It was the sort of day made for reading a good book by the fireplace or…in my case…activating a park!
I don’t let rain stop me from playing radio in the field. I carry a rain fly in my car pretty much all of the time so if push comes to shove, I can create a dry space to play radio.
That said, a number of parks I frequent have large covered picnic shelters, so why not use what’s already there?
That particular Friday, I had one particular park and one particular goal in mind.
I built this BCI filter specifically to pair with the Xiegu G106 transceiver. Why? Because the G106 is prone to overload if you’re anywhere near an AM broadcaster.
The last time I visited Fort Dobbs State Historic Site (K-6839), a local AM broadcaster bled through the audio of the G106. I was able to complete the activation without any issues at all–in fact, it was a very successful activation (read the report here).
Still, I did feel that the receiver was a bit less sensitive due to the broadcaster overwhelming the front end of the radio.
That Friday, I wanted to pair my Xiegu G106 with the new in-line BCI filter to see if that might mitigate the interference I experienced before.
Many thanks to Brain (K3ES) who shares the following guest post:
The Visitor Center at Kinzua Bridge State Park (K-1366) is well worth a visit. It provides an excellent overview of the history, use, and collapse of the railroad bridge that gave the park its name, and it provides an excellent view of the pedestrian skyway built on the portion of the bridge that remained standing after the tornado that caused the collapse.
Reflections on Activating a Not-so-New Park
by Brian (K3ES)
Monday, April 3 was one of those beautiful, warmish (60ºF or 16ºC) sunny days in northwest Pennsylvania that remind us that spring is really here. Only a week earlier, we had an unexpected snow fall that covered the ground (and it will likely not be our last snow of the season). So my wife, her father, and the dogs all looked forward to getting out of the house to enjoy the weather. We packed for a picnic, and drove through bright sunshine to Kinzua Bridge State Park.
After a picnic lunch, and while Becky and her dad explored the visitor center and walked the dogs, I set up for a Parks on the Air (POTA) activation of K-1366. This would be my first activation of the park, but not my first visit. I have been there several times before, including an excursion trip behind a steam engine that took me across the railroad bridge over Kinzua Creek and back.
A view from the visitor center of the pedestrian skyway. It was constructed on the structure that remained after the bridge was struck by a tornado in 2003, causing its partial collapse.
An Historic Park
Kinzua Bridge State Park has an interesting history. The railroad bridge that gives the park its name was originally built of wrought iron in 1882. At the time it was built, the 301 ft (92m) high and 2052 ft (625m) long railroad bridge was the highest in the world. It was rebuilt in place in 1900, replacing iron with steel, to strengthen it for the heavier trains that needed to cross. The bridge remained in commercial service until 1952, and was later sold to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for a State Park. The bridge continued to support excursion trains and pedestrian traffic until 2002, but was struck by a tornado in 2003, causing its partial collapse. Today, the remaining part of the bridge has been rebuilt as a pedestrian skyway, complete with a glass floor at its end to look down at the valley far below.
The visitor center provides an excellent multimedia overview of the economics, technology, and history of the structure. It is well worth a visit. Similarly, the skyway gives a spectacular view of the structure, the collapsed towers, and the surrounding Pennsylvania forest. The park has picnic facilities and hiking trails, and a trailhead for the rail trail that has repurposed the old railroad right-of-way.
This is a view of the picnic pavilion from my operating position. The picnic area also has a number of other open picnic tables and a playground area for the younger crowd.
The Setup for Activation
I stopped into the visitor center to let the staff know of my intention to activate. I found them to be friendly and accommodating, which always makes activating a pleasure. I do my best to be a good ambassador for amateur radio and the POTA program.
For activating, I set up at a remote picnic table. Three tosses got the throw line over a good branch to support my Tufteln 9:1 random wire antenna. A 15 ft RG-316 cable connected the antenna to my Elecraft KX2. Completing the station were a 3 Ah LiFePO4 battery, a set of generic earbuds, and VK3IL pressure paddles. I used a clipboard to keep my notepad from blowing around in the breeze, while I logged with a mechanical pencil.
The picnic table operating station used to activate K-1366. Included are the KX2, VK3IL pressure paddles, clipboard and log.
