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 Bad Condx at Lake Sammamish State Park (US-3216) Jun 20, 2024 amateur radio & POTA Notwithstanding crappy band condx, today was POTA day. Off I trundled to Lake Sammamish State Park, US-3216. I had a cunning plan: do enough (ten) An Exciting activation of Lake Sammamish State Park (US-3216) Jun 14, 2024 amateur radio & POTA Today I did a very exciting (well, exciting to me) POTA activation at Lake Sammamish State Park (US-3216). This activation was exciting for several Important New Ham Radio Equipment Jun 10, 2024 amateur radio & POTA I’ve just added a new, critically important piece of equipment to my field operating kit for POTA: Introducing the fun-o-meter, which is used to Thin Radio Jun 9, 2024 amateur radio & POTA My participation in Parks on the Air, both hunting and activating, has increasingly been pushing me toward operating in ways where more and more of A challenging activation at US-3216 Lake Sammamish State Park Jun 8, 2024 amateur radio & POTA Good weather and a day of rest from training were calling me into doing a POTA activation, but when I checked propagation, it was in the dumps, Resonant versus Non-resonant Antennas May 27, 2024 amateur radio One of the things I hear is that, especially for QRP operating, resonant antennas are greatly preferred. Some of this seems to stem from some Xiegu G90 More Thoughts May 24, 2024 amateur radio With a little more time operating with the G90 I have some further thoughts/observations. I think the supplied power cable is awful. I think the Two Activations - Bridle Trails SP (US-3166) & St. Edward SP (US-3261) May 24, 2024 amateur radio & POTA We had to go pick up Paula’s car at the shop yesterday, mid-morning, and so I loaded up my car with the radios/antennas, &c, and planned on Kanaskat-Palmer State Park (US-32090, US-3236 (Nolte State Park) Activation, Flaming Geyser State Park (US-3187) May 21, 2024 amateur radio & POTA With an appointment at 3:30pm, I was hoping to squeeze in three POTA activations: Kanaskat-Palmer State Park, Noltle State Park, and Flaming Geyser