Monday, April 10, 2023, was a spectacular day weather-wise. Spring was out in all its glory making it impossible to stay indoors.
That day, I was driving back to the QTH and made a little detour to the Clear Creek Access of South Mountains State Park.
According to my calculations, I had about one hour to play radio. I did have a firm deadline to hop off the air because I needed to take my daughter to a tennis lesson that afternoon. Couldn’t be late to that!
South Mountains State Park (K-2753)
As I pulled into the Clear Creek Access parking area, I noticed a family of five grabbing picnic supplies from their car.
For the first time ever, there was going to be competition for the one single picnic table at the Clear Creek access!
Actually, there would be no competition at all because there was no way in the world I’d ever take over the picnic table when a family could use it.
They had a much better reason to use a picnic table than me. Frankly, I was super pleased to see someone else besides a POTA activator using that table. I get a real thrill out of seeing families enjoying our public lands.
Plus, I don’t need a table to play POTA so it was a brilliant excuse to pull the picnic blanket out of the car and set up under a beautiful antenna support…I mean, tree.
For this activation, I decided to use my Penntek TR-45L and, for an antenna, two 28 foot lengths of wire.
Last year, during a Black Friday sale, I took a calculated risk and purchased a bag I hoped would accommodate my Yaesu FT-817ND that has been outfitted with an Armoloq TPA-817 Pack Frame.
CP Gear Tactical Aircrew/Pubs Bag
Rod (VA3ON) first introduced me to CP Gear Tactical–a military pack manufacturer based in New Brunswick, Canada.
I contacted CP Gear Tactical shortly after outfitting my FT-817 with the TPA-817 pack frame. I measured the frame carefully and asked if the interior padded pocket (which is actually designed to hold a tablet–might fit my radio.
I never heard back from them. I could have called them, but on Black Friday, when it was on sale for 20% off and free shipping, I decided to throw caution to the wind and simply purchase it. My total price in USD was something like $62 shipped.
As soon as I opened the CP Gear pack, the first thing I did was check to see if the FT-817 with pack frame would fit in the interior pocket.
Much to my surprise, it fit it perfectly!
Indeed, it’s as if the pocket were specifically designed to accommodate the FT-817ND/TPA-817 combo.
Even the middle Velcro strap fits precisely in the middle of the radio between the pack frame side extensions. The strap holds the rig securely; once, I accidentally fumbled while holding the bag and even though it was upside down, the FT-817 remained securely inside. The strap held it in place.
The bag has loads of room inside. In fact, you can very easily transform it into a fully self-contained field radio kit.
I actually give a small tour of this pack in my activation video below, so if you’d like to see some of the exterior pockets, I would encourage you to check it out!
If you’ve read my “Anatomy of a Field Kit” series, you’ve likely gathered that field kits are a bit of an obsession. [Yeah, understatement alert!]
My field kits roughly fall into two main categories: modular and fully self-contained. My modular kits are ones where components like the battery, antenna, throw line, key, and radio are in separate pouches and can easily be combined to make a complete station before I leave for an activation.
My fully self-contained kits are ones that quite literally have everything needed to perform a park or summit activation in one pouch or box. A good example that I’ve documented here is my MTR-3B field kit.
If you’re a devoted park and/or summit activator, I think it’s important to keep a dedicated kit kit in your car at all times. Why?
It’s ready to grab for impromptu activations
It’s handy in case of road-side emergencies in remote areas
It’s always accessible to demonstrate amateur radio to those who are curious
It’s always always there for those times when you hadn’t planned to play radio, but the opportunity presents itself
I always have a full radio kit in my Subaru and over the years, I’ve changed and adapted it. For the most part, though, it’s been located in the trunk/boot and lives with anything and everything else I keep back there. Sometimes, it’s in the way when we need to fill that trunk space with family items for a trip or when we’re hauling things around town. Other times, it’s floating/sliding around freely in the back.
On long family trips, I’ve been known to store radios under the floor, but it’s a true hassle to remove them because I have to remove anything in the trunk before lifting the floor.
