Master Portable Operations: Reel POTA-ble Antenna Review
As is my practice of late, I did an early morning activation to beat the heat. On Sunday morning, I drove up to Hopewell Fire Tower, which is part of William Penn State Forest (US-5481, KFF-4914). This small tract is located within French Creek State Park (US-1355, KFF-1355).
There was only one other vehicle in the parking lot when I rolled in. My plan was to operate from an old, stone picnic shelter, but I was swarmed by bugs as soon as I got out of my truck. So, I stayed in the truck to keep the annoying flying critters at bay. My equipment today included my Penntek TR-35 (5 watts, CW) and my 12-foot loaded whip.Β
Based on my Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) spots, the 40M band seemed in pretty good shape. I quickly logged 15 contacts before moving to 20M. I logged a few more on that band before shutting down.Β
My 40 minute activation yielded 19 QSOs, including four park-to-park contacts. One of those P2P contacts was with fellow QRP Polar Bear, VE3WMB. Itβs always a pleasure to work Michael.
Stay cool out there!
72, Craig WB3GCK
As I have gotten older, the heat and I donβt get along very well anymore. So, with the heat and humidity forecasted for today, I was just going to stay home and get caught up on some things around the house. My (far) better half intervened and encouraged me to go out early before it got too hot. Sheβs always right, so off I went.
I drove down to Ridley Creek State Park (US-1414, KFF-1414) and found a parking spot with some shade. Along with my Penntek TR-35 (5 watts, CW), I used an MFJ-1979 17-foot whip with my homebrew loading coil.Β
I started out on 40M and wound up staying there for my whole activation. The band was in pretty good shape, as it only took about eight minutes to log my first 10 contacts.Β
About 40 minutes into my activation, I got a call from my (far) better half. There was an issue at home, so I packed up and headed out.
I ended up with 20 contacts this morning, with four known park-to-park contacts. One contact was with fellow QRP enthusiast, Jim W1PID. Itβs been a while, so it was nice to hear him again. One of my park-to-park contacts was with QRPer Thomas K4SWL. We had a very light copy on each other, but he persevered and eventually pulled me out of the noise. Thanks for your patience, Thomas!
On an unrelated note, itβs great to have Logbook of the World (LoTW) back up and running, after a serious cybersecurity incident. The system also seems to run much faster now, so itβs nice to see the backlog steadily declining. Iβm guessing things should be back to normal in the next week or so.
Finally, Iβd like to wish my fellow Americans a very happy and safe Independence Day!
72, Craig WB3GCK
While still on my extended stay at my daughterβs house in central Pennsylvania, I wanted to do some casual operating. So, I set up in the backyard to make a few contacts.
Today, I decided to give my Gabil GRA-7350TC vertical some air time. Itβs been a while since Iβve used it. I set it up using the Gabil GRA-ULT01 MK3 tripod. I had forgotten how well engineered the Gabil stuff is. Anyway, I used four 15-foot speaker wire radials spread out on the ground. For the coax, I used 20 feet of RG-174.
I started out on 40M. Using an antenna analyzer, I got the SWR down as far as I could and let the KX3βs tuner do the rest. Taking a quick dial spin down the band, I didnβt hear much at all. Eventually, I came across WA2NYY activating a park in New York and called him. Despite the horrendous band conditions, he heard my 5-watt signal on the first call. Next, I heard an activator in North Carolina, but I had a rough copy. We still managed to complete the contact.
I then moved up to 20M and found the same crappy conditions. Eventually, I found and worked two more POTA activators.
I checked the POTA spotting page and saw that there were a couple of European activators on 15M. I tuned up the antenna and did a quick check. Nothing but dead silence across the band.
It was at that point that I checked the band conditions online and saw that there was a severe geomagnetic storm in progress. It showed poor conditions on all the HF bands. That certainly explained the lousy band conditions.
Not being a glutton for punishment, I shut down for the day. Still, I was thankful for the four contacts I made with five watts of CW into an eight-foot base-loaded whip during a severe geomagnetic storm.
