Meetup at POTA

 Fellow Ham IRL. Dual Activation

Jim, W8STX runs a morning round table on weekdays on 145.150 repeater; I am a frequent participant. Recently he has taken up POTA and uses his ICOM 705 with the Xiegu XPA-125B Amp. In our round table yesterday, he mentioned he was going to activate K-1487 Belle Isle State Park. This park is a stone's throw away from downtown Detroit where I work. The plan was to work him simplex on 2m, but I forgot my HT at home. So when he texted me and let me know that he was there; I headed out there during lunch break.

It is really nice to meet someone who you've known only by voice. When I arrived there he was almost done with 11 contacts. He paused his activation and we chatted for a while. I had also carried my rig along and we examined each others' setup. I did not want a trip to a park go to waste. He graciously offered me to use his mic and rig and perform a 2 operator activation. However, I suggested that I can do a CW operation on my rig and he graciously threw the antenna over to my rig and let me go at it. This saved me a bunch of time trying to my wire antenna up the tree. His antenna was a Chameleon MPAS Lite. My KX-3 had no issues tuning and found a 1:1 match on 20m. I proceeded to put out CQs and quickly had a bunch of responses. I had 11 contacts in 13 minutes including one in NV.  In between, we traded tricks and tips. It was fun watching a fellow ham work POTA. At the end, I wrapped up quickly and headed back to work while Jim stayed on to work a few more contacts. We since notice that there were four activations of the park that day!

In all this was a nice day made even nicer by the gracious gesture of a fellow ham!

Rover Warthog

The Rover Warthog award is a POTA award for activating 5 parks in a day. In Michigan, there are quite a few parks within miles of each other. When I head out for a weekend day activation, I usually try to line up about three of them that are closely clustered for an activation. This multi-park a day activation is intended to save substantial mileage and fuel cost - despite being on my motorcycles. Usually, by the third park I am bushed and start making errors in CW copy and my hand does not cooperate well sending the code out.

But today, I was determined to conquer the Rover Warthog Award! The weather forecast was going to be unusually good for this time of the year. I chose five parks near my QTH and the mapped distance showed about a 75 mile loop to hit all the parks. The parks chosen were K-1495, K-3323, K-3324, K-3315 and K-1518 in the order. I chose these parks not only because they were close. I have activated them before and hoped that my familiarity with them would reduce the time to hunt for places and get set up. I also did not want to use 2-fers etc to make my 5 activations. I estimated about 90 mins per park with about 30 minutes of commute between them.  Since I would be riding the act of suiting up, getting the earplugs and the helmets quickly eat up minutes.  I needed the extra time to set up and tear down as well; I was going to be using my wire antennas up the tree. So that makes about 10 hours in total! I needed to get an early start. 

 I skipped my morning jog/walk to conserve energy and headed out promptly at around 8 AM (1200UTC). It was a cool 60F/15C. The ride to Dodge #4 State Park K-1495 was pleasant. I found a spot with a suitable tree and bench within a few steps of the parking spot.  Since it was cool this time, I decided not to take off my jacket or my riding pants. I had the antenna up the tree within minutes. Since 40m is good for the early part of the day, I stuck to it. Looking at the log, the first contact was at 1247 UTC. By about 1303 UTC, I had 14 contacts. The going was good, I had the activation bagged within 20 minutes. The tear-down was uneventful and after ensuring all gear was packed, I headed over to the next activation.

Pontiac Lake Recreation Area K-3323 is about 20 minutes away. The traffic was very light early Sunday Morning and pretty soon I was in the park. This park always presents problems as I have not located a picnic area with trees and tables. The previous time I was here, I had to use my tarp on the meadow. This time, I chose to use the picnic shelter as I did not see any reservations for the day. It was very close to the parking lot. The muscle memory kicked in and pretty soon I had the antenna up the tree. I got about 17 QSOs in just under 30 minutes. The minor issue with this park is it is just across from a rather busy airport. The weekend morning had quite a few takes off right over my head drowning out any contacts. I had to ask for a few repetitions to get the call signs correct. Two down. Time for a little sip of water and on to the next park. 

