Etiquette...Shmettiquette

 Most POTA activations are very enjoyable. Other than band conditions and weather, the only other issue I as a hunter am concerned most is malicious QRM. 

Recently, however, I am noticing a small pattern of persistent hunters...they almost bring a contest like ferocity to the activations. They insist on blasting their calls, despite my efforts in trying to work a weaker station. For example I might hear a prefix of the weak station say K7. I will go back with a K7?.. But will get blasted with W6xxx... I cannot honestly believe this is a mistake as the prefixes are wildly apart; Sometimes repeating K7? twice the W6 station will hold their calls until I complete the QSO with K7. 

The other day however, despite me clearly going back to the K7 station with a full report, I get a report back from the W6 station [599 both ways by the way]. I had no option but to acknowledge the W6 to get it out the way. Eventually, I went back to the K7 station who mercifully was still there and completed the QSO. 

In this instance, I was operating during the golden gray line hour for this particular activation and I was having good propagation to the western part of the continent. I can understand that stations may be eager either to work this particular park or work my call. I as a hunter rarely ever QRT if there are callers coming back to me. So there is no reason to rush it. 

What was surprising was that the W6 station turns out to be a seasoned long-time ham. Is the competitive spirit and gamification in POTA driving the simple etiquette out? 

Bugged

Some CW operators I know are also collectors of keying devices.  I also have a collection of various keying devices. But my intent is not to collect and/or restore devices, but rather to try out the various devices and use them on a regular basis. I am a relatively new CW operator and am intrigued by the variety of devices available. While learning to operate these various devices is exciting; in the long term having different keyers breaks the monotony of pounding brass on a single device. All my keyers [bug, single lever paddle, double lever paddles, straight keys, magnetic return straight keys] are used regularly. It feels great to say "I wonder what keyer should I use today?" All of non-electronic devices are wired in parallel making it easy for me to switch keying devices easily. Sometimes to relieve pain on longer QSOs,  I even switch devices mid QSO after letting the other party know.

One should never ask a parent who their favorite child is especially in front of their children! So if you asked me the same question about my keyers, the polite thing to say would be "All of them!". It may be easy to utter a socially acceptable lie to others, but one cannot maintain the charade to oneself. So I asked myself the question and the answer surprised me.

My favorite keying device is my Vibroplex Original Bug! Let me tell you why this turned out to be a surprise. I purchased this used device from QRZ classifieds. When I received the device, not knowing much about bugs, I put it to use immediately. I found that it sounded scratchy sometimes and could never get the DIT intervals to my liking. I tried various things like adding weights to the lever, cleaning with contact cleaners but could never get it just right. However, after giving up on the bug for a while, I decided to take a look at it again! I found a Google result that listed the proper process to adjust the bug put out by the Vibroplex company. I followed it meticulously...and it resulted in a bug that almost sounded like an electronic keyer. Beyond the way it sounded after the adjustments, I fell in love with the cadence of going back and forth; the springiness of the return lever that generated great feedback and the almost unending sequence of dits that a simple mechanical device can send. The mechanical noises of operation punctuated by the occasional clickety clack of the damper damping the return of the lever made me feel more connected as a CW operator! It seemed to fill a certain void left behind by the sterile electronic paddles and plaid straight keys.

Ahem! I do love the other children.. I pull out the other devices for variety on a regular basis. However, my smile seems a little wider when on QSO with my bug!

What about you? Do you have a favorite keying device? Let me know in the comments below..

POTA treachery

 After a hiatus, we have started travelling again. I usually prefer to drive when travelling... It is not that I am afraid of flying; I despise the rigamarole that we must endure to get on the flight. Suffice it to say, I only fly if it is absolutely essential. 

As a recent ham and a POTA enthusiast, I find that POTA is becoming an important part of route planning. For instance, on a recent trip to New Jersey, we planned so that we had a stop at Cuyahoga National Park in OH for an evening activation. The next day, we took a lunch break at SB Elliot State Park in PA just along I-80. Since our hosts were only going to be available after 6PM at our destination, we took the chance to activate Voorhees State Park in NJ to kill some time before heading to our destination. 

