Somedays, I just need a little POTA and radio-active therapy to energize the day. And this was one of those days. On Thursday, July 18, 2024, I woke up still feeling quite tired because I had been out the entire day before helping my sister with a move–my wife and I didn’t get back home … Continue reading Field Report: POTA Energy Boost at Tuttle Educational State Forest →

by Teri (KO4WFP) Monday, July 15, after my “botched” SOTA activation of Black Balsam, the POTA Babe headed to Richland Balsam. Richland Balsam proved to be a nice hike and activation. The mountain is further up the parkway and the highest point on it. You access the trail to the summit via an overlook just … Continue reading The POTA Babe Becomes a SOTA Babe – Part 2 →

by Teri (KO4WFP) Monday, July 15, the second day of my North Carolina camping trip for POTA and SOTA, started chilly with overcast skies. Today I would attempt my first SOTA activations. I chose two easy summits – Black Balsam Knob and Richland  Balsam. Daisy and I headed out after a simple breakfast up US … Continue reading The POTA Babe Becomes a SOTA Babe – Part 1 →

On Wednesday, July 10, 2024, my wife and I were in the middle of a week-long stay in Wilmington, North Carolina, while our daughters attended residential programs at NCSU and UNCW. That particular day, we couldn’t decide what to do because the weather was fickle! Temperatures and humidity were high, fueling a constant string of … Continue reading Beautiful POTA activation at Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson and Afternoon in Southport! →

How I worked the #19 most wanted CW DXCC as a pedestrian mobile station by Leo (DL2COM) A couple of months ago, I started using the app HamAlert to keep track of interesting DXpeditions and rare call signs just to check if I would be able to copy their signal on my home-made WebSDR at … Continue reading A QRP Morse Code Exchange with a Monk →

by Vince (VE6LK) Field Day 2024 started out with the best of plans to be spent with the best of friends and ended up totally different – and, unexpectedly, I had a hoot! With my carefully made plan behind me, my new last-minute plan was to run solo for Field Day in the backcountry of … Continue reading Experimenting during Field Day 2024 →

You might recall that my friends Eric (WD8RIF), Miles (KD8KNC), Brian (K3ES), Kyle (AA0Z), Charlie (NJ7V), and Joshua (N5FY) all played hooky on the final day of the 2024 Hamvention (Sunday, May 19) and instead activated a couple of POTA sites. I wrote a short field report about our first activation at Pater State Wildlife … Continue reading From Hamvention to History: A POTA Excursion with friends through Indiana’s Past →

On Saturday, May 4, 2024, I drove to the Hickory, NC area to visit my father, who had recently been released from the hospital and was starting rehab at a skilled nursing facility. I had a busy afternoon planned back home in the mountains, but I couldn’t resist squeezing in a quick POTA activation! Many … Continue reading Soggy POTA: Pairing the Elecraft KX2 and AX1 Amidst Flaky Propagation! →