72, Craig WB3GCK
I mentioned in a previous post that Iβm out in central Pennsylvania, doing some house sitting for my daughterβs family and taking care of my grand-dog. I wanted to get in at least one park activation while Iβm here, but I didnβt want to leave the pup alone for too long. Fortunately, Pennsylvania State Game Lands 246 (US-8941, KFF-5862) is just minutes away.
I last activated PA SGL 246 back in 2022 and had 34 contacts. So, 10 contacts this time would not only qualify another activation for Parks on the Air (POTA), but it would also give me the 44 contacts needed for World Wide Flora and Fauna (WWFF).Β
I rolled into the empty parking lot and quickly set up my 12-foot loaded whip on the back of the truck. My rig today was my trusty KX3 today (5W, CW).
I started out on 40M and was greeted with about S2 worth of noise. Iβm guessing it was coming from a power line that runs over the parking lot. Despite the noise, I made 10 contacts in about 13 minutes. Then things seemed to dry up.
I moved up to 30M for a while, but there were no takers. Determined to add at least one more contact, I went back down to 40M. It took a few minutes, but I finally got one more call.
Around that time, it was starting to get hot in the truck. I also neglected to grab my water bottle as I headed out the door. Doh! So, having narrowly exceeded my goal of 10 contacts, I packed up before I got too dehydrated. Besides, I had an errand to run before heading back to the house.Β Β Β
After about 30 minutes of operating, the grand total today was 11 contacts. I donβt think I had any park-to-park contacts.Β
I think this might have been the shortest activation I have ever done.
72, Craig WB3GCK
Iβm currently out in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area for a week of house and puppy sitting for my daughter. My companion for the week is a five-year-old German Shepherd named Belle, who was adopted by my daughter and her family nine months ago. Sheβs a sweet dog, but she sometimes has some separation anxiety. So, Iβm making sure my ham radio activities are short and close to home.
The first two days of my puppy sitting duty coincided with this yearβs Field Day, so I did a little βbackyard-portableβ operating as category 1B. In my nearly 50 years of ham radio, this was my first-ever Field Day using my own callsign.Β
My plan was simply to set up an antenna in the backyard and make a few contacts each day. The weatherman was calling for dangerously hot temperatures over the weekend, but thereβs a section of the yard that has some shade for most of the day.Β
My (far) better half came out for the weekend. While I was surveying the backyard trying to determine what antenna to use, she suggested strapping βthat fishing pole antennaβ (aka Jackite pole) to my grandsonβs basketball pole. Great idea! So, I strapped my 31-foot Jackite pole to the pole and used a 29-foot wire and my weather-resistant 9:1 UnUn. I ran 18-feet of RG-8x over to the two chairs that served as my makeshift operating position.Β My rig was an Elecraft KX3 (5 watts, CW) powered by a 6 Ah LiFePO4 battery.
I started off logging contacts in HAMRS on my cell phone. That lasted for about two contacts before I switched to paper logging. I wanted to keep things simple and forgo using my laptop, so paper logging was just easier for me than using my cell phone.
With temperatures in the high 90s (F), I only stayed out there for two brief sessions on Saturday. When a strong thunderstorm blew through, I called it a day.Β Β
After breakfast Sunday morning, I went back out to make a few more contacts before the weather heated up again. When I called it quits, I had 62 CW contacts in the log, including one DX station (France).Β
My three hour effort didnβt break any records, but it was fun. I just wish the weather had been cooler, and I could have done without the thunderstorm.Β
I hope everyone had a fun Field Day weekend.
72, Craig WB3GCK
Today I did something I donβt think I have done before: a single-band activation. Normally, I spend time on several bands. Today, however, I wanted to see how my 17-ft whip would perform mounted directly to the antenna mount on my truck (sans loading coil).Β
I drove down to Ridley Creek State Park (US-1414, KFF-1414) this morning and set up in one of the picnic areas. After mounting the antenna, I broke out my antenna analyzer. Since the fully extended whip is approximately a quarter-wave on 20M, I wasnβt surprised by the SWR readings. With 15 feet of RG-8X coax attached, the SWR was a flat 1.45 across the band. So I fired up my Penntek TR-35 (5 watts, CW) and hung out on 20M for the next hour.