Google Maps told me that it was about a 20 minute ride to Proud Lake Rec Area K-3324. The ride was fun as it took me through some rural 2 lane roads. I chose to use the Huron Shelter area in the park. It is reached by about a quarter mile of dirt road. The parking lot was empty and I had the entire area to choose. I chose my usual spot under a tree that allows for an antenna up about 30 feet. This particular spot has been tricky for me as it takes a few tries to get the rope over the branch. I usually end up with mild elbow injury from repeated tries to get the throw bag over the branch! By this time, 40m pretty much seems to have dried up. So after trying for about 6 minutes I hopped on to 20m. After bagging 13 QSOs in 18 minutes, time to head on to park number four...

On to Island Lake State Recreation Area K-3315. Google Maps routed me through some dirt backroads that eventually put me on the freeway to the park. I was getting a little tired and had to exercise caution in getting my road bike over the dirt roads. The bike kept weaving on the gravelly surface, but fortunately there was no traffic and that allowed me to take it nice and easy and reach the park safely. I chose my spot overlooking the beach. It was fun to watch people having their fun -- kids playing, a mom teaching her kid to use the stand-up surfboard. The lazy rhythm of the kayakers with their colorful kayaks enhanced the visual appeal of the lake.  The setup was quick as usual. 40m was still dead and the bands were starting to dry up. I hopped between 30m and 20m and got 18 QSOs in about 40 minutes. The slower pace of the contacts also gave me enough time to eat my home cooked pasta for lunch.  Park number four...done! I was still feeling good and the next park is my favorite that I have activated many times. The end was in sight.

After a quick 20 minute ride through suburban roads, I arrived at Maybury State Park K-1518. My usual spot was empty and I even got nods of recognition from other joggers and walkers who by now seem to accept me as part of the scenery. I rarely get any more questions or looks of suspicion at this location. Just as I was getting started, a father with a young son sauntered over to me and asked me if I can reach Bad Axe (about 120 miles to my north). I told him possibly if the conditions were right. He told me his father was a ham and we exchanged callsigns. I did not think much of it and proceeded with the activation. I continued to pursue my strategy of using a mix of 20m and 30m. Just for the heck of it I called CQ on 17M and got SM2SUM from Sweden, who has worked me a couple of times before. I got my requisite contacts and was about to wrap up. I was making mistakes in copying CW and my hands were not working the paddle right. As I was about to put my QRTs, the grandfather of the young kid earlier contacted me. We had a 599 contact on 30m across 120mi. I exchanged quick pleasantries and wrapped up the successful Rover Warthog attempt.

I had estimated about 8-10 hours, but I was done in about six and a half hours. The extra padding allowed for bad conditions. This also ensures that I was not rushing between parks and make mistakes when riding under pressure of time. I was glad that the bands were cooperative and I was still reasonably fresh at the end.

Now to the important question: Will I do it again? Possibly not. I do not relish the task of constantly having to set up and tear down the radio and antennas. This in addition to gearing up and taking the gear off at every stop. The chance that I forget or leave something behind is also greatly increased.

I like the more leisurely pace and possibly will stick to the 3 park a day routine for the foreseeable future.

Multi-day activation on a single trip

All POTA operators will be aware that the activation calendar is based on the UTC day. So if your activation session extends across the 0000 UTC hour the new contacts are counted against the next day and a fresh activation. In the US Eastern time zone; we are 4 hours behind UTC during our summer. This makes activations past the 8 PM local time count against a fresh day. 

Although, the time differential makes it convenient, I have not taken advantage of this as much as I would like to. Often, I need to be home to get ready for the early start next day. However, I have done multi-day activations twice to date. During the peak of our summer we have daylight past 9:30 PM and it is generally easier then. I made my first multi-day activation one one of those long days. Today however, our sunset was at 7:30 PM. But the weather was predicted to be mild and nice. The skies were going to be clear with some moonlight. I decided to activate Maybury State Park K-1518 that is very close to my QTH. I went in prepared with additional lights to enable me to work in the dark. 

After making about 60 contacts for the current day, I decided to take a break and take in some light reading. As I was counting down the minutes to the start of the new UTC day, I took in the beautiful sunset from my perch. 

