Tag Archives: Stealth

Adaptive Urban Park Activating (AUPA): A New Personal Challenge

When we plotted our trip to Canada this year, I mentally set a goal for myself: to get better at Adaptive Urban Park Activating (AUPA).

Yeah, I just made that initiative up. Don’t laugh (too hard).

Let me explain…

Back home in North Carolina—and really, most of the parks I travel to in the eastern half of the U.S.—are large state and national parks. When I set up my field radio gear, I typically have a vast area with many choice sites to choose from. It’s easy to disappear into the void, and park staff have no issue with the antennas I deploy.

That said, I also activate quite a few small state historic sites, but in each case, I know the park staff and they know me. I always ask for permission before activating and describe the antenna I plan to deploy. We’ve built relationships over time, and they allow me to activate with essentially no restrictions. I can deploy wire antennas, verticals, loops—whatever I choose.

But the truth is, I have two conflicting interests when I’m in a park.

First, I enjoy being a public and (hopefully) positive impression of the amateur radio community when I’m approached by park guests and staff. POTA gives me an excuse to talk about the importance—and fun—of amateur radio. Since Hurricane Helene tore through western North Carolina, I’ve seen even more interest from locals who stop to ask what I’m doing because they heard that amateur radio played an important role in emergency communications during the aftermath.

That said, in general, I try to be as low-impact and inconspicuous as possible when operating in public spaces. I don’t want my antennas to be trip hazards or interfere with others’ enjoyment of the park. And if I’m being honest, I’m naturally introverted—I like to disappear and be left alone.

The balance I try to strike is deploying gear in a way that doesn’t interfere with others, while also not worrying too much if someone notices my setup. If I’m not bothering anyone but I’m visible enough to serve as a sort of radio ambassador, that’s the best of both worlds, right?

Right!

Adaptive Urban Park Activating

Which brings us back to this philosophy I made up five minutes ago…

When I packed for our trip to Canada, I knew most of the parks I’d be activating in and around Québec City would either be urban parks or national wildlife refuges. In both cases, I aim for field setups that are low-impact, sensitive to surroundings, and unlikely to attract negative attention.

I also had to pack compact and light—we maxed out our Subaru for this multi-week trip. So I brought my usual assortment of wire antennas (end-fed half-waves and random wires) and my self-supporting, low-impact verticals: the Elecraft AX1 and the new AX3.

If you watched my recent field radio pack video, you’ll have an idea of my core setup.

I left behind the Chelegance MC-750, the Radioddity HF-009, and the Chameleon MPAS Lite self-supporting verticals.

The POTA20 mast

I did bring my POTA20 Explorer carbon fiber pole, which easily fits in my backpack. While the POTA20 Explorer mast is pretty conspicuous when deployed—no way around that, especially if I’m not backed up against a wooded area—I paired it with very short 4:1 and 9:1 EFRW antennas that are super easy to deploy, giving me a stealthier self-supporting vertical option.

In a sense, I chose my lightest, stealthiest antenna options.

When I feel comfortable hanging a wire in an urban park, I do it in a low-impact way: keeping the wire, throw line, and counterpoise all within view and away from high-traffic areas. I keep the footprint as small as possible.

The Propagation Factor

Of course, all of this depends on propagation…

In these urban activations, I’ve placed more emphasis on compromised antennas—either my 4-foot AX1 and AX3 verticals or 17-foot end-feds. And I knew before leaving that propagation’s been spotty these past few weeks (months?). I expected I’d need more time to activate parks with these setups.

Indeed, the first park I activated in Canada was Fort Wellington National Historic Site (here’s a link to the field report). That day, a festival brought a lot of foot traffic to the park, so I went very low-impact—not just out of respect for the historic site, but also the crowds.

I set up my KX2 and AX1, unsure if I’d manage to activate at all. Fortunately, I did.

Over the next few weeks, you’ll see a common thread in my Canadian field reports: stealth and the challenge of becoming a better, more adaptive urban activator. It’s been great practice.

A Few New Tools

I’ve also added some new tools to my kit.

My friend and mad-scientist 3D-print designer, Mike (KE8PTX), made clamp and strap mounts for the new Elecraft AX3 vertical in addition to a new KH1 knee board.

These have made it ridiculously easy to deploy that antenna pretty much anywhere. So far, I’ve mounted it to a park bench (you’ll see this in an upcoming field report) and clamped it to a picnic table in gusty winds.

In many of the Québec City parks I’ve activated, I rarely see staff—there’s no one to ask for permission. So if I’m using an AX1 or AX3 on a table, I feel like I’m having less impact than the average family picnic. If a park employee were to approach me, I’d like to think there’d be no grounds for complaint.

CW + Earphones = Super Stealthy

I’ve also been using earphones a lot more than usual. I actually enjoy using earphones for activations, but I typically rely on my speaker instead because, frankly, it makes for quicker and easier activation video setups.

But when you’re doing a CW activation with earphones, you’re super stealthy—no sound, no fuss. This is one major benefit of CW over voice modes: we can send without speaking out loud.

For this reason, I’ve been recording my audio directly from the radio for activation videos when I’m in an urban park setting.

To be clear, I actually think the sound of CW can be pleasant and even intriguing to many people. But I can’t assume everyone feels the same way—especially in urban parks, where visitors are often trying to escape noise. A quiet, discreet setup just feels more respectful in that context.

What About You?

The KH1 in Pedestrian Mobile mode is a very low-impact way to do urban POTA.