When I checked the band conditions, I saw the geomagnetic field was βunsettled.β Solar wackiness notwithstanding, I logged my first 10 contacts in about 12 minutes. European signals werenβt very strong this morning, but I still managed three DX contacts: two from Italy and one from France. An hourβs effort produced 26 contacts, including four park-to-park contacts.Β
Iβm planning to dust off a 25 year old 20M QRP rig and use it for a future activation. This antenna configuration might come into play for that. Stay tunedβ¦
72, Craig WB3GCK
Yesterday, I took part in one of my favorite public service events, the French Creek Iron Tour. Chester County ARES/RACES (CCAR) has been supporting this cycling event for more than 20 years. The French Creek Iron Tour benefits the French & Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust.
This is a large event, with distance options ranging from 11 to 100 miles. Because the event covers such a wide area, CCAR needed to provide radio operators at five rest stops and aboard eight support vehicles. The support vehicles are equipped with APRS trackers, allowing the net control operators to track their locations around the course.
My part in the event was pretty straight-forward. I was once again stationed at a rest stop in historic Yellow Springs, Pennsylvania. Because CCAR has an extensive linked repeater infrastructure, an HT was all I needed for communications.Β
Fortunately, there were no serious issues to handle. A few riders rolled into the rest stop needing bicycle repairs, and some riders required transportation back to the start/finish line at the Kimberton Fairgrounds.
This is always a fun event, and the folks from the sponsoring organization are always a pleasure to work with.Β
73, Craig WB3GCK
I went back to Marsh Creek State Park (US-1380, KFF-1380) for a quick activation this morning, and things got off to an interesting start. After setting up my trusty Penntek TR-35 (5 watts, CW) and 12-foot loaded whip, things just didnβt seem right. My SWR on 40M was high, and even my Elecraft T1 antenna tuner couldnβt get it lower than 3:1.Β
I started checking cables and connections, but everything looked OK. Heck, itβs not a very complicated antenna, so there isnβt much that can go wrong. When I got out of the truck to change to another antenna, I noticed my 12-foot whip looked a little shorter than usual. I took the whip off and immediately found the problem. In my haste to get set up this morning, I neglected to extend the top section of the telescoping whip. Doh! Once I pulled the top section out and re-installed the whip, all was right with the world again.Β
Despite getting off to a slow start, my results werenβt too bad (by my standards). I finished with 36 contacts, including one known park-to-park contact. I had one DX contact with IW2NXI.
I finished my activation just in the nick of time. An hour after I got home, there was a major geomagnetic storm in progress. Timing is everything.
73, Craig WB3GCK
I almost talked myself out of this activation today. We had a long day yesterday at a family function with about four hours of driving, so my initial inclination was to take it easy today. In the end, the POTA urge was too great to deny, and Iβm glad I went.
I drove over to Valley Forge National Historical Park (US-0761, KFF-0761), which is just a couple of miles down the road. It had been about five months since my last visit, so I was overdue for an activation here.Β
Using my Penntek TR-35 (5 watts, CW) and 12-foot loaded whip, I started out on 40M. The signals were surprisingly strong this morning. My activation kicked off with a park-to-park contact with N1BS up in Rhode Island.
Forty and 20M produced most of my contacts this morning. I ended up with 39 contacts with 6 park-to-park QSOs. I had four DX QSOs: two with Italian stations, and two with SM4BNZ in Sweden on 20M and 17M.Β
I also had a nice park-to-park contact with fellow QRPer, AA4XX. It had been a while since our last QSO, so it was good to hear Paul on the air this morning.Β
After about 90 minutes of operating, the bands seemed to dry up, so I packed up and made the short drive back home.Β
In the end, it was a fun morning, so Iβm glad I went.Β
73, Craig WB3GCK
FT8 has been a revolution. The technology has made DXing really easy. Or has it? I continue to be amazed at how much difficulty people have working DXpeditions on FT8.Β
Last year, there were DXpeditions to Bouvet (3Y0J), Crozet (FT8WW) and Sable Islands (CY0S). The most recent DXpedition to Glorioso Islands (FT4GL) has brought it all back to me.