Contraband I hid in the car during our two month Canada trip last year.
I’ve always wanted a way to store my kit in the car in a dedicated space. In the past, I’ve tried to make a kit that could fit under the driver’s seat–thinking that might be ideal–but there’s very little clearance under it and it’s difficult to remove.
Enter the BROG Headrest Pouch Kit
Before I placed my initial order for the Blue Ridge Overland Gear (BROG) Gadget Bag, I checked out other items on their website. One that immediately caught my attention was their Headrest Kit.
It consists of a Velcro panel that fits around a vehicle headrest and a pouch (or pouches) attach to it.
BROG caters to Overlanders and vehicle storage/organization is huge in that community. The headrest kit makes a lot of sense: it’s using space that’s accessible, doesn’t interfere with any passengers, is off the floor, and is otherwise underutilized!
The big questions, of course:
would the pouch offer enough space to store an entire radio kit,
and would the kit weight too much for the Velcro back to hold it in place?
I asked for the Headrest Pouch Kit ($47.99) to be sent with my Gadget Bag order.
BTW: Big thanks to BROG for giving me flexibility with this order. Since I had no experience with their gear, I asked that they send me a list of items and allow me to evaluate them, then pay (full price) for what I decided to keep.
Would it work?
I knew I’d need to store a very small transceiver in this dedicated pack. A few could potentially fit the bill–namely the:
The weather on the morning of April 4, 2023, was absolutely outstanding!
I woke up that morning, drank a cup of coffee, looked outside and knew what would be in store the day: a SOTA activation!
My schedule was actually open that fine Tuesday because my daughters were on spring break from school, so the only problem was deciding which summit to activate. A good problem, in other words!
After staring at the SOTL.AS map for a while, I decided to activate Flat Top Mountain (W4C/EM-026) near Blowing Rock, North Carolina. One of the main reasons I chose Flat Top was because the roughly five mile round-trip hike is such a pleasant, casual one. My left ankle was recuperating from a bit of a strain, so I knew Flat Top’s flat, wide carriage trails would fulfill my need for exercise without straining my ankle (which, by the way, is doing much better now).
The drive to Flat Top is a beautiful one–a good third of it is on the Blue Ridge Parkway including the Linn Cove Viaduct which offers up stunning long-range views. I made my way to Moses H. Cone Memorial Park, at BRP milepost 294, where I parked the car and put on my hiking boots.
The park was pretty active for early April, no doubt because the weather was so stunning.
I checked out the beautiful Flat Top Manor to see if renovations had been completed.
It looks very close to completion, I have to assume they’ll be open again soon. The old manor was looking beautiful against clear skies!
Flat Top Manor was built by in 1901 by Moses Cone who was a very successful local textile entrepreneur, conservationist and philanthropist. It’s so fitting that this beautiful bit of architecture and these expansive grounds (which includes no less than two SOTA summits) are now protected by the National Park Service for all to enjoy.
Since I first met Brooks, he’s always had a goal of learning CW and activating parks and summits using Morse Code.
I’ve been in touch with Brooks regularly over the past year and have followed him as he progressed on his CW journey.
Though, like me, he has an active family life, Brooks has found the time to practice CW both through lessons and actual on-the-air contacts. Fortunately, this is all possible because–again, like me–his wife and family are very supportive of his amateur radio adventures!
Early this year, we met on 80 meters and had a good one hour rag chew at about 12 words per minute. I could tell he was ready to do his first POTA activation in CW.
To give him a little real-world practice, we decided to hit the field on a day when I was performing an activation and he could log for me in real-time.
Fast-forward to 8:30 AM on March 24 when Brooks and I met at the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Coincidentally, this is the same location where I performed my first CW activation!
We deployed his MFJ-1984MP 40 meter EFHW (End-Fed Half Wave) and connected it to his Xiegu X5105 transceiver in very short order. Brooks also chose his lucky CW Morse paddle for this activation.