Time to enjoy the sunset and do some reading!

As the sun began to set, the crowds began to thin.  Consequently the parking lot began to look more and more desolate; until finally all that was left was my motorcycle.

It was fully dark by around 8 PM. The park was eerily silent and a sole light lit the parking lot a little ways away.  It was reassuring to be able to keep my ride back home in sight! 

The zero UTC hour! I decided to work CW on 40m! Spotted myself lower in the band and put out CQs

POTA after dark.

I worked 3 contacts at a furious pace. Suddenly all hell broke loose -- no QRL-- just digital noise mayhem. It was the RTTY day. The RTTY folks took over the band and pretty much took over usual CQ haunts. I switched over to 7.114 MHz and re-spotted myself. I need not have worried about making a successful activation. The contacts came in fast and furious. After about 15 contacts, the deluge stopped. Time to put out a few QRT calls to catch any stragglers! Finally I was done. Took me another 20 minutes to pack up and begin the ride back home. 

Malicious QRM during activations - Patience is the key

 July 28,2023

At the conclusion of my CW POTA activation of K-1518 today I issued the QRT QRT DE ... TY ES 73 to catch any lingering folks before wrapping up as well as to people who listen in on activation. I heard a "GUD" come back. I remember working a callsign with that suffix before and sent a "GUD?". Got a "GUD RIDANCE " [sic] back. FWIW: The response was at about 5wpm. This is a first one for me. Since I was wrapping up my activation and headed to run an errand, I did nothing further and hoped it would be an isolated incident. That was not to be. 

Aug 10, 2023

 I was activating K-3519 today and the bands were sparse around 1700UTC.  This was my second park in a 3 park sequence for the day. I was putting out CQs on 20M SSB (running 10W). Suddenly a station came on with strong digital noise and some cackling like sounds that lasted for about a minute or so. I had already quite a few contacts and nothing but time on my hands before moving to the next park that day. Once they were done with the QRM, I continued to put out CQs. After every CQ sequence they would repeat the noise again. I never acknowledged the noise, but continued to go on as if nothing was wrong. But I am happy to say I prevailed as after about 5 to 7 repetitions, whoever it was got tired and went down the band to QRM someone else. Sometimes malicious QRM can provide much needed break from the monotony of POTA activation! 

Later on I find that the digital noise was very similar to the one described in this Youtube video

Since that time I have had a few instances where someone would send LID during my CQ activations. Fortunately to date, the QRM has not managed to derail an activation yet.

Upon conferring with the folks at QRZ, this does not seem isolated; but fortunately, nor is it widely prevalent. There are apparently people who take perverse pleasure in disrupting POTA activations or ranting on POTA activators. The universal consensus is to ignore the trolls. 

May all your POTA activations be QRM free!

First time use of fiberglass pole for POTA

Those of you who have visited my QRZ page know that I try to ride my motorcycle to my POTA activations. This allows me to combine my passions for riding and POTA at the same time. While I usually carry a 20ft lightweight antenna pole, I never had to use it until today. You never know when the items in your kit may come in handy.

Sep 16, 2023: What a beautiful Michigan day! Late summer/early fall weather with temperatures around 70F (21C). Time to pile on some miles....

Today I rode up to activate St. Clair Township State Game Land (K-6788). It is about an hour's ride away from my residence. I usually plan my activation ahead of time and took a look at the POTA site for information. Most state Game Lands have a small area cleared for parking. Looking at the map linked to at the POTA site I see a parking area identified. As is usual for most game areas, the access road is a dirt road and not a paved surface. Although I ride a touring bike, I can handle a few miles of dirt road if I take it easy. When I ride up there, I find the entire parking area to be a muddy mess due to some rains. I did not want to risk my heavy bike getting stuck in the mud or even worse  dropping my bike. 