Let's start off with a few observations on people trying to work these DXpeditions:
Since Iβm slowly sneaking up on POTA βRepeater Offenderβ status (20 activations) at Marsh Creek State Park (US-1380, KFF-1380), I made a quick trip back there this morning. Unlike the rainy weather I encountered last time, it was a beautiful, clear morning.Β
Since it was a weekday, the parking lot at the Western Launch area was pretty empty. When I got out of the truck to set up my antenna, I noticed a large heron. Last time, he was patrolling the shallow, marshy area near my parking spot. Today, he was proudly standing on the dock, surveying his domain. I snapped a couple of pictures of him and continued setting up.
I went with my usual setup: my Penntek TR-35 (5 watts, CW) and my 12-foot loaded whip. Starting on 40M, it took all of 12 minutes to make my first 10 contacts.
I had some errands to run, so I kept it short. In a little more than an hour, I logged 22 contacts. There werenβt any park-to-park contacts, but I did log four European stations (Italy, Sweden, Czech Republic, and Slovak Republic) on 17M.Β
The heron eventually flew off. Like the heron, I took off, tooβfor home, that is.
Have a great weekend!
73, Craig WB3GCK
Youβd be forgiven for assuming all the posts on this website are either related to Parks On The Air (POTA) or Summits On The Air (SOTA) activations, but in fact, this blog is simply about βoutdoor amateur radio.β
Todayβs activity was just such a case of not POTA and not SOTA, just plain old outdoor radio. The driving factor was that today was Memorial Day, a day to honor the fallen, and traditionally, to spend some time outdoors, but trouble is that at my home QTH in San Francisco the skies were overcast and the temperatures expected to remain in the mid-50s. When the weather is like this, which is most of the summer, our family likes to escape to Marin or Sonoma counties to experience the warm weather that is uncommon in The City.
One of our favorite spots is Marin French Cheese Company factory and store, simply known as βThe Cheese Factoryβ located in Hicks Valley near the Sonoma county line. Here they offer delicious cheeses made right there on-site as well as variety of picnic fixinβs to enjoy with your cheese. However, the main reason we go here is that the cheese factory offers its guests the use of their park-like grounds.
Most visitors congregate around a small pond and picnic area on the north side of the parking lot, but if you go around back, on the south side, there is a wide open grassy field dotted with full shade trees and plenty of picnic tables. Even on busy days, you practically have the place to yourself. If there are other groups, they are usually spread out enough that you still have plenty of space.
Now, about the radio activity. Iβm making plans for an overseas trip later this summer and hope to have the opportunity to attempt a Parks On The Air activation while I am there. It would be very easy to bring the KH1, an entire station in a small βcameraβ bag. But I just got the KH1 after a six month wait for delivery and would be very upset if something were to happen to that radio while traveling abroad.
Slightly less convenient, but still quite small is the station consisting of the QMX multiband CW/Data radio, Gabil GRA-7350T base loaded vertical antenna and tripod, Talentcell Li-Ion battery back, and various connective bits. All of this can fit in my carry-on and still leave room for other travel necessities. And if something unfortunate happened to the QMX itβs not nearly such a big deal. The station could be replaced quickly and inexpensively.
I just needed to do a quick field check of the QMX station combination to verify that I can put it on the air in a park like setting, such as I am likely to encounter while traveling. The QMX is a high band model covering 20m through 10m which enables a smaller deployment footprint. I promise, there is no chance that Iβll be tossing wires into trees in a foreign park!
Previous activations have shown that when using the GRA-7350T on these high bands, especially above 14 MHz, that easier tuning is achieved when the 16 foot radials are folded back on themselves, effectively shortening the radials. Instead of folding them, I took one set of radials and cut them in half. There are two sets in this kit from when I thought I needed a lot more radials than I actually do with this antenna.
When hooking up the QMX to check the ability of the antenna to tune to a 50 ohm match with the shorter radial set, I realized that I forgot one of the power cables that connects the Talentcell to the QMX, doh!
I did have the cables needed to use the Bioenno LiFePo-4 pack with the QMX, but the battery was fully charged and supplying more than 13v, which the QMX cautioned against by flashing the battery icon to indicate the over-voltage condition. Well, shoot!