I'm afraid this POTA is like the fabled camel; slowly intruding into all aspect of my life. Anyone else feel the same way?

MI POTA meetup and beyond..

 One of the regular participants in a local net informed me that the Michigan POTA activators were having a meetup at a nearby park on June 8th 2024. I was planning a camping weekend, but due to some minor health issues could not get out on Friday as planned. Come Saturday, I was feeling better and decided to take a one day overnight trip and stop by the meetup on the way. 

The meetup was organized at Sleepy Hollow State Park. This is a park that I had never activated. So my ride to the meetup meant that I can get to activate the park as well as meet the fellow POTA activators. I packed up my motorcycle with all the camping supplies: Tents, sleeping pads and bags, rain gear, emergency gear, small power bank; camping cooking kit including small kitchen stove and utensils and some food including dry noodles and some coffee; toiletries etc. Usually, I find that just camping by itself is a challenge to get all the gear on the motorcycle. It was more challenging this time as I had also included my KH-1 and my KX-3 along with other requirement such as the antenna. I went with the 17ft whip for its compactness and convenience of setup.  I know not how I managed it; but I got all of it on the motorcycle with room to spare, The simple overnight stay meant that I did not have to carry much change of clothes that made my load a little lighter.

I left early Saturday morning; the weather was perfect for riding -- well at least in the morning; rain was forecast for the afternoon. My plan was to try to make a quick stop at the meetup and then head to one of the many parks within riding distance and set up camp before the rain. My primary choice was Newaygo State Park.

I reached Sleepy Hollow Park meetup site at around 1030AM.  I was greeted by a sea of friendly faces. I went around talking to other activators trying to remember the callsigns and names. I recognized many of them from my activations and hunting. A few members peeled off to work satellites, I started working CW on my KH-1. The bands were a little rough and I got my 10 contacts with the help of the other hams in the gathering (wink! wink!). I cannot thank the organizers enough for this great gathering and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think it is a great success with about 50 operators showing up.

The picture above shows me activating at Sleepy Hollow park using the KH-1. The packed motorcycle is partially visible. The  KX-3 is in the top box; the tent and other camping essentials are in the pillion seat; rain gear and other emergency riding gear on the passenger side side box; clothes; chargers etc., on the other pannier and the tank bag had food supply for the stay.

As the meetup wound on, I lost track of time and I was a little late in departing the park. I had about 110 miles to go to Newaygo with rain coming in around 30 minutes. It definitely was not looking good. The forecast called for extended rain amounting to nearly half an inch of total precipitation. A front was going to move through slowly and would take about 5-6 hours to clear. I decided to be flexible and make decisions based on what I encountered. 

The weatherman was right! The rains came at the appointed time and was heavy at times. I was riding north on US-127 about 50 miles south of Mt. Pleasant MI. The visibility was down, but the light weekend traffic made it a little less difficult. Newaygo State Park -- my primary destination that had a primitive campsite -- did not seem the ideal choice now. I was neither sure of the availability cell phone coverage there; nor of ground conditions at the campsite. I wasn't going to risk it. I decided to reroute to my alternate -- Wilson State Park which was right off of US-127 and near a small city center. It added about 30 miles to my ride; but this was a developed park that had a shelter area. My plan was to get to the park; wait the rain out under the shelter and then set up camp once the rains cleared. A little stop to don the rain gear, take in some gasoline and I was off on my merry way.

I reached Wilson State Park a little after 3PM after riding for a little over two hours... an hour and a half in drenching rain; The raingear did its job; it kept me dry but did not do much to keep the cold out. I checked into the campsite with help from the very friendly folks at the camp office. Because it was still raining, instead of going to my campsite I went to the shelter and pulled out the KH-1 to start an activation. Based on the radar images, I had about 4 hours to kill before the rain let up. The miserable band conditions meant that I needed almost all of it. I was getting a few contacts every hour. I used the breaks between response to eat some snacks and get some energy to beat the cold out. When the rain let up a little, I decided to walk over to my campsite and found that it was fully flooded. So, back to the camp office I went and requested a change to a dry site which was thankfully granted. Between 3PM and 630PM I netted about 6 contacts in all! The band conditions were bad and it did not help that I had to be under the shelter.

