This Winter Field Day I wanted to do a Parks On The Air activation in conjunction with WFD. The POTA activation was US-7659 Huckleberry Ridge Conservation Reserve. I ended up making 100 total contacts during the event on a 15 foot vertical whip and a doublet antenna. My ICOM 7300 was used as the transceiver for the event.
We made this area our work week area. It is nice and secluded away from pretty much everything. We only had one vehicle drive by the whole week we were there. While Gayla was doing her video presentation I setup HF radio outside and activated the POTA park US-4403. I had 154 total unique contacts. It was a beautiful day to be outside in Wyoming. I used the 44 foot line wire to the 9:1 Read More …
I was ready to be done driving for the day so we went to Juniper Point Campground at Fred Hayes at Starvation Lake State Park. I cooked up some steak and boiled some eggs for some deviled eggs later this weekend. This place is also a POTA park (US-3092 – Fred Hayes at Starvation State Park) for amateur radio. I activated it with 33 unique contacts and 35 contacts total on FT8. I was the Read More …
We stayed at Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest for a quick overnight stop when heading south from Glacier National Park. I put a 9:1 UNUN to a 72 foot random wire in a tree with my throw weight and activated POTA Park US-4499 with 22 total contacts on FT-8. I even made contact with my brother back in SW Missouri on the 20m band. Not too bad for only running 10 watts for the whole activation.
We pulled into Willow Creek Recreation Area after a long days drive on HWY 2 from Eastern Montana. It was fairly warm but a steady wind kept it quite pleasant. After settling into camp for the work week I decided that I wanted to experience a low noise floor and also do a little bit of antenna testing on just a few watts on a long wire antenna. I setup my 27′ fiberglass fishing mast Read More …
We can not just go to Glacier National Park and not activate it. We stayed one night at Bowman Lake which is a very touristy place that is off the beaten path. This place did not have any cellular service or Starlink internet service. I did end up using the GPS dongle to synchronize my FT8 clock on the computer. The antenna of choice is the 26 gauge 44 foot long wire on the 27 Read More …
W0EGT and I (N0RVS) embarked on an exciting adventure, taking our ham radio show on the road to the Joe Creighton Access Area (K-10387). We persevered to find the perfect spot to set up our small HF station and make some incredible contacts. POTA (parks on the air) is a fantastic way to enjoy nature while engaging in our favorite hobby of ham radio! W0EGT exceeded expectations by making over a dozen contacts using only Read More …
Did a little (POTA) Parks On The Air activation yesterday afternoon on the way back from Caplinger Mills. Had Clifford with us so why not get his first activation out of the way with many more in the future to come. Stopped at Brush Creek Conservation Area (K-8278) just west of Humansville, MO. This is a 160 acre with hunting and wildlife all around. There is one Small Parking lot on the northwest corner of Read More …
I woke up about 5:27 am to about 35°F outside with a slight windchill of 32°F at 9428 feet in elevation. Slept great. Wool blankets are toasty. Made coffee and tea and a banana for breakfast. Earl set and made a few voice contacts on the 20m band. I set up a 76-foot-long speaker wire in a tree & tuned it up and started making FT8 digital contacts around 9:15 local time. Australia was hearing Read More …
Thanksgiving portable in the backyard of the daughters house in Aurora, Colorado. I had the ICOM IC-706 with the MFJ 904H manual tuner with a wire going to the gutters. I had never tried loading up gutters before, so I figured why not. Using my MFJ antenna analyzer I tuned them up on 40m and made a few contacts. Then I loaded the gutters up on 20m and checked in to the Maritime Mobile Net. Read More …