Fortunately I had another option. I brought along the KH1, because why not take the KH1 every where you go (except overseas)? With the internal autotuner bypassed, I could still test the tuning ability of the antenna system to provide a low SWR and be confident that when I use the tune mode on the QMX that I could achieve a similarly good match. I am not planning on bringing an antenna tuner.
The antenna tuned easily enough on 20m, 17m, and 15m using the KH1 as an RF source and SWR indicator. Naturally, I tried to make a few QSOs while I was proving the antenna system.
Normally when I do ham radio in the outdoors I am activating a park or summit, so I am the DX. But the cheese factory is neither a POTA park nor on a summit. Iβm just a regular ham, outside, running QRP. I didnβt even have cell phone coverage out in the country, so I couldnβt look at the POTA spots page for stations to hunt. I would just have to do it the old fashioned way, by tuning around and listening.
I spent about an hour βon the airβ hunting for stations calling CQ POTA or CQ SOTA. That yielded three QSOs, all on 20 meters.
W0ABE | Colorado | 20 meters | 20:25 utc |
K7SHR | Wyoming | 20 meters | 21:12 utc |
W6KC/VE7 | British Columbia | 20 meters | 21:25 utc |
While testing the setup on 17 meters, I didnβt hear a lot of activity but I did hear a JA working an Italian. I could copy both stations, the Italian was weak but the Japan station was pretty loud. EA3PP was calling from Spain, but QSB was enough prevent me from attempting a call. You canβt work βem if you canβt hear βem!
The logbook looks very different when I am not activating and donβt have access to spots info. A lot of callsigns written down, but not worked. When I work a station, the time notation becomes the indicator that I had a QSO with that callsign.
On the way back to the cold City, we stopped at Hicks Mountain Hens to pick up some freshly laid, pasture raised eggs. So I guess you could just as well title this post βHam βn Eggs.β Ok, I am leaving now β¦
73 de W6CSN
Over the course of the long Memorial Day weekend, I got in two short activations. As expected, there was a lot of activity going on at the parks. Parks in this area get a little busy on holiday weekends.Β
I rolled into Ridley Creek State Park early on Saturday morning. Even at 0900 local time, the park was fairly crowded. I was going to operate from a picnic table, but given the number of people there, I decided against that. Between the hikers, dog walkers, mountain bikers, and folks setting up for picnics, it was a busy place.Β
Using my Penntek TR-35 (5 watts, CW) and 12-foot base-loaded whip, I logged 27 contacts. Most of the contacts were on 40M and 30M, with just one on 17M. No DX today, but I had three park-to-park contacts. After about 90 minutes, I packed up and headed home.
On Monday, I had another early activation, this time at Norristown Farm State Park. As I expected, there were quite a few people at this park taking advantage of the holiday.Β
This activation was almost a carbon copy of Saturdayβs. I used my TR-35 and 12-foot loaded whip, and once again, I made 27 contacts with three park-to-park QSOs. Like the last activation, 40M and 30M were the most productive bands for me.Β
This time, though, I worked two European stations (Italy and Sweden) on 17M. These were my first DX contacts in more than a month, so I was glad to be out of my slump.Β
I hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday weekend. Be sure to take time to honor those who paid the ultimate price for the freedoms we enjoy.
73, Craig WB3GCK
Lately, most weekends have been rainy around here. The forecast for tomorrow is much better than the rain today. Unfortunately, family obligations gave me no choice than to activate today.
I headed over to Marsh Creek State Park (US-1380, KFF-1380) early this morning, to avoid heavier rain later in the day. Despite the lousy weather, there were a lot of cars in the parking lot.Β
The rig today was my usual Penntek TR-35 (5 watts, CW) and my 12-foot loaded whip. As is my usual practice, I started on 40M. The band predictions forecasted poor daytime conditions on 40M, but that wasnβt my experience. Although some of the signal reports I received were lower than usual, I logged my first 10 contacts in about 13 minutes. My first contact was in Georgia, so thatβs not too bad for 40M. The 30M band also seemed to be in decent shape.Β
When I moved up to 20M, I found some annoying broadband noise across the band. Iβve never encountered that here before, so I was wondering if there was a hybrid vehicle or something in the parking lot. I skipped 20M and moved up to 17M. The band was nearly devoid of activity, and 15 minutes of CQing failed to produce a single contact. While I was CQing, though, I passed the time by watching a large heron wading by. I went back to 40M to finish up.