The Activation
As I finished getting the station ready to go, it occurred to me that I had a frequency-agile-antenna and rig, a bit more than an hour to operate, and no other operators in the area. So, I took the opportunity to try for contacts on as many bands as possible, inching my way toward the POTA N1CC Activator award for making contacts on 10 bands from 10 parks. The park has good cell coverage, so I was able to use my phone to spot myself. After that, I mostly left things to the Reverse Beacon Network and the POTA spotting gateway, but I was able to use the phone to confirm that my changes in frequency were picked up.
In 70 minutes of CW operation at 5 watts, I made total of 26 contacts, including at least one contact each on the 10, 12, 15, 17, 20, 30, and 40m bands. An apology to the hunters may be in order, because I was harder-than-usual to contact. After making a contact on each band, I would QSY to the next at the first significant lull in the action. I look forward to another trip back to K-1366 to try for contacts on the 3 additional bands needed to complete its activation toward my N1CC.
As you might guess, by using multiple bands, the contacts came from both far and near: as far as Spain to the east and Oregon to the west, and as near as New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan. Middling distances were also well represented in the log.
It was a good day in the park, and here is the contact map from a 7-band activation of K-1366.
Equipment
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This outing made for a fun and productive afternoon that was all the more enjoyable for sharing it with my family.
It also made for a great opportunity to shake off the winter blahs, and it held the promise of beautiful spring and summer days for more park activations.
Best 73 de Brian – K3ES
Here is a bonus picture of another semi-famous bridge in northwestern Pennsylvania (it actually has its own Facebook page). This is Nebraska Bridge, which provides a convenient shortcut across Tionesta Creek. We knew we would have to take the long way around, but stopped for a look anyway. Unfortunately the bridge floods several times a year (sometimes becoming completely submerged), because it is located in the upstream end of the reservoir behind the Army Corps of Engineers’ Tionesta Creek Dam. We had over an inch of rain last week, so the bridge is partially under water. On the brighter side, 100 miles downstream, the City of Pittsburgh did not flood.
As I walked out the door on the morning of Tuesday, March 21, 2023, I grabbed my Elecraft KX2, MM0OPX 40 meter end-fed half-wave, and a key I hadn’t yet taken to the field: my Bamakey TP-III!
I had a full day of errands, appointments, and carting my daughters to/from school, but I also had a good 90 minute window to play radio!
As I’ve mentioned previously, the Vance Birthplace (K-6856) is incredibly convenient this particular school term. I pass by it twice a week, and I feel incredibly fortunate because it’s a wonderful POTA site with POTA-friendly staff. They all know me quite well there at this point.
The Vance site is a small park and the only negative (from the point of view of a POTA activator) is if you have poor timing, you might arrive only to find that a large school group has taken over the site. This is especially a concern on weekdays during school hours–in other words, the time I usually activate Vance.
I pulled into the Vance site that morning and there were no vehicles there other than park staff. A good sign so far!
The only appropriate spot to activate at Vance (if you operate a portable HF station) is in or near the picnic shelter. The rest of the site is where visitors wonder through the old homestead and take guided tours.
I never set up my station in the middle of park activities or in a viewshed.
At the end of the day, we represent all Parks On The Air activators and the amateur radio community at large when we’re in public spaces. The last thing we want to do is detract from others’ park experience.
Before pulling any gear out of the car, I walked into the visitor center and asked the park staff for permission to set up in the picnic shelter. I always do this because if a school or tour group is scheduled to visit the site that day, they almost always need the picnic shelter and have it reserved.
Fortunately, no one had scheduled the picnic shelter, so the park ranger told me, “It’s all yours! Have fun!”
Proper POTA Flea Power!
I like shaking up each new activation in some small way so that it’s not a carbon copy of any previous activation.
Over the past few years, I’ve received numerous requests to check out the Yaesu FT-891 HF transceiver. Almost all of my ham friends have one and they are widely considered one of the best 100 watt HF radios for park activators. Indeed, I bet it is *the* most popular 100W radio among POTA activators.
I’ve been tempted to ask Yaesu for a loaner model and I even came within one button click of ordering a new FT-891 from DX Engineering during a Black Friday sale in 2020.
I’ve resisted the FT-891 temptation, though, because I tend to use smaller, more portable QRP radios in heavier POTA rotation. I knew if I purchased an FT-891, it just wouldn’t get a lot of field use. It also demands a beefier field battery due to its current requirements and, frankly, it’s so rare I run more than 5 watts (and 5 watts is the lowest power setting on the ‘891) I would simply have a lot of radio for my needs.
