Park to Park

  - U

POTA US-3407 Benicia State Recreation Area

Benicia SRA is beautiful after some rain. There's also little parking lots along the waterfront trail that give you really close access to picnic benches.

This would have been one of my more frequented spots if it hadn't been on the other side of a very busy bridge.

The partially-connected 891 go-box setup worked great! Setup and breakdown took a couple of minutes, once the antenna was squared.

Speaking of the antenna, I really need to get off my rear end and get that multiband project done. Adjusting the whip every time was not the most convenient thing. 10m didn't play well either. It might be the counterpoise or some weirdness with the whip and how close it is to the truck :shrug:

FT891 @ 100W; 1/4 wave vertical; N0SA SP4

35 QSOs in 1hr 39min, 10-20m band sweep

DX callsigns, with numbers in more than one place, are brain boilers.

Also, thank you David in Portugal for hanging in there to complete a 22n QSO :)

 - U

Antenna experiment shenanigans at POTA US-4571

Headed out for a quick activation before the week of rain.

I decided to try out a new 1/4 wave vertical antenna. I thought I had tuned it but turns out I hadn't :facepalm:

I couldn't get the Z-Tuner to find a match so bailed out with the KX2.

The CMC choke seemed to do its job too.

The wind played havoc :/ I had a loose connection somewhere and kept getting blips during QSOs until the antenna keeled over.

KX2 @ 10W; 1/4 wave vertical; BamaTech TP-III
10 QSOs in 40min

More work needed tuning the vertical and then working on the multiband prototype.

Lesson learned - don't try a new setup in the field before I've tested it at home.

 - U

Oasis at Uinta-Wasatch-Cache

Go Forrest!

 - U

Bear Cave at Chalco Hills

WB0RLJ continues.

 - U

Dinner, a kneeboard, and POTA US-4578

First attempt with a cobbled together kneeboard. It works :)

I was trying to get a quick activation after dinner but conditions were not great.

This was not the day to try the 40m AX1 extension. I managed 3 QSOs from CA and OR. 20m was slightly better but I only managed 6 before needing to pack up.

Cleaned up the activation on the way back from golf. P2P for the remaining.

KX2 @ 10W; AX1; BamaTech TP-III; QRPWorks MagPi

10 QSOs

2 windows - 1hr for 6, 10min for 4

 - U

Pixie

Biggest build so far - the venerable Pixie.
This was mainly for soldering practice more than anything else.

Laying out the components.

This took a little while but made things insanely easy during the build.

Capacitors done.

Passive components done.

Completed build.

A pencil tip and higher iron temps worked out pretty well. Solder joints are a mix of decent ones and some that are in shambles.

The Pixie passed the smoke test but receive was a no-go. Something is happening as the buzz reduces substantially when a crystal is put in the socket but I couldn't here W1AW.

Transmit worked! It was dirty as hell but it did work :)

Onwards and upwards.

 - U

Dummy Load

20W Dummy Load kit from Pacific Antennas.

Easy build but I made a mess by starting off with the wrong tips - hoof tip and knife tip were waaay too big for the through-hole kit.

I think I had the iron temp too low as well.

I was trying under 400C since I had new tips - lead-free definitely needs 410-420C.

Not pretty but it works.

Learned a few things for the next build.

 - U

PicoKeyer

My first real soldering project.
All of 10 components but it felt like a big leap from the antennas I've built.

Sloppy as hell but it worked! It beeped 73 at me when I put the battery in :)

My to-do list of radio kit builds has increased exponentially.

As has my confidence.

Probably not the best thing after one small build.

 - U

Moving furniture and POTA US-4571

 Man, loungers are hard to move.