My final tally was 32 contacts, three of which were park-to-park. I didnβt have any DX contacts this morning, but there were some highlights:
My setup withstood the rain pretty well this morning. I used a piece of pipe insulation on the passenger side window, where I fed the coax through. The fit could have been better, but it kept the rain out. Once again, I used a plastic bag to protect my homebrew coil. When I took the antenna down, I used a chamois cloth to dry the whip as I collapsed it. That worked pretty well.Β
Hopefully, weβll have a rain-free weekend one of these days.
73, Craig WB3GCK
I had another rare opportunity to activate a park on a weekday. After all the solar wackiness over the weekend, I checked the band conditions before I got started. The numbers looked better, but I still expected to encounter some flakey band conditions.
I rolled into Ridley Creek State Park (US-1414, KFF-1414) and started setting up. Once again, I used my 17-foot MFJ-1979 whip and homebrew loading coil. Thinking I would need all the help I could get, I went with the longer whip. The rig was my Penntek TR-35 (5 watts, CW).
About a minute after spotting myself, I received a call on 40M from another activator. Another hunter called about a minute later. I was off to a good start, right? Not so fast! After those two calls, things really slowed down.Β
I split my time between 40M, 30M, and 20M, and it took me about 45 minutes to make my first 10 contacts. In fact, I thought number 10 would never happen.Β
An hourβs effort produced 15 contacts with 3 park-to-park contacts. Sadly, there were no DX contacts to be had.Β Happy to have salvaged the activation, I packed up and headed home.
Hopefully, the bands will get back in shape soon.
72, Craig WB3GCK
Iβve been toying with buying a 17-foot telescopic whip for some time now. I didnβt really have a pressing need for it, since my 12-foot whip has been doing a great job for me. As a result, I kept talking myself out of buying itβuntil now. When I heard the news that MFJ was shutting down production, I figured I might as well buy one while theyβre still available.
With no additional matching, you can adjust the MFJ-1979 to cover the 20M band and higher. I figured this whip coupled with my βJunk Box Coilβ should easily cover 40M through 20M with the antenna fully extended. The four-foot height advantage over my 12-foot whip, should yield some performance improvement. With my older, larger coil, operation on 80M might be possible.
To test my assumptions, I made a trip to Evansburg State Park (US-1351, KFF-1351), where I was one activation away from a POTA βRepeat Offenderβ award. Like my last visit, it was raining, and I seemed to be the only one in the park.Β
I set up the 17-foot whip and coil on the back of the truck and quickly identified the proper tap for 40M. I used a Sharpie pen to mark the tap location. (The coil now has two sets of marks.) Despite an impending geomagnetic storm, I made my first 10 contacts in about 12 minutes. Not too bad for an early activation on a Friday morning.Β
After about 25 minutes, I switched to the 30M band and marked the tap location on the coil. I picked up eight contacts on 30M before giving 20M a try. It was no surprise that the SWR was a flat 1.5:1 with the entire coil bypassed. Although conditions on 20M seemed a little weak, I logged five more contacts before pulling the plug. I ended up with 25 contacts in the log. No DX or park-to-park contacts today, unfortunately.Β
For part of the activation, I used a plastic bag to keep the rain off the coil. When I got home, I brought the coil and the whip inside and dried everything off. While I had the whip extended, I measured the actual length. By my measurements, itβs 16 feet 11 inches long.Β
Based on this brief test, I made a few observations:
I wonβt be retiring my 12-foot whip anytime soon. I think for most POTA activations, Iβll stick with the 12-foot whip out of convenience. For contesting and activities like Winter Field Day, I will probably go with the 17-foot whip. I have an old 20M mono band QRP rig I want to put back on the air in the near future. The MFJ-1979 should be perfect for that.Β
72, Craig WB3GCK