A few weeks ago, however, a friend reached out because he wanted to sell his FT-891 and 30Ah Bioenno battery and downsize to a smaller field portable radio like the Xiegu X5105. Long story short, we worked out a trade/purchase which included the ‘891 and his battery. I had been thinking about a large capacity battery to use as a backup in the shack, so this worked out well for both parties.
Zebulon B. Vance Birthplace (K-6856)
On Tuesday, March 14, 2023, I once again had an hour to fit in an activation at the Vance Birthplace before picking up my daughters at school. I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to play radio at Vance so much during this particular school term; next term, it’s unlikely I’ll have this opening, so I’ll enjoy it while I can!
I deployed the Chelegance MC-750 vertical again. I’ll admit that it’s so convenient keeping an antenna in the car trunk/boot that can be made resonant so easily from 40 meters and higher.
I was going to show the antenna deployment again in my activation video, but received a call and decided to deploy the antenna while finishing up the phone call. It only takes a couple of minutes to set up.
Next, I connected my 15Ah Bioenno battery to the FT-891. Even though I was only using five watts, the ‘891 needs more capacity than the 3Ah packs I normally carry with my QRP rigs.
On Saturday, February 18, 2023, I had a rare opportunity: a full day to play radio.
Instead of doing a five park POTA rove, I chose instead to do a summit activation followed by a park activation.
I published the summit activation on Moore’s Knob (W4C/EP-001) a couple weeks ago and planned to immediately follow that up with this report from my POTA activation at Pilot Mountain State Park (which I activated the same day).
In the process of moving my videos from the camera, to my laptop, and then to PC where I do my remote uploads (my bandwidth at the QTH is far too poor to upload large videos) I somehow managed to delete this particular video file.
I was quite frustrated, actually, because this particular POTA activation was challenging. Lately, I’ve had so few examples of just how quiet a band can be when propagation is less stable.
The SOTA activation I performed only a few hours earlier had some of the deepest pileups I’ve ever experienced. By the time I started my POTA activation a couple hours later, all of this had changed–at least on the bands above 20 meters and I’d chosen 17 meters (a WARC band) since a contest was in progress on 20 and 40 meters.
I’m incredibly pleased that I stumbled upon the raw video files on my backup drive. I was able to reproduce the video in its entirety. I’m so pleased it wasn’t lost!
This is why it’s a little out of sync date-wise with my other reports.
I hope you enjoy this field report:
Pilot Mountain State Park (K-2750)
After capping off a beautiful 4+ mile hike and SOTA/POTA activation at Hanging Rock State Park, I put my SOTA pack in the car and drove 30 minutes to Pilot Mountain State Park.
It being a gorgeous Saturday afternoon, the park was so full of guests the parking lot was completely full. A park ranger had incoming cars form a line and he allowed cars in as guests departed one by one. When I arrived, there were five cars in front of me. I was very tempted to do a three-point turn and head back down the mountain to the visitor’s center to do the activation. There was plenty of parking there. Continue reading Propagation changes make for a relaxed 17 meter POTA activation at Pilot Mountain State Park→
Many thanks to Keith (KY4KK) who shares the following report:
Extreme QRP – Testing the AX1 with WSPR and 20mW
by Keith (KY4KK)
Thomas, thanks for all of your activation videos related to the Elecraft AX1 antenna. I ordered one the day you announced the package deal, and it arrived in less than a week. I’ve activated a few parks with it already (20m SSB). Like you and many others, I’m impressed.
About a year ago, a friend (NG4S) loaned me his pair of WSPR transmitters and suggested that I explore building and comparing antennas. I’ve been hooked on antennas of all kinds and WSPR since then.
I began doing WSPR tests on the AX1 the day after it arrived. With two transmitters set to the same frequency and power output, you can do direct comparisons between two antennas under identical propagation conditions.
I’ve already done a couple of comparisons between the AX1 and other commercial antennas. But I think the test I just completed might be of particular interest because it pits the AX1 against an antenna I’ve seen you use many times – a 28.5’ end fed with a 28.5’ counterpoise. I used 24 AWG silicone insulated wire. The end of the radiator was placed on a 19’5” telescoping fishing pole. This is my preferred POTA mast when I can’t use a tall tree.
I spent some time trying to control other variables so that the only significant difference during the test would be the antennas themselves.
