The final day of driving on our recent western states road trip found us waking up in Winnemucca, Nevada. Growing weary from days on the road but refreshed after a night’s sleep we once again pulled onto I-80 West.

Up to this point I had never activated a POTA reference in the state of Nevada, even though it’s the closest other state to me at my home QTH of San Francisco.

About 50 miles west of Winnemucca is Rye Patch SRA (US-4444). I had my eye on this park as potential operating spot since I would reach it still fairly early in the day and it was not far off the highway. Rye Patch Reservoir is an 11 mile long man-made lake that runs parallel to interstate 80 and is held back by a dam at its southern end.

We got to the turn off and despite my desire to put the hammer down and get home, I thought to just have a look around to see what Rye Patch SRA looked like.

Naturally, once inside the park there is very little chance that I am not going to attempt an activation. At 10 in the morning, the high desert had already warmed into the 80s and I wanted to keep this operation on the quick side, if possible. These facts called for an in-car operation with the air conditioner running to try keep both the humans and the radio as cool as possible.

From the road I spied a parking area where a lone tree provided a patch of shade. It was in a bit of a bowl, but better that than roasting in the full sun up on the desert plateau.

I used the Yaesu FT-818 this time, perched on the center console in an attempt to keep it cooler. Turns out it would have been easier to use the KH1 in this situation but I didn’t feel like taking the time to switch radios.

About halfway through the hour of operating needed to get to 10 contacts for a valid POTA activation I was visited by the park rangers who’d obviously taken notice of the out-of-state plates and big antenna on the car. They were friendly enough and mentioned they’ve seen other ham operators at the park in the past.

I was just glad that I had paid the day use fee at the self-serve kiosk prior to my activation. Not to say that I had even remotely considered not paying! I fully encourage supporting our parks so that we continue to have access to this great public resource.

With 10 QSOs in the log, we furled the station, rolled up all the windows and put the A/C on high before jumping back on I-80 for the drive through Reno, over the Sierras and back to our home in San Francisco.

This is the conclusion of this short series of brief field reports on outdoor amateur radio on this western states road trip. Six new to me POTA references activated from five new states with a total of 65 QRP CW QSOs.

73 de W6CSN

This trip across Utah was on the return leg of our western states road trip that took us as far east as Colorado. Our first time in Utah, several days earlier, followed a route further north in the Logan area through the Cache Valley.

On this return leg, we spent the night in Salt Lake City and got started driving again around mid-morning. Back on I-80, we spotted the sign for Great Salt Lake State Park (US-3075) and my XYL requested we stop and have a look.

I already had Utah in the bag with my earlier activation of Bud Phelps WMA in Logan and didn’t really intend to collect another park in the state. But we’d paid the park entrance fee and it seemed silly to not at least attempt an activation. When am I going to be back at the Great Salt Lake?

After looking around a bit at the lake, which we found to be generally underwhelming, I grabbed the KH1 and setup up on a picnic table with a Tufteln right-angle adapter holding up the 4 foot whip. The counterpoise was simply tossed out toward the lake.

With deteriorating propagation conditions and a very short antenna, it took more than an hour to gather up the 10 QSOs needed for a complete activation. The last several contacts came from hunting other POTA/SOTA ops.

With the activation complete and the discomfort of the hot weather around the lake, we hopped back into the air conditioned car to continue our westward journey home.

73 de W6CSN

On our first trip across Wyoming a few days before, we did not stop for POTA because we had places to be and a lot of driving to get there. Nevertheless I had noted several potential historic sites that I could activate if I had the time and energy.

Our return trip was on a more relaxed schedule, although we still wanted to make it across Wyoming to Salt Lake City by the end of the day. On the outskirts of Laramie is Wyoming Territorial Prison Historic Site (US-6122).

Hmmm…. a prison? Like the activation at the “Massacre Site” in Idaho, not really the vibe I was hoping for. But, the site was close to I-80 and had been activated many times, encouraging signs that this could be an easy win.

I paid the entrance fee and asked the person at the desk if I could setup a low profile ham radio station at the group picnic area just next to the warden’s residence. She said this would be fine.

For this activation I again paired the KH1 with the GRA-7350T antenna, but this time used the GRA-GNT micro tripod kit with telescoping extension to raise the antenna feed point a couple of feet off the ground.

With “Ok” cell service here, I spotted myself on POTA and began calling CQ. The conditions were such that I was able to collect the needed 10 QSOs in about 20 minutes on the air. KG5WAW called right at the end for number 11.

