FT-891 Powerpole conversion Jan 21, 2025 amateur radio My recent purchased Yaesu FT-891 came, as do all spanking new Yaesu FT-891’s do, with a four contact Molex style power connector, the male side of G90 versus FT-891 (chasing 100W) Jan 19, 2025 amateur radio It’s worth a little thinking about how boosting your transmit power affects a POTA activation. The generally unobserved and uncommented fact about Rainy Activation at Larrabee State Park Jan 5, 2025 amateur radio & POTA Eager to get my ‘parks activated’ count up to 30 for the next arbitrary award level on the POTA website, I headed up to Larrabee SP, the first state Lake Sammamish and Palouse to Cascades Trail Dec 21, 2024 amateur radio & POTA On 12/15, decent weather tempted me out to try for two activations - Lake Sammamish SP (US-3216), followed by Palouse to Cascades Trail (US-3203). Kanaskat Palmer State Park (US-3209) Dec 10, 2024 amateur radio & POTA Looking at my stats on the POTA website, I saw that I need three new activations to hit the next level of activator award. I am fairly resolved to Lake Sammamish SP (US-3216) 12/3/24 Dec 7, 2024 amateur radio & POTA As the weather turns less pleasant, my willingness to activate new parks diminishes, because I often have very little idea if I will be able to find Yet another Lake Sammamish Activation (11/25/24) Dec 6, 2024 amateur radio & POTA After our Big Windstorm, I had tried to do an activation of Lake Sammamish State Park and arrived at the park to find, to my horror, all the gates Redemption at Marckworth State Forest Dec 2, 2024 amateur radio & POTA Having narrowly avoided a ‘invalid’ activation attempt at Lake Sammamish SP when I inadvertently had a QSO fall into a new UTC day, I was feeling a One activation, two days Dec 1, 2024 amateur radio & POTA A week of looking around for another set of parks that would give me an opportunity to do two parks in one day left me at the end of the week having One Year of Parks on the Air Nov 13, 2024 amateur radio & POTA I made my very first POTA QSO on October 4, 2023. I did my first POTA park activation on October 30, 2023. Prompted by a desire to hunt (and then Two Activations in One Day Nov 10, 2024 amateur radio & POTA With the itch to get out and do an activation growing, and a Friday with no commitments scheduled, I started eyeing the POTA map looking for Activating two parks, one day (US-3168 & US-3169) Oct 30, 2024 amateur radio & POTA One of my goals is to activate more different parks. I’ve been eyeing the cluster of parks on Whidbey Island for some time, contemplating a two day Optimizing POTA Oct 29, 2024 amateur radio & POTA & musings I’m an inveterate optimizer. I’m not suggesting that I optimize for what other people expect - in fact, often the opposite. But it’s a peculiar Thoughts on Fun and US-3216 (Lake Sammamish SP) Activation Oct 19, 2024 amateur radio & POTA As we head deeper into autumn here in the PNW the weather can only get colder and rainier until spring. If I want to keep doing activations, I need Yet Another Activation of Lake Sammamish State Park (US-3216) Oct 16, 2024 amateur radio & POTA On Oct 14, I was champing at the bit to do an activation, despite a sort of wet weather forecast. Figuring I’d start figuring out how to work in Another fun activation of US-3216 (Lake Sammamish State Park) Oct 12, 2024 amateur radio & POTA Despite the dour outlook of various propagation prediction tools and reports of cruddy band conditions I was eager to get back to doing activations More Relaxed Activation of Lake Sammamish State Park (US-3216) Jul 12, 2024 POTA & amateur radio Presented with the possibility of a clear schedule in the afternoon I cleverly packed the day’s vital tasks into the AM with a goal of sloping off Thinking about QRP POTA activations Jul 5, 2024 amateur radio & POTA My recent struggles during POTA activations have had me thinking hard about QRP, activations, and antennas, specifically antennas for POTA park POTA activation of Olallie State Park (US-3239) Jul 3, 2024 POTA & amateur radio The weather has been wonderful and with pleasant temps and a day free I resolved to head out for a POTA activation or two. Propagation forecasts CW first activation of Lake Easton State Park (US-3214) Jun 27, 2024 amateur radio & POTA Propagation conditions continue to be crummy but I am resolved to continue to do activations anyway. I am not using the ‘number of QSOs’ metric, I