FT891 @ 100W; 20m EFHW; BamaTech TP-III

31 QSOs

50min

Forrest hunted me for the first time :)

I had a ton of room around me and tried an inv V with the antenna instead of the usual sloper setup. A little awkward with the feed point but might have been a little better with slightly more height :shrugs:

 - U

Stenogyne Kanehoana

Beep beep

 - U

 

ARRL DX

Decided to give the ARRL DX contest a shot, mainly to see how many new DX stations I could get.
Too lazy to set up N1MM or N3FJP keyers so ended up using the 7300s memories - worked pretty well for S&P.

Saturday was actually a little boring as I only relied on the DX spotters and not really my own copy.

Sunday was much more fun as I scanned the bands myself - I actually ended up getting all the EU and AF QSOs that way. TBH, surprised at my ability to copy 35+ wpm callsigns after a couple of attempts.

Some of the pileups were insane.

So many ops running kilowatt stations!

This one was fun.

Not sure I'd run a frequency but definitely looking forward to it next year :)

 - U

Dogs get a haircut and POTA US-3394

New radio setup, compromised antenna, first QRP activation attempt, and a high velocity solar flare.
Absolutely perfect conditions to go out and POTA.

KX2 @ 10W; AX1; BamaTech TP-III; QRPWorks MagPi

11 QSOs

52min

Propagation was extremely up-and-down. Started off with weak signal reports and hopped around the higher bands before settling on 20m.

KX2 handheld worked beautifully and the little AX1 definitely punches above its weight class :)

Clear and sunny at the Albany Flats but it was coooold.

Fun times.

 - U

Breaking 50 with WB0RLJ

How many hunters have this?

Always fun breaking into WB0RLJ's pileups :)

 - U

A break from the rain and POTA US-4571

So much QSB

Propagation on 20m was odd - skipped the Mountain West almost completely

FT891 @ 100W; homebrew 49:1 EFHW; BamaTech TP-III

28 QSOs on 20m

60min

A little POTA therapy does wonders for a headache :)

 - U

2025 SKCC SKM

That was fun!

Got the US and Colonies sweep, with Centurion and Tribune along the way.

I had ignored my straight key for too long.

Now I want a bug too :)

 - U

Messy cleanup at POTA US-4578

Yesterday's activation ended up with 1 QSO in the next UTC day.

Turns out this creates a new activation with just that 1 and shows up as incomplete.

Stat carnage.

Clearly unacceptable.

I don't know if it was because I was rushing, there was a lot of QRM, or I was getting WFD responses that were confusing me, but I don't think I've had this hard a time copying in a while.

I also had a couple of busted calls which I was pretty confident I copied correctly :confused:

FT891 @ 100W; homebrew 49:1 EFHW; BamaTech TP-III

9 QSOs (7 on 15m, 2 on 20m)

45min

Ended on a high note with a call from Italy. Grazie, Alberto :)

 - U

Car service drop-off and POTA US-4578

 I thought there would be more band congestion due to WFD :shrug:

FT891 @ 100W; homebrew 49:1 EFHW; BamaTech TP-III
27 QSOs (8 on 15m, 19 on 20m)
90min

 - U

POTA US-4571 Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail CA

Meh band conditions.
Probably should have started on 15m and not jumped to 40m that early.

FT891 @ 100W; homebrew 49:1 EFHW; BamaTech TP-III

11 QSOs (10 on 20m, 1 on 40m)

37min

 - U

POTA US-4578 Pony Express National Historic Trail CA

I didn't even think to look at the POTA trails close to our QTH - turns out there's two going through parks really close by!

These are going to become my go-tos for quick activations.

FT891 @ 50W; homebrew 49:1 EFHW; BamaTech TP-III
22 QSOs, including a few hunts

15m - MN, KY, WY, MI, OH, Japan, CO, VA, AR, OK

17m - NE (1st P2P with WB0RLJ, woot)

20m - BC, OR, AR, AZ, CA, WA, WI, NC, TX

Activation between errands.

I could get used to this :)

 - U

Fox Den at Chalco Hills

Thanks again WB0RLJ.
Legend.

 - U