With Wyoming activated, I quickly stowed the radio gear and took a quick tour of the prison and grounds before hitting the road again.

73 de W6CSN

If you are a ham or SWL of a certain age, you can probably recite from subconscious memory the twice hourly message on WWV that ends with the station address of “two thousand east county road fifty eight, Fort Collins, Colorado, eight oh five two four.”

Well, here I was in Fort Collins but unfortunately didn’t have the opportunity to visit WWV. However, POTA was definitely in the cards as other members of the family were interested visiting Lory State Park (US-1228) which I intended to activate.

Just the day before, the Fort Collins area was beset with a line of thunderstorms that were the most intense that I’d ever experienced. For the locals it was probably just an ordinary Tuesday but for a Coastal Californian this storm was remarkable.

Anyway, afternoon thunderstorms were still in the forecast as I headed out on this POTA activation. And sure enough, as soon as I got out of the car I heard rumbles of thunder coming from the mountains. Being inexperienced with the local weather, I elected to not go waving long poles with wires attached when I could hear thunder in the neighborhood.

We decided to wait a while and see what happened with the weather. It wasn’t raining so we went for a short walk down the East Valley Trail, making sure to stay away from ridge lines or high points. After a half hour or so the skies brightened and it was clear the lightning activity had moved well to our east. This was the activation opportunity I was waiting for, although I was still a bit uneasy at the thought of “a bolt from the blue.”

It was perhaps in this felt sense of urgency that I failed to take a single picture of the radio or antenna setup for this activation. But you can get the idea if you just picture in your mind the KH1 being keyed with a CW Morse paddle and feeding the GRA-7350T on a car-top magnetic mount.

Thankfully this was another activation that completed in less than 20 minutes and I wasted no time taking down the antenna as the sky was beginning to darken with clouds once again.

Sure enough, just as we headed into the visitor center, fat raindrops began smacking the ground around us and thunder rumbled once again.

Upon returning home I received this Radiogram from Tim, WW8L regarding the activation. Thanks Tim!

Until the next one,

73 de W6CSN

This is the first in a short series of brief field reports on POTA activations while on a weeklong roadtrip through several states in the western U.S.

The trip would follow Interstate 80 from San Francisco, over the Sierras, through Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming to Fort Collins Colorado. And back, mostly retracing the same route.

The first occasion of outdoor amateur radio activity came on day three, a layover day spent in Logan, Utah about an hour north of Salt Lake City.

It was early and the family was sleeping in, enjoying a break from driving. Not far from our hotel was the Bud Phelps Wildlife Management Area, POTA reference US-11044. This location looked promising so I looked up the WMA on my phone’s navigation app and quietly slipped out.

Now, I am not sure if my phone didn’t know exactly where we were going or if Utah’s WMAs lack signage or other identifying infrastructure, but after driving the proscribed route, I found myself at the end of a dirt road surrounded by cows and sheep. There was no visible indication that this was, in fact, Bud Phelps WMA but my phone announced “You have arrived,” so who was I to argue?

I fired up the FT-818 using an MFJ-1979 stainless steel telescoping whip antenna on a mag-mount base on the car’s roof. In this configuration the antenna presents a slightly higher SWR, but nothing the 818 can’t handle so I didn’t bother trying to improve the match.

I made a couple of contacts on 17 meters before extending the antenna fully and completing the activation on the 20 meter band.

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Later the same day, after picnicking in and checking out natural beauty of Logan Canyon, I took advantage of some free time to make the short drive up into Idaho. If I could find a place to activate the Pioneer National Historic Byway (US-10420) then I could bag another state, even though Idaho wasn’t part of our planned travel route.

Driving the Scenic Byway, the first obvious stop we came to was the site commemorating the “Bear River Massacre” – not exactly the POTA vibe I was hoping for, but it was over 90°F outside and I wanted to try to complete the activation before 00 UTC rolled around.

I deployed the Gabil GRA-7350T vertical, again on the rooftop magmount and plugged in the Elecraft KH1. The black enclosure of the Yaesu FT-818 would absolutely burn up sitting on the dash in the direct sun.

It was hot enough that I kept the car running to provide air conditioning so that us pale San Franciscans wouldn’t expire in the Idaho summer heat.

Thankfully, the QSOs poured in pretty easily and the activation was complete in less than 20 minutes, a rare occurrence with the unstable solar conditions we’ve seen recently.

Two new “parks” and two new states in the activators log made for a successful first day of outdoor amateur radio on this road trip. Next stop on the POTA tour is Colorado.

73 de W6CSN