Today’s Whimsy
There was a young man from Salt Lake
Whose license was clearly a fake.
He cruised 10 and 20,
Made contacts aplenty,
Till fines made his bank account ache.
Parks On The Air
Ahhhhh….. What is finer than a balmy day and some outdoors amateur radio?
As this is being written, we just concluded the hottest day of the year. Of course, it’s February and 54F but that’s the most pleasant day we have had so far, and it was enough. I figured that the biting gnats would not yet be out on Antelope Island (correct), and that it was warm enough to enjoy some sunshine (correct again, though not too sunny). So my wife and I headed to Antelope Island State Park for the first outing of the year.
Parks On The Air is very easy to do, and a lot of fun for all levels of licenses. Right now, 10 meters is popping, so on a good day Techs can have a great time working DX.
Begin by setting up an online account at POTA.APP. With that done, you can immediately start hunting parks from your home station. As activators at parks finish their adventure and upload their logs, the web page tracks the progress of the hunters. It’s automatic, and easy. At home I operate mostly FT8, and just look for someone calling CQ POTA (indicates someone at a park calling CQ, not a station looking for someone at a park). Otherwise, park activators do sign in and are spotted on the POTA page. That’s helpful for finding SSB and CW activators.
Feeling a little more frisky? Take a portable station to one of our many state or national parks. They are all listed on the POTA web page. You can work any mode, but CW, SSB, and FT8 are where the action is. When you finish, upload your log so hunters can get credit. 10 or more contacts from one of the parks listed on the web page count as a successful activation. One great side effect of doing park activations: You’ll have a tested and ready portable emergency communications station.
My park activation station is my old IC706MkiiG, which is a compact all band transceiver. It, plus the remote tuner, fit in one carrying case. Add a dry box with a 50 AH LiFePO4 battery, a Faraday cloth to AC couple the antenna ground to the roof of the vehicle, a magnetic mount antenna base, an 18.4 foot telescoping vertical and a small laptop for FT8 and logging, plus a DigiRig sound card and interface, and I’m ready to rock and roll.
My first activation was Gunlock Reservoir near St. George. That was SSB, and it was a nice relaxing operation. I did 24 contacts in about 45 minutes. Today’s venture to Antelope Island State Park was FT8, which proved to be slower, but with better DX (good report out of Portugal), netting 21 contacts in 55 minutes, running half power to keep the rig cool.
If you are doing FT8 portable, getting your system clock set to better than .5 seconds is easy. Just install JTSYNC. It will listen to the signals being heard on WSJT-X, do some stats, and set your clock nicely.
If you plan to do activations, I strongly suggest that you test your system thoroughly from your driveway. Once you’re at a park, all you’ve got to work with is what you brought. A little bit of a shakedown cruise will save frustration later.
Ham radio is about having fun and learning stuff. POTA is a lot of fun, both from home and from a park, and it will make you proficient at portable operation. Enjoy!
73 for now,
Denton W7DB