So I decided to park my bike on a soft shoulder at a safe location and then walk to a mowed field within the Game Land. In almost all my activations, I usually find a tree close by and string up my antenna using a throw line. But today, there was not a tree that was convenient. The field was a little soggy closer to the tree lines. So I had to resort to using my 20ft fiberglass pole that I carry for the first time. My pole is the WiMO-18333-6K pole from DXEngineering. I used this with a 1-1/2 inch PVC tube, WiMO portable mast Guy Ring WMO-18310-40 along with some paracords and garden stakes to anchor the pole to the ground.  

Fiberglass pole at St. Clair Township State Game Land

The pole is not a heavy-duty pole at all. So forget about heavy baluns etc. at the top end of the antenna. The pole tends to bend even under the weight of 16-18g speaker wires. In the above picture you can see it bending even though the antenna wire is not pulled taut. It is a last ditch attempt at gaining some height for simple antennas. It is however very light weight and works in a pinch. I had a successful activation and worked most stations on 40m CW that morning. 

After this activation, I rode down to K-6789 (St. John's Marsh).  This is a short ride through semi-rural roads. Once I reached the marsh, I noticed that the place was the Waldorf Astoria compared to K-6788. It had a convenient bench with a nearby tree. This was my first time activating from a bench as I usually look for picnic tables when possible. As I was activating, I saw humming birds and other small birds go on about their business. It does not get any better or so I thought!

St. John's Marsh. My ride is visible far in the background to the left of the parked truck. To the right was the marsh where humming birds were at play

Finally to cap my day I went up to Algonac State Park (K-1484). What a beautiful park!  Even better than the marsh! The main picnic area overlooks the St. Clair river and it was great to watch the ore vessels go by silently as you are activating the park. Time for some lunch as well and a nice ride back home after three successful activations!

Algonac State Park Picnic area overlooking the St. Clair river. Watching the ore vessels silently drifting by during activation is fun! To it add home-cooked pasta and it doesn't get any better. Note: this is a mirror image due to Selfie!

Let me know of your enjoyable POTA excursions!

Peculiarities of motorcycle based activation of a Game Area

 I started POTA activations earlier this year and have been mostly activating State Parks or State Recreation Areas. My QTH (in Michigan) is blessed with several of them within an hour's commute. This is just in the south eastern part of the state. I have several others to explore outside of this region which should keep me engaged for some time to come :-)

During summer time, I ride my motorcycle to the park for POTA activations. Motorcycle activations provide a level of difficulty somewhere in between that of a car-based activation and a POTA/SOTA backpacking trip. I am not as constrained by weight or volume as the backpacking activators. All the gear must fit in the motorcycle and hopefully the weather cooperates.

I ride a touring motorcycle with ample capacity for my KX-3, my current preferred POTA rig. My antenna is a random-wire antenna made of speaker wire with an appropriate counterpoise. I use a 75ft paracord and a arborist throw bag to get the antennas up on trees. All of the radio gear fits in an Apache 2800 all weather case with the exception of the 20ft fiberglass mast that I bungee cord to my rear seat. I have never needed to use the fiberglass pole to date. In addition to the radio gear I carry a bag of lunch and a few water bottles (one with Gatorade) to keep me going for the few hours it may take for an activation. In one of my posts I will lay out the gear I take out during my motorcycle based activations in detail!

I initially preferred state parks because of their amenities. I know I can find a picnic table under the shade close to a parking area. I ride with full protective gear and do not envision hiking deep into the woods in my riding boots to get to an activation. 

I was soon running out of state parks near me and found it boring to go the same park again and again! I started looking into State Game Areas and Game Preserves. Now these are less fancy with their amenities. The state Game Areas are usually a wooded area accessible by dirt road with a small clearance on the side for hunters to park their vehicles. 

My first activation of a game area was Petersburg State Game Land (K-6755). I did this on my car on my way down to home on a road-trip. At that time my rig was an Alinco DX-70. It gave me a feel for what to expect in such areas.

Car based Activation of Petersen State Game Land

Today, I decided to make my first motorcycle based Game Area activation at Holly Wildlife State Recreation Area (K-6705). My plan was there to get there early when I am the freshest, complete my activation and then head on to the nearby park with better facilities. But as they say in Michigan, there are two seasons: Construction and Winter. I hit a construction snag (Google Maps did not warn me) and got stuck in a stop and go traffic for the final 6 miles into the park. This set me back by almost an hour and the sun was getting higher in the sky! The sun has two effects: one on propagation which dips around midday for the bands I work on and the other on the riding comfort.

