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 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 Next page