Disclaimer: I believe if you don’t like what a group is doing, either get involved or take it for what it is. Said another way, use it as is or move on. After all it is not yours to change and most likely as for a ham radio the group is run by unpaid individuals who truly believe it what they are doing.
As for POTA and me. I am only a hunter, but often thought it would be fun to activate a park. My activity, thoughts and goals (if I truly had goals) for POTA are forever changing as the following list shows:
- My first step was to work 1,000 parks. Once that level was reached the number of parks logged slipped to the background. I hear the same park and often activated by the same operator. It appears pointless to get in a pileup to work the same op/park for the fifteenth time. Unless it is with one of my one and a half to five watt radios
- Working a park in all states was the next logical milestone. As of this post I am missing a park in Hawaii. I was surprised when after working a park in Alaska (at that point one of the two states I needed for Parks WAS) a WAS certificate was issued. An e-mail exchange told me that Washington DC is a wild card so therefore I received the WAS certificate. YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING! How does that make any sense?
- Currently I mostly work parks with low power. That is 1.5 to 5 watts. (Unless I hear a park in Hawaii and then I go QRO – 25 watts).
Final note: I cannot understand why the group went from identifying parks using DXCC Entities to the use of country names. Again, it is none of my business what they do as it is not my organization. It does affect how I view and patriciate in the program. But I am sure that my opinion means nothing to the POTA team.
Well, I am graduating. Olivia 8/250 is so slow, even for me. I kicked it up to 16/500. It is not blazing speed, but a bit faster than 8/250. At this point I only had one QSO at 16/500, but it is promising. Obviously when answering a CQ it will be at the speed of the caller, but now I will respond to CQ’s at two speeds of Olivia and call CQ at the faster speed. I will not get into a conversation at faster speeds as typing is and will forever be a handicap.
MultiPSK is a very good program. I am getting familiar with the interface and have written the proper number of macros (for my needs). Also, it links well with DXLab. The link is not as smooth or as complete as I would like, but better than others I have tried (limit). Keeping in mind that I keep a detailed log more so than others may maintain. Therefore, I like a lot of detail.
Note: I have the utmost respect for those hams who write the software I am using and offer it to the Amateur Radio community. I would not know where to begin to write such great applications. Any comments made in my post are not meant to take anything away from this fact.
My logging program and limited radio control is DXlab. Therefore, it is always preferable that any other applications used interface with the modules of DXlab. Since the digital component of DXlab (WinWarbler) does not support most digital modes, other applications are required to operate those modes. For example, when operating FT8/4 (not my favorite) using WSJT-X with JTAerts is flawless. When it comes to Olivia, I started out with FLDIGI. To try and have it talk to DXLab I used the published gateway between the two applications. Not having the best of luck with that combination I moved on to MULTIPSK, the program I am currently using. This application talks well with DXLab, but at times I struggle with the user interface. I will not go into my issues in this post as I am too new to the application and still learning. I will save that for future posts. I will say that MUULTIPK is a fine program and can do a lot of stuff very well.
Well, as stated before Olivia in the version I am trying (8/250) is very slow. However, for my typing ability, it appears to be just fine. As it is a full duty cycle mode and transmissions are very long, I run only 15 watts. So far, I have done okay and manager to have good QSO’s at that power level. As for software, I have moved from FLDIGI to MULTIPSK. More on that in another post.
Other digital modes are getting a look see. I have tried Olivia 8/250 and MFSK16. I thought Olivia 8/250 would be perfect for my typing speed, but it is very slow even for me. Getting contacts on any of these modes (including PSK31) so far has been hard. This is true because of my setup and so few active stations. I have been operating only on 20 meters so far.
Back in the day when PK31 first came on the airwaves I was very active with the mode. Over time I drifted away and became all in with CW. Maybe the fact that I am a poor typist had something to do with the move. Although my typing has not improved very much, I am now giving PSK31 another look. There is far less activity on the bands now than when I was active, but there are operators out there. Time will tell.
My annual attempt at making a contact on SSB took place the other day. It was on 12 meters. The results can be summed up in one word – FAILURE!
Try again – The next day I decided to try SSB again. I did work a park in CA, but all other attempts to make contacts resulted in FAILURE once again.
Once I reached 1,000 parks hunted the activity started to take on new meaning to me. Running a compromise station getting others to hear me can be a challenge. I noticed many of the same parks were being activated by the same station over and over again. I get it, an activation is an activation so go where it is easiest. But why get in a pileup to work the same station in the same park for the twentieth time? So now I view my POTA hunting as follows:
- If I have a park in the POTA site’s log I will not get in a pileup to work it again.
- If the activator appears not to be getting calls, I will call no matter how many times he is in the log. My contact may be needed for the ten (probably not).
- I like using my one to five watt radios to call parks so I will call any park at all with those radios even if I worked it 100 times.
Some other POTA related items.
- At the time of this posting the POTA site’s log shows that I have 1,236 parks hunted.
- I would like to activate a park at some point.
- I watch too many Ham Radio YouTube videos. At times they add to the activity’s appeal, but at times I think they detract from it. (Just my opinion.)
A real QSO!
After 25 marginal contacts with my portable setup the 26th was the charm. A station in Indiana answered my CQ and we had a real chat. Great CW and conversation and by all accounts the other station copied my little five watts just fine. Also, this success provided the necessary push to keep me going with my portable setup and make improvements.
My new Wolf River Coil TIA was put to the test on a trip to Florida. Using my Penntek TR-25 (five watt 40 and 20 meter transceiver) I operated from a small backyard moving around to find a shady spot. Below are assumptions and conclusions from my adventure.
a – Operating with five watts and a compromise antenna without garnering the attention provided by POTA or SOTA knowingly proved to be difficult.
b – The 102′ whip is too short even for 20 meters and proved to be nothing but a dummy load on 40 meters. I knew this going in, but foolishly moved forward anyway.
c – Using the MFJ-259B the antenna was not difficult to tune. I used the supplied three radials.
d – It was assumed that with the 13 Colonies event, POTA and contests (every weekend) many/good contacts were inevitable. Also, a short rag chew would have been nice. Although I had 18 contacts in the log all were poor with repeats and with difficult copy on the other end.
e – This outing brought to light just how well my attic doublet performs at the home QTH. I have had many respectable contacts with the same radio using my attic antenna, but the results were far different in the field. On the bright side, the N3ZN paddle and Bioenio Battery worked very well. I still do not like the keyer in the TR-25. At the home QTH I use a bug key with my QRP radios so the built-in keyer is not an issue. However, a small paddle travels better than the much larger bug key.
