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 US-5744 (Tiger Mountain State Forest) Activation May 14, 2024 amateur radio & POTA This morning I was hopeful that I’d be able to slope off and do a four park POTA activation at a cluster of four parks not far from my home: Tiger Xiegu G90 First Thoughts May 11, 2024 amateur radio & POTA I’ve been wanting to do more POTA park activations but the overhead of pulling either the IC-7300 or the KX3 out of the station setup, and then Random Wire Antennas Apr 27, 2024 amateur radio The conceit that goes with random wire antennas is that they amount to taking a random chunk of wire, stringing it up in the air, and using it as an POTA rove lessons Mar 28, 2024 amateur radio & POTA One of the problems I encountered about halfway through the multi-day expedition was an intermittent problem with the coax connection to the three The N3JCJ(sk) Memorial POTA rove Mar 18, 2024 amateur radio & musings & POTA My dad died on Jan 30, 2024. I spent half of January whammied while I recovered from Across the Years, and the other half on the East Coast helping K-1732 Brandywine Creek State Park Activation Mar 4, 2024 amateur radio & POTA While my Dad was in the hospital I went back east to help my Mom. I took along a field kit of radio gear (described below) vaguely thinking that I’d Wallypark Stupidity Feb 26, 2024 musings Last Thursday my wife and I flew out to the east coast to attend the memorial service for my father. We parked our car at the Wallypark parking Across the Years 2024-2024 Race Report Feb 13, 2024 ultrarunning This past December 28 thru Jan 3, Paula and I ran the six day race at Across the Years, in Glendale Arizona. What follows is my attempt to get down Learning CW Dec 24, 2023 amateur radio & POTA I’ve been working on learning CW/Morse Code for some time, now - essentially for as long as I’ve had an amateur radio license. That works out to, POTA Activation #1 K-3216 Oct 30, 2023 amateur radio & POTA I’ve been making a lot of QSO’s hunting POTA activations, which is hella good fun. One of my goals was to do an activation before the end of Parks on the air Oct 23, 2023 amateur radio & POTA I made a bunch of FT8 and FT4 QSOs recently, and they highlighted a problem I have with modes like FT8 - they’re utterly impersonal. A good example: Antenna Lessons Part Three - Antenna Rigging Aug 10, 2023 amateur radio My home is smack in the middle of a forest, a mix of conifer (Douglas Fir, Western Red Cedar, Western Hemlock) and deciduous (Red Alder, Cottonwood, Lessons from Antenna Hanging Part Two - Hardware Aug 5, 2023 amateur radio I live in a forest, and I’ve hung a fair number of antennas from the trees that surround my home. I’ve learned a thing or two along the way. In this Lessons from Antenna Hanging Part One Aug 4, 2023 amateur radio One of the lessons I learned from my recent maintenance effort on my main HF antenna (an 80m-6m OCFD) was that rope differences matter a great deal, Antenna Suspension Maintenance Aug 1, 2023 amateur radio My main HF antenna is a Buckmaster 80-6m OCFD. Two of my friends put it up for me just after my leg was broken in 2015. At the time none of the 3 of Next page