A little before 7PM the rains stopped and it started to mist. I took this opportunity to go to my campsite and get the tent set up. The tent got a little moist before I could get the rain-fly up, but nothing enough to bother. This meant that by the time the skies cleared, I was fully set up in my tent and able to get out of my heavy riding and rain gear. This was a great relief as I was soaked on the inside from all the sweat with the effort involved in setting the camp up. The crisp fresh air was heavenly...

Once the rains let up I was able to set up the whip outside the tent and use my KX-3  to complete the required 10 contacts before the end of the UTC day. 

It was now 7PM local time. I had an hour before the new UTC day began. Despite my snacking, I was starving...I took the time to cook some noodles. The warm noodles was heavenly. A little after 8PM [ the start of the new UTC day]  I started CQ sequence again. The 40m band was now popping under the grey zone. I was quickly racking up contacts including some of the hunters I had met earlier in the day. After ensuring I thoroughly taken advantage of a two day activation on a single evening, I decided to call it a night around 9PM. I was totally bushed and went on to have a great nights sleep.

Daybreak upon the campsite

Sunrise over Budd Lake

The next day started off with beautiful views of the lake from the tent as I woke up. I took a little stroll along the lake side trail before the maddening crowds awoke! After some nice cup of coffee and cereal for breakfast, I pored through the maps and noticed that the Maple River State Rec Area was right off of the highway on the way back home. After breaking camp [the dewy tent, ground tarp and the rainfly made it unpleasant], I hit the road a little before 9AM and reached the Recreation Area a little before 10AM. This site was beautiful. It was an observation area for birds and I saw several herons, cranes and other flocks of birds at a distance. I decided to go with the KX-3; I wanted to reach home early and get a proper lunch. I started off on 20m; the band was hot this day and I had no trouble in gaining a successful activation. I did roam around on other bands but none of them matched the prolific performance of the 20m band.

I had great fun on this trip: the opportunity to meet fellow activators; get about 400 miles on the bike (mostly dry) and nab 3 new to me parks made it worth it...

Hope to catch you on the air soon!

At Last

 As a POTA activator, I find their award system well designed.  I would like to think of myself as someone who does NOT care for awards. However, every time I upload logs to POTA the profile automatically gets updated with any awards you may have won. Every once in a while, I confess I do take a look at my profile and smile with satisfaction as the list of icons [listing the awards] keep growing. 

The author at Indiana Dunes National Park US-0765

While the awards may be a minor motivation, I keep myself amused by setting some goals for myself. For the longest time, I have wanted to activate a US National Park. The thing that made it a little challenging was that there was no national parks close to me (or so I thought). I recently had an opportunity to travel to Grand Teton National Park [and Yellowstone as well]. I took my KH-1 hoping to nab one of them. However an equipment malfunction meant that I fell one contact shy of bagging my first national park. 

As part of the above visit, I had purchased the annual pass that is good at at all National Parks. This weekend, I had a travel coming up in Chicago. I usually activate one of the numerous Michigan State Parks on the way. However, when I looked at the maps I saw that what was formerly called Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is now Indiana Dunes National Park. Hey it seemed to have happened sometime around 2019; so I'm only about 5 years behind. This might be my opportunity to nab my first national park. I packed my KX-3 for the trip [the KH-1 is back at Elecraft for repairs]. I dedicated about an hour and a half for the activation. I made sure that other family members had other activities on the lakeshore while I focused on the activation. They set out for a walk along the beach, while I was going to play radio. This is part of the lesson learnt from the failed activation attempt linked in the previous paragraph. 

