patreon yesterday where I paired the CHA F-Loop 2.0 with my Icom IC-705.

Stay tuned for more radio goodness and I hope everyone has an amazing weekend!

72,

Thomas (K4SWL)

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

POTA Field Report: Andrea Activates Two Iconic Cold War Sites

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Many thanks to Andrea (IW0HK) who shares the following field report:

Cold War POTA in Berlin

by Andrea (IW0HK)

In the last week of October, I found myself in Berlin for a work commitment.

Taking advantage of two half-days off, I wanted to combine two of my great passions: radio and the history of the Cold War. I chose to visit two historical sites that also serve as a reference point for the POTA (Parks on the Air) ham radio program, allowing me to transmit with my radio in these unique locations.

The first location is a park located about a kilometer away from where I worked for a week, the headquarters of RBB, the public radio and television of Berlin and Brandenburg. This park is Teufelsberg, which literally means the Devil’s Mountain. It is an artificial hill in Berlin, created using the rubble from World War II, located within the Grunewald forest (POTA reference DA-0218).

On this hill, the Teufelsberg listening station of the American NSA in Berlin was situated, which was used to intercept radio signals from East Germany during the Cold War.

Today, you can still see the remains of the antenna covers of the listening base. I activated the Pota park that has been established around the abandoned base, and I was delighted to transmit my signals in Morse code (CW) in QRP mode in this historically significant place.


I used the small QMX transceiver from QRP Labs, a gem for operating in FT8/CW modes on the 80/60/40/30/20 meter bands.

For an antenna, I used a 20-meter wire connected to an EFHW 49:1 balun, hung above a tree. Amid families flying kites, I made 15 CW QSOs, which allowed me to validate the park activation. The program requires a minimum of 10 QSOs for activation to be valid.

The second activation took place in another symbol of the Cold War: the runway of the former Tempelhof airport. I activated this as a POTA site and transmitted CW QRP with the small QMX transceiver from QRP Labs in the fog and cold.

The Berlin-Tempelhof Airport was an airport located in the southern part of the central Tempelhof-Schöneberg district and was operational from 1923 to 2008.

It is famous for hosting the Berlin Airlift base (1948-1949), which was an incredible operation undertaken during the Cold War by the United States and their Western European allies to transport food and other essential supplies to West Berlin, surrounded by the Soviets.

Today, the airport is closed, and its runway has become a massive park (POTA reference DA-0169) used by Berliners for various outdoor activities. I activated it early in the morning on a gray and cold day, setting up my EFHW antenna practically on the runway.

Again, I used only CW, and in no time, I reached the number of 11 QSOs. The cold made me stop the activity earlier than planned, but the activation is still valid. After concluding the transmissions, I walked through the enormous park, imagining its past use and appreciating how often my amateur radio passion leads me to incredible places.

This was the first test of this “minimal” POTA kit with the QMX transceiver, the 20-meter EfHw antenna, and the XTPower XT-16000QC3 12v power bank.

I must say that the test was successful. This is an excellent little radio that I want to use and take with me on every work trip. The POTA program continually takes me to incredible places, both in terms of nature and history, as it did in this case in Berlin

Field Reports, News, Portable, QRP, QRP Radios, Reviews, Videos

My First POTA Activation with the New Elecraft KH1 Handheld QRP Transceiver!

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Yesterday, I posted some initial notes about the Elecraft KH1 and mentioned that I hoped to perform a POTA activation later in the day.

I’m pleased to report that I was able to fit in that activation!

I’m pushing this report and video to the front of the line because so many readers are eager to see how the KH1 performs during a field activation. Instead of focusing on the park, in this field report we’ll be taking a closer look at the KH1 and my initial impressions after performing a pedestrian mobile POTA activation with it.

Packing the KH1

I had a very hectic schedule yesterday and was on the road in/around Asheville from 8:00AM to 2:00PM before an opportunity opened to fit in an activation.

After a quick trip back to the QTH for lunch, I packed the Elecraft KH1 field kit in my EDC pack (a travel laptop bag).

Herein lies my first impression of the KH1: even though I knew I had packed the entire kit, I felt like I must have been leaving something behind.

Sounds funny, but even though I pride myself on making fully self-contained field radio kits, I felt like there must have be something else I needed. The KH1 field kit just seemed too small, too lightweight, and too compact to have included everything I needed for an activation.

Intellectually, I knew that it included everything needed, but I still did a mental inventory:

  1. Radio? Check.
  2. Antenna? Check.
  3. ATU? Check.
  4. Paddles? Check.
  5. Battery? Check.
  6. Counterpoise? Check.
  7. Log book and pencil? Check.

Hard to believe, but it was all there.

Trust me: the first time you take your KH1 to the field, I bet you’ll feel the same way I did.

Blue Ridge Parkway (K-3378)

Because I was so short on time, I decided to activate the Blue Ridge Parkway which is the most convenient POTA entity when I travel into Asheville from Swannanoa.

It was cold and blustery afternoon the afternoon of November 1, 2023. At my QTH, I checked the temperature and it was about 34F. I knew it would be a bit warmer in town which is a good 1,000 feet lower in elevation, but I still grabbed my gloves on the way out the door. Glad I did!

As I mention in the activation video below, I wasn’t exactly on my “A Game.” I had received a couple of vaccines the previous day and my body was a bit achy as if I was starting to get the flu. But, of course, I wasn’t. Still… I didn’t feel 100%.

I arrived on site and set up couldn’t have been easier:

  1. Open the KH1 pack
  2. Remove the KH1
  3. Attach the counterpoise and string out on ground
  4. Remove whip from clips and attach to top of KH1
  5. Extend whip
  6. Turn on radio
  7. Find a clear frequency
  8. Hit the ATU button for a 1:1 match!

We’re talking a 30 second process even for someone who moves slowly.

Important notes about my KH1

Keep in mind the following notes that are relevant at time of posting this field report (November 2, 2023):

  • I am waiting on a firmware update to add:
    • CW Message Memories
    • CW Decoding
    • Internal Logging
  • I purchased the full “Edgewood” package but I don’t yet have my logging tray/cover yet. Elecraft plans to ship this within the next few days.
  • My KH1 is a very early serial number because I’m in the volunteer testing group.

The KH1 Speaker

The KH1 internal speaker is located on the bottom of the radio between the AF Gain and Encoder knobs.

I consider the Elecraft KH1 speaker to be a “bonus” feature. The speaker is small (1.1 x 0.65”) and limited in fidelity.

I had planned to connect my Zoom digital recorder to the KH1 and record audio directly from the headphone port during this activation. Continue reading My First POTA Activation with the New Elecraft KH1 Handheld QRP Transceiver! →