POTA K-1440 Big Foot

POTA Activation, K-1440 Big Foot Beach State Park

2022-01-22 I've been to K-1440 Big Foot beach State Park six times, 129 contacts since the previous post including today. Most of those were pretty chilly and I activated from my car. All but 15 were done with my ic705. The other 15 with the x5105. 69 of them were at 5 watts with 60 at 10 watts. Eighty-five of them were with either the WRC vertical or my DIY 9 ft vertical. The others were with a 29' end fed wire with a 17' counterpoise.

Today I used my Xiegu x5105 QRP transceiver in the car. My antenna was the K6ARK end fed Random Wire with a 29' element and 17' counterpoise. As shown the business end of the antenna was tied to the grill of the car with a piece of 1/8" bungee cord. From there it was run to the top of my 15' collapsible fiberglass fishing pole. I connected it to the radio with a 33' RG316 coax. That was way too long but is what I had with me. As the picture shows I simply sat the radio on the passenger seat and held the key and log sheet on my lap in the driver's seat. I started out with seven contacts on 40 meters CW then switch to 30 meters and got eight more. I was on the air for 40 minutes. That included about ten minutes to redo the antenna as my initial setup ran it too close to the car. So effective on-air time was about 30 minutes. The internal tuner of the x5105 tuned the antenna to a near 1:1 SWR on 40, 30 and 20 without any problem.

I have two goals for all these activations: 1) I'm now within 137 of having a POTA Activator's Kilo award at the park. 2) We're planning a trip to Arizona the end of February to be with family and I'd like to activate at least one park while there. Antennas is a big consideration for the flights to and from. So I'm playing with different setups. Furthermore, it is just plain fun to go to the park, setup and activate!

Today went very well. The x5105 is a solid QRP radio. It hears well and the tuner works perfectly. It's a near ideal radio for to an activation like today. The K6ARK antenna is not just "cute" but really works! I felt like my range was kind of limited today with only one contact further than 1000 miles. But that may have been band conditions also. For the Arizona trip the only issue is a support for the far end as I can't use ropes over trees. I'm thinking of taking the 15' fiberglass pole with guy lines and tent pegs. Today I simply stood it in a DIY drive-on support that was held firmly upright in the snow with a brick!

2022-01-06 Today it got clear up to 14 degrees with a light breeze, no snow and bright sunshine. So I grabbed my ic705, Wolf River Coils mini with 17 foot whip and 4 ten foot counterpoise wires and headed for k-1440. I'm working on my kilo award for this park and have something over 700 official contacts logged. So I look for any opportunity to add some to that number.

The last several times I've just used the internal battery on the ic705 and ran just five watts, but today I took my bioenno 4.5Ah battery and ran 10 watts.

Just as I was getting settled in the front passenger's seat of the car I looked out the drivers side and there were two visitors not far away seemingly unaware of my presence! It was nice to have company.

I started out on 20 meters, SSB and logged ten contacts in about 20 minutes. Then that dried up so I change to the 30 meter collar on the antenna and in 15 minutes got 10 more contacts.

Glad I could give a good show for my visitors, though they did not seem the slight bit impressed. In fact they wandered into the woods before intermission!

2022-01-02 This afternoon, after church and lunch I decided to start off my POTA year with another activation of K-1440 Big Foot Beach State Park in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, about 10 miles from our home. It was sunny and about 15 with just a light breeze and the beauty of our first real snow fall this winter, about 6 inches. To save tramping around in the snow I set up my Wolf River Coils vertical with the Chameleon 17 ft whip and four ten foot counterpoise wires. Connected it to my IC705 inside the car with a 33' RG316 coax cable.

With just the ic705's internal battery which limits output to 5 watts and my CWMORSE US mini paddle and hand log I spotted myself at 10.113 and started calling CQ POTA. After just a couple calls KI5GDZ responded. He was followed in pretty quick order with another 14 calls, ending with KI5LKS 31 minutes later. It was time to pack up had head home. A good afternoon with both the antenna and radio performing very well. And the sun kept me nice and cozy in the car! I like winter activations, sort of! I also like the IC705. So much so that I am thinking of selling the xiegu x5105. I'm also beginning to think 5 watts is really all it takes to have a very successful POTA outing.

2021-12-30 Took the same setup as yesterday to K-1440 this morning about 10:30. Got 20 contacts on 20 meters in 45 minutes on air. Six were SSB, the rest CW. Used the IC705 at 5 watts on the internal battery. Was 28 and overcast again today but OK in the car. Band wasn't as good as some days but still got what I wanted! I didn't check other bands. The first three contacts and one other were P2P contacts with stations spotted on the website.