But before hopping into the field report, let’s back up just a bit…
First CW Activation: Getting there…
Brooks very kindly wanted to share a bit about his CW journey in this field report. He writes:
From the moment I knew of its existence, becoming a POTA activator using CW has been at the top of my “radio bucket list.”
It seemed like the ultimate challenge and I knew I would never be satisfied until I was able to confidently activate parks using CW. There is also a bit of mystique to CW that other modes lack, making it inherently more interesting to me. In this article, I am going to share the path I took to learn CW and how it culminated in a very successful CW activation.
Many thanks to Dave (KN4OK) who shares the following mini POTA field report:
POTA Activation K-3620 Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Trail State Park.
By Dave (KN4OK)
On April 8th, 2023, on our way to the Overseas trail near the 7 mile bridge, is a great place to activate with a picnic table and shade on the water.
I was smart enough to mention to the wife that we were going to activate a park and she was carrying my Elecraft KX2. Of course, in my hand was the antenna, the MFJ-1889T, and counterpoise wires that I borrowed from my WRC antenna.
After a mile hike on the trail, we stopped at the picnic table and I set the station up on 17 meters CW. The SWR was pretty good and I made 9 contacts with no problem. I then switched the radio and antenna to 20 meters and obtained a better SWR.
One thing that I noticed: extending the counter poise wire (33ft) all the way out for both bands helped a great deal. The jumper holes on the antenna were also changeable and helped as well. MFJ has a nice manual for band setups, but be sure to adjust for best SWR. Very easy to do and works great.
The 20 meter band was also a big success and I was very pleased with the performance of the MFJ 1899T antenna. Thanks for all the previous discussion of the similar antennas that inspired me to take out my antenna.
The end result was 19 contacts, all CW in about 45 minutes on a beautiful day!
Over the past couple of months, I’ve been trying to give the Xiegu G106 a thorough workout in the field. This little HF QRP radio is on loan to me from Radioddity who has very kindly been quite flexible about the loan period.
I want to give the G106 a fair shake-out because I believe it must be the least expensive multi-mode, full HF coverage transceiver on the market. Field ops are always looking for portable, affordable, effective radios to take to the field so many are considering the G106.
Of course, you simply can’t get benchmark performance out of a low-cost leader.
My full review of the Xiegu G106 will be in the May 2023 issue of The Spectrum Monitor magazine. It’s one of the longest reviews I’ve published in TSM because I try to fully explore the pros and cons of this pint size rig in order that pretty much anyone can make a purchase decision based on their own preferences and requirements.
POTA Plan B
On Saturday, March 18, 2023, I decided to take the G106 out for a very brief activation during a return trip to my QTH.
My park of choice was Tuttle Educational State Forest (K-4861) because it’s conveniently located, is an excellent POTA site, and I wanted to fit in a quick hike as well. Tuttle’s two mile loop fit the bill perfectly.
When I arrived at the park entrance, however, the gates were closed. I had double checked Tuttle’s schedule in advance and was under the impression that they had started opening the park on Saturdays again for the season.
I really wanted to fit in a decent hike so the next logical park choice was Lake James State Park. It didn’t require a major detour and I was certain it would be open.
Lake James State Park (K-2739)
Lake James has two major access points: the Paddy’s Creek Access and Catawba River Access.
I prefer the Catawba River Access even though it’s much smaller than Paddy’s Creek. For one thing, it’s always less busy and they’ve better spots to set up for POTA (since I like hanging wires trees more often than not). Although the Catawba River access lacks the trail network found at Paddy’s Creek, they do have a few trails that can be stitched together for a nice workout.
After arriving at the park, I put on my hiking boots and walked the Fox Den Loop and a bit of the Lake Channel Overlook.
I hiked back to my car, ate a bite of lunch, then grabbed my radio gear for some cheap POTA fun!
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.
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Monday, April 10, 2023, was a spectacular day weather-wise. Spring was out in all its glory making it impossible to stay indoors.