Do you activate urban parks or low-profile sites where you aim to remain low-impact? What’s your default setup?

I’d love to hear how you approach this—especially if you’re working with limited space, increased visibility, or extra constraints.

You’ll see more on this topic in my upcoming videos.

72,

Thomas (VY2SW / K4SWL)

A casual and stealthy POTA activation at Le Domaine Maizerets

The weather in/around Québec City has been amazing lately; nice cool mornings and warm, clear days. I know this probably won’t last, so we’ve been taking advantage of it as much as possible (il faut en profiter, as francophones like to say).

Yesterday, we had a few errands to run in town: we needed to pick up some groceries, order a tarte au citron for my birthday (today!) from our favorite patisserie Pralines & Chocolat in Château-Richer, and yes, enjoy the great outdoors.

I wasn’t entirely sure if I’d be able to fit in an activation, but I tucked my KX2 radio pack in the car just in case. I didn’t take the camera because it was family time and if I managed an activation, I didn’t want to film it this time. That, and I have a huge backlog of activation videos I need to publish; I sidelined a lot of my field reports while studying for the Canadian Basic exam over the past month.

Le Domaine Maizerets (VE-5020)

We decided to hit one of our favorite little parks conveniently located on the east end of Québec City (Beauport): Le Domaine Maizerets.

We’ve been to this park a few times in the past to attend a Celtic festival and to meet with friends.

The grounds are beautiful and there are loads of foot paths.

An ATNO!

I checked to see if Le Domaine Maizerets was actually a park in the POTA system and I discovered that not only was it a POTA park, but it was an ATNO (All Time New One); meaning, it had never been activated before.

I was a bit surprised it had never been activated because this is a very popular park and even has free entry with free parking.

Keeping it Stealthy

I decided I wanted to stay fairly low-profile while doing this activation. I wasn’t worried about permissions (families, friends and groups meet here for all sorts of activities) but I wanted to see just how stealthy I could be while operating from a park bench in a city park. I don’t get this opportunity a lot because, back home, I’m usually operating from rural state/national parka and in remote game lands.

We found a couple of benches at the edge of the park that very conveniently had perfect antenna trees behind them.

While no one was watching, I deployed the PackTenna 9:1 random wire antenna; the jacket on its radiator is black and simply disappears with trees and flora in the background.

The wire is next to impossible to see from even 5 meters away

The more conspicuous parts of the antenna–the feed point and RG-316–were tucked away behind the park bench.

My high-visibility arborist throw line was hidden behind the tree and out of sight from those walking on the footpath.

From the footpath, you couldn’t see the antenna, coax, nor the throw line unless you were looking for it.

From behind the bench, you could though; in the very unlikely event someone would have walked behind us, it was pretty conspicuous (always avoid antenna tripping points). That and my family would have warned anyone coming near.

The Elecraft KX2 was a natural choice for this activation: it’s all-in-one and incredibly compact. I can also operate it and log  using the knee board Carolanne (N0RNM) kindly made for me last year.  No picnic table needed.

Operating CW with earphones is insanely stealthy. A CW op makes almost no noise whatsoever.

One of my daughters (K4TLI) was kind enough to log for me on my Microsoft Surface Go (using N3FJP’s AC Log).

 

Here’s what I looked like to anyone passing by:

Click to enlarge – Photo courtesy of K4TLI

My wife (K4MOI) and other daughter (K4GRL) were on the bench next to us sketching and painting. We looked like any other family at the park simply enjoying the amazing weather.

On the air

This was only my third activation here in Canada using my new Canadian callsign: VY2SW.

I’m still getting use to sending the new call; it flows well for me, but my muscle memory keeps kicking in and I find myself accidentally sending K4SWL. 🙂

Since I’m in Québec but have a Prince Edward Island callsign, I do intermittently add a /VE2 to the end of my call. It’s a fistful (VY2SW/VE2) so I don’t use it with every exchange or CQ.

Conditions lately have been absolutely in the dumps and yesterday was no exception.

When a propagation path opened, it was great, but conditions were very unstable with severe QSB.

I spent the better part of an hour hopping between 30, 40, and 20 meters to scrape together enough contacts for a valid park activation.

40 meters was absolutely dead due to flaring. I tried hunting a few CW and SSB stations there, but if I could hear them, they were barely audible.

20 and 30 meters served me better, but the QSB was so deep and frequent, I had to repeat my exchange on a number of occasions.  Some stations would call me with a 599+ signal and after my reply with signal report, they were then barely audible.

Still, I managed to snag my ten with a couple to spare. 🙂

Many thanks to all of you who waded through the ether to reach me on the other end.

QSO Map

It’s interesting looking at the QSO map post-activation. My best DX (EA4B) was easily the strongest station I worked with my 5 watts.

Click to enlarge the map:

This activation was so much fun.

Sure, contacts weren’t frequent but they were all meaningful and, frankly, none of us minded spending time outdoors on such a gorgeous day! It added an extra dimension keeping things very stealthy, too.

Thank you

Thanks for reading this field report. Now that my Canadian exam is in the books, I’ll have time to catch up on the numerous activation videos in the backlog!

Of course, I’d also like to send a special thanks to those of you who have been supporting the site and channel through Patreon and the Coffee Fund. While certainly not a requirement as my content will always be free, I really appreciate the support which allows me to open up my work life to write more field reports and film more activation videos.

I hope you get a chance this week to play radio outdoors or chase/hint some park, island, or summit activators!

Until next time…73!

Cheers,

Thomas (VY2SW / K4SWL)