For example, the SOTA Beam WSPRLite Classic transmitters don’t have an ATU. So, I had to make the antennas resonant on the 20-meter WSPR frequency of 14.097 MHz. For the AX1, Thomas’ videos helped a lot. I used a clip-on capacitance hat and adjusted the counterpoise to 15’ 2”. This gave me an SWR of 1.17:1. For the end fed, I tried the two UNUN’s I had available and settled on the 49:1, which got me the closest (2.2:1). I then used a manual tuner to achieve an SWR of 1.29:1.
I also wanted to deal with the difference in power output between the two transmitters. Although they’re identical, and both set to 20 milliwatts, there is no way to ensure both are actually producing that output level. Based on tests by NG4S, one of the transmitters runs at 19 milliwatts. The other actually outputs 27 milliwatts. So, my plan was to run the test for 48 hours. At the end of 24 hours, I would switch the transmitters (and callsigns) so that both antennas would benefit (relatively equally) from one of the transmitters being stronger.
At the end of Day 1, I reviewed the data from the two transmitters on dxplorer.net/wspr. The end fed averaged a 5.7 dB gain over the AX1 based on reports from receiving stations that spotted both transmitters in the same 10-minute block (simultaneous spots).
On Day 1, the stronger transmitter was on the end fed. The maps below are from WSPR.rocks.
I do my best to shake up each field activation I perform. Even if in some small way.
While it would be way more efficient to deploy the same radio and antenna combination at each park and summit I visit, I get a thrill out of trying different radio and antenna combinations.
I should add that I’m fully aware how fortunate I am to have a lot of radios and even more antennas to pair in various combinations. I keep reminding myself that building and buying radios and antennas is still cheaper than restoring a 1940s era Willys CJ-2A.
Recently, a reader reached out and asked my opinion about the Chameleon Tactical Delta Loop (CHA TDL) antenna. I think the TDL is a brilliant antenna system, actually, and the one I recommend the most from Chameleon because of its versatility.
Not only can it be deployed as a multi-band vertical delta loop but it has all of the parts needed to be an MPAS Lite vertical as well, save the counterpoise.
The CHA TDL comes with a 25 foot wire that connects the two 17′ whips into a loop configuration, but the clamps on the end of that wire can’t connect to the ground lug on the MPAS ground spike terminal as-is. That said, you could easily make a short connector cable or connection point that would allow the CHA TDL wire to clamp to the ground spike terminal. Else, of course, you could cut a dedicated 25′ counterpoise from pretty much any wire you might have around the shack.
You can buy the same counterpoise used with the MPAS Lite package, but it’s more affordable just to build your own since there’s no magic in the counterpoise. And, FYI, configured as the delta loop, there’s no need for a separate counterpoise; only if you configure it as a vertical.
This same reader also has an Icom IC-705 and an mAT-705 Plus antenna tuner. He was curious how well that combo might work with the CHA TDL. I knew that the combo would work well, but I thought, “why not try it?”
I realized that it has been ages since I last deployed the CHA TDL in the field.
Zebulon B. Vance Birthplace (K-6856)
Tuesday, February 28, 2023, was a gorgeous day weather-wise, although it was a bit gusty at times.
I arrived at K-6856 and decided to film the full set-up of the CHA-TDL.
For an antenna with a fairly large profile when deployed, it’s actually very compact, albeit a bit heavy (mainly due to the weight of the solid stainless ground spike and TDL hub). That said, I did take this same CHA TDL setup on an 11 mile round-trip SOTA hike once and didn’t find it too heavy.
On Sunday, February 19, 2023, I felt like I was moving in slow motion.
The previous day started early and I fit in a long hike, a SOTA/POTA activation, and a second park activation. Round trip driving time was about four hours, but it was worth it. I had an amazing time. Those field reports will be posted in the upcoming week.
The previous evening, I also participated in a live stream and after hours chat with Josh (KI6NAZ) on his amazing Ham Radio Crash Course channel. It was loads of fun, but I was up pretty late after a long day.
Sunday morning, I was feeling it and couldn’t decide if I wanted to do a POTA activation on the drive back to the QTH. In case I decided to, early that morning, I scheduled an activation at Table Rock Fish Hatchery with a very wide activation window. I often don’t have enough mobile phone service to self-spot at that particular site, so I decided that if I was able to make the activation, it would cover me.
I wasn’t even ten minutes into the drive home when I decided to go for the Table Rock activation, of course! I seem to never be too tired for some POTA!