The weather was perfect; sunny and in the mid 60s [about 14C]. I went to the Porter lake [Wabash Road] site in the park. The beach was busy; but fortunately it was easy to find parking. We walked a short distance to the beach and had a quick lunch. After the lunch, while the family took a walk, I situated myself in a smallish dune with a little bit of shade. I set up my whip antenna; hooked up my KX-3 and started calling CQs. I was happy to note that the bands were in good shape. I breathed a sigh of relief, when I got my 10 calls for the activation. In all I got about 16 calls in about 35 minutes. When the pace of  calls died down, I quickly put out QRTs and joined my family in their walk along the beach. I also managed to climb a few dunes to justify the fantastic lunch we had earlier.

It was great fun! In addition to being my first national park activation, this also happened to my 50th unique park. Combined with the great fun we had as a family on the lakeshore; it made it one of my memorable activations to date.

Hope to catch you on the air!

Oil and Water

 Oil:Water::Radio:Vacation

A story of activation failure and lessons learnt....

I usually don't do a lot of travelling. Recently, I had an opportunity to travel with my wife and my son to Yellow Stone National Park and Grand Teton National Park. We had a full week dedicated for both the parks and I thought I will have enough time to play radio. My primary interest was in hiking and photography during the trip. [Note: some pictures I took are available here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/YvDrqbnbXy4YaxW6A]. I wanted to try and get a few POTA activations under my belt as well. 

If you have been reading my posts, you would know that my KH-1 was exhibiting issues with the ATU. I had sent it into Elecraft for diagnosis and repair. They returned the unit back to me after finding that an inductor on the tuner was interfering with the metal case in the back. They put a insulating layer between them. I was glad to have gotten the radio back in time for my trip; I tested it and it seemed to be fine. Satisfied, I put the radio into our travel case. I was eagerly anticipating my first activation of a national park.

I misjudged the time we would be spending hiking and taking in the sights at the parks. I hardly had time for any radio play. On one of the days, we tried hiking the Jenny Lake loop at Grand Tetons, but hit patches with thigh high snow (no snow shoes unfortunately). So we retreated after a little way into the trail. This gave me some time to get an activation in. It started off well and I managed to nab first 7 contacts with relative ease. When I was thinking the activation was in within my grasp, the bands died under me. I was getting no responses; 

I thought my best bet would be to try and work other activators as P2P; but my calls could not get through to them especially with a bunch of stronger base stations trying to work them as well. In the end I managed to net 9 contacts; one shy of a successful activation. My family was eager to move as my activation kept dragging on, but I kept saying I just needed one more. In the end the KH-1 decided it for me by starting to exhibiting symptoms and stopped putting out any power. Alas,  that was it for me and my radio during the trip. 

This left me in a bitter mood; failed activation and a rig failure was something that I could not take in stride easily. Unfortunately, my sombre mood was projected onto my family. After a little while, I realized the effect I was having on the vacation and managed to overcome the bitterness of the failure and started enjoying the glorious views around me. I'm glad to say I never once again thought about the radio until I came back home from a fantastic trip. 

I have resolved not to take my radio with me unless I'm travelling alone or have planned alone time carved out during the trip. POTA can wait (gasp!)

Ragchew and Activations

 I am conflicted; being both a POTA activator and rag-chewer. I am mostly a CW operator and I love both the long and sometimes pointless rag-chews and also the excitement of working pileups during POTA. Unfortunately, pileups are rare for me; but nevertheless enjoy park activations. However, even on the days where the hunters are slim, I rarely engage in rag-chews during activation. Allow me to explain...

In addition to being an activator, I hunt POTA stations as well. I do not prefer busting through pileups and will look for easy pickings. Occasionally I will run through an activator involved in a long running exchange with a hunter. I will usually wait for about 2 minutes before moving on. The activator certainly has the prerogative on how to run their activation and this is not a complaint about their practice. But based on how I react, I have decided it is a trite impolite to keep hunters waiting.  I have also encountered hunters who basically come with their call once. If I ask for a repeat, they're already gone. Therefore, even if I encounter familiar hunters and known rag-chewers during an activation, I keep my exchange short; usually a sentence of two of banalities...

Are you a POTA hunter? If so, how long will you wait to get your callsign in?

Barring such narrow activities such as POTA activations and contests, I'm always open to a nice conversation. So if you hear me calling CQ, please do stop by and let's chat