After navigating the final mile of dirt road, I finally pull into the (so-called) parking lot. As mentioned earlier it is just a small clearing on the side of the road. After picking a careful spot to set my motorcycle on my side stand (lest it sink into the ground) while at the same time being away from a tree so that I can string up my random wire without sags; the activation began. First comes the taking off the helmet, the ear-plugs the riding gloves etc. and exchange them with the radio box in the top-case. But before that a swill of water to sate my thirst as I was already sweating from moving the motorcycle around by duck-walking it. After the gear was safely stashed, time to get on with the radio!

I unwrapped the paracord and attached it to the throw-bag. After selecting a suitable branch, I heaved the throw bag. Success! Hit my intended branch the first time. As the throw bag came down on the other side, it was a little into the bushes. I had to walk through the bushes to retrieve it so that I can pull my antenna tied to the other end of the rope. 

This foray into the bushes was a trigger for the bugs to know there is fresh food supply in their midst! As they began swarming me and demanding their share of my blood, I rush to my motorcycle and retrieve the bug spray and thwart their attempts.

Having temporarily halted the arthropod armada, I proceeded to hook my radio up to the power supply, antennas, CW keyer etc. There are no tables and I was not about to set the radio on the dirt floor. All of this was carefully arranged on the rear seat of my motorcycle

On Motorcycle Activation at Holly State Wildlife Area

I did not intend to linger long here as it was a little difficult to bend down and operate the keyer and write down the logs. Fortunately, I got the requisite number of contacts within the hour and and I then high-tailed it to Holly State Recreation Area. I was hoping to find a nice picnic table under a tree, but as luck would have it, there was a wedding party at a nearby shelter and all the picnic tables were occupied. Luckily, I also either carry a tarp or a picnic mat with me! So it is almost the same ritual again, except I do not have to position my motorcycle. All I had to do was to find a place for the mat where I could string up an antenna to a nearby tree!

No picnic table at Holly State Rec Area

By the time I got started, the prop had dipped. I thought I could use FT8 contacts, but I took a newer laptop and never updated the required USB drivers (Lesson learnt!). The data service at my location was spotty. So I was stuck with CW and it took me a while ( about 2 hours)  to get it done. Finally time to head home after two good activations. My first motorcycle based activation in a State Game Area is a success!

A lesson in site selection - The many forms of QRM

POTA activators and indeed all ham operators have to contend with QRM, some malicious and most benign. However, not all QRM is on the airwaves. Today, I activated Milliken State Harbor K-6823. Now, this is a POTA entity in the city of Detroit and on the riverfront. I have always observed the riverfront from near and afar and mostly enjoyed the huge Ore freighters traversing the Detroit River.  I picked what I thought was a quiet spot away from the picnic shelters with a view of the river. I settled in for an enjoyable POTA activation

Shady spot under the tree at Milliken State Harbor

Today, however, summer was in full swing. The park was crowded. Kids were squealing and generally having a good time! About 15 minutes into the activation, loud music emanated from a picnic area about 50 yards away drowning out my puny speaker on my KX-3. Time to pull the headphones out and keep the noise at bay! But that was not all. There were speedboats and jet-skis that started to ply on the river and raised such a racket that I could not hear anything even with the headphones. What started as an idyllic setting transformed completely within the space of minutes. I had to carefully time my CQs and ask for calls multiple times. I worked both CW and SSB that day and some of the hunters got a little testy while some of them dropped off when I asked for the calls multiple times! I hope hunters sometimes get to see the less than ideal conditions the activators may be under.

Well QRM also takes other forms. Curious people who want to know what you're doing is another source. I usually am very friendly and pause the activation to give them a quick overview. However, some of them want to linger around and strike an extended conversation, I have to politely inform them that I am in the midst of an activation and would be glad to talk to them at length at the end of the activation.

I have also have had kids who wanted to either untie or uproot my antenna anchors!  All of this in addition to the QRM on the air. 

Hang tight fellow activators!