I did make up my mind in advance to try to activate the park on 17 meters because 1.) there was a CW contest that weekend, and 2.) I wanted a more laid-back activation instead of a pileup. I figured 17 meters would have some activity, but not to the degree of the non-WARC bands.
Table Rock State Fish Hatchery (K-8012)
I decided to record the entire activation from set-up to pack-up so I grabbed the action camera from my radio bag in the passenger’s seat and started recording as I pulled into the site.
I had a lot of gear in the trunk/boot of my car–more than normal–because I brought along quite a few radio packs to show on the HRCC live stream for this trip.
I grabbed the Penntek TR-45L and PackTenna random wire. I thought they would pair nicely for a casual POTA activation.
My Postcard Field Reports are information-packed, just slightly more concise and distilled than my average field report so that I can publish them on a busy day.
T-T R4020
One of the least expensive radios I’ve ever purchased is my TEN-TEC R42020 two-band CW only radio. I believe I paid $120 for it (shipped!) a couple years ago and it sat on my shelf unnoticed for months until I took it on a POTA activation last year.
Here’s the admission: I really love this little radio!
It is not a feature-rich radio, and the sidetone sounds like a 1080s handheld arcade game, but it works a charm! The receiver and audio are fantastic and it sports two of my most useful POTA/SOTA bands: 40 and 20 meters.
What’s not to love?
POTA time!
I had an early morning doctor’s appointment on Thursday, February 23, 2023. As a little reward for doing my annual physical I decided to add a POTA activation to my morning. This was a last minute decision, so only a couple minutes before leaving the house that morning, I grabbed my TEN-TEC R4020, the Chelegance MC-750, and my Spec Ops Backpack (filled with all other field accessories), and I hit the road!
I chose the MC-750 that day because I needed an antenna that could be configured to be resonant on 40 meters since the R4020 has no internal ATU. That and I couldn’t remember if I’ve configured the MC-750 for 40 meters in the past. I know I’ve deployed the MC-750 with the 40M coil, but I think I may have used an ATU to match it.
As I mentioned in my recent AX1 vs AX2 video and blog post, I purchased an Elecraft AX2 antenna and bi-pod in late January (note: two days before Elecraft announced their February ’23 sale price! Doh!).
I received the AX2 package a few days later and I was certainly eager to take it to the field.
My first opportunity came on Tuesday, February 14, 2023, when a short activation window opened up in the afternoon.
Zebulon B. Vance Birthplace (K-6856)
One of the first things I noticed after taking the AX2 out of the package is just how solid and compact it is. The AX1 is short, but the AX2 is a few inches shorter because the base is more compact.
Unlike the AX1, the AX2 is a mono band antenna, thus the coil only needs to accommodate one band. When you receive a new AX2, it’s configured for 20 meters out of the box, but the user can modify the coil to work anything from 20 to 6 meters.
“Resonant-ish”
Even though I mentioned this in my AX1 v AX2 article and video, I’d like to reiterate that the AX2 is nearly-resonant on 20 meters. It is not reliably resonant.
I’ve still been receiving a lot of messages from readers stating that their AX2 and AX1 are resonant on 20 meters, so they don’t pack any sort of matching device in their field kit. They simply hook the AX2 up to their little QRP radio and hop on the air.
While it’s true that these antennas may provide an acceptable SWR most of the time, you really can’t rely on a solid, reliable match as you could with an end-fed half-wave.
I’ll repeat what I mention in a previous post:
Small verticals like the AX1 and AX2, that use coils to electrically “lengthen” the antenna, have a higher Q than, say, a large aperture quarter or half wave antenna. In practical terms, this means that the window of resonance is narrow and more fickle than, for example, an end-fed half-wave.
A lot of factors can affect the SWR on higher-Q antennas like the AX1/AX2 including:
the type of terrain,
height off the ground,
length of counterpoise,
configuration of counterpoise,
and, most notably, the operator’s own body capacitance.
You may find that the AX2, for example, is natively resonant on 20 meters at one location, but isn’t at another location. This is quite normal. It’s also the reason why Elecraft states that both antennas are designed to be used with an ATU.
So there you go! If I hook up my AX1 or AX2 to a radio, I’ll always have some means of matching the impedance–either an external ATU, or a capacity hat. You can also tinker with the length of the telescoping whip and counterpoise to tweak the match.
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As I mentioned in a post this weekend, I purchased and built a K9DP BCI Filter Kit.