I like the setup. But if I were to operate on a picnic table or park bench or in the back seat of the car I'd want the LC-192 backpack. But in the car it is very nice in the glove box. I also realized that the LC-192 kit is faster to set up and take down as the radio is completely hooked up to battery and mic and the pack has external connections for the key and antenna.

2021-12-29 Today I went back to k-1440 but this time using my IC705 with internal battery and set up pretty much like the setup with my x5105 shown below. I was very pleased. For a description of that setup and results click here.

2021-12-21 Celebrated the first day of winter at K-1440 Big Foot Beach State Park with my QRP x5105, 29' End Fed supported with my 10 meter Spiderbeams fiberglass mast. Was about 35 and quite windy. Logged 21 CW contacts between 40 and 30 meters. Everything functioned perfectly. I almost had the park to myself as most people were too smart to go for a walk on a day like this!

2021-12-20 Yesterday and today I went back to k-1440. Yesterday with my 10 watt IC-705 and Wolf River Coils vertical and today with my 5 watt Xiegu x5105 and 29' end fed antenna again. Yesterday worked SSB and got 12 contacts on 20 meters. Today worked CW and got two three on 40 meters and 13 on 20 meters. Best distances today were 1400 miles to AZ and 1600 and 1700 with two stations in Washington State. I'm really liking that 29' end fed. Easy to put up, easy to change bands, if you have a tuner, and it seems to perform well. I may take it out with the ic-705 and use my Elecraft T1 tuner with it. Not quite as easy as the built in tuner on the x5105 but not bad.

2021-12-16 After an overnight sustained winds around 30mph and gusts upward of 50mph it was fairly mild this afternoon with temp in the upper 30's and wind about 15mph. So I headed back to k-1440 to add a few more QSOs toward my POTA 1K Award. I also wanted to use my x5105 QRP radio and 29' end fed antenna, neither of which I have used for quite a while.

My expectations were low as I strung up the antenna to a nearby flimsy tree. The QRPGuys mini 9:1 unun was tied to the mirror on my car with the radiator sloping up to about 20' in the tree. I used my arborists throw rope to get it up there. I just tossed the 17' 24 gauge RCA speaker wire counterpoise out on the ground roughly beneath the radiator. The gusts of wind blew it all over the place but that didn't appear to cause any problems. My feedline was a 15' length of RG174 coax.

One "problem" I've always had using the x5105 in the car, particularly in the front seat is where to put the thing while operating! Small thing, I know but it occurred to me while driving the 10 miles to the

park that perhaps I could open the glove box and sit it on the lid. As the photo shows, that worked perfectly! It was shaded from reflections, was easy to see and within reach! Thank you Ford Escape! I decided to work CW today using my DIY paddle. The internal tuner on the x5105 tuned the antenna well on 40, 30 and 20 which I used today.

I know propagation gets all the credit but after an hour on the air I had logged a total of 30 contacts, 13 on 40 meters, 8 on 30 meters and 8 on 20 meters. Most exotic were KL7V in Alaska, WP4F in Porto Rico, WA7WJR and NU7J in Washington State. Not far behind were Arizona and Florida. All those were on 20 meters. One thing I really like about that 29' antenna is its versatility! Just change bands, touch the tune button on the radio and go!

Needless to say, I came home happy with the performance of the radio and antenna. The whole package, excluding the arborist throw line, weighed just 5-1/4 lbs including a Bioenno 4.5Ah battery which I didn't use as the internal battery worked just fine. It was fun to work with a minimalist kit again!

2021-12-11 The photo below shows my antenna setup for activating k-1440 Big Foot Beach State Park yesterday afternoon. Specifically it shows my KN4ACK EFHW antenna set up as an inverted L. The 49:1 transformer is on the left on the orange wire winder and tied off with a five ft or so 1/8" bungee cord to about half of a snow marker stake. The about 26 gauge antenna wire goes up and through a bungee cord loop at the top of the 32 ft (10 meter) Spiderbeams fiberglass mast supported by a drive on stand under the front wheel of car. From there it proceeds out to the and is tied to the top of the 20 ft carbon fiber fishing pole with another length of 1/8" bungee cord. That forms an approximate inverted L arrangement. The feedline to the radio is a 30 ft length of RG316 coax.

Using the above antenna connected to an Icom IC705 transceiver inside the car running 10 watts. I started off hunting on 40 meters picking up three stations on 40 CW. Two were P2P contacts. Then I settled down on 7.043 and started calling CQ POTA. Picked up another more CW contacts including two more P2P ones. Finally I went up to 20 meter SSB and got two more contacts. A total of 25 contacts in about an hour on the air. Got out about an hour before the rain started!

2021-12-09 The past few days have been pretty much bitter cold with lows in the teens and days below freezing. Not my kind of POTA weather. But today, after our Thursday morning Bible Study, it was 37 degrees and cloudy. I decided to have a go at activating k-1440 Big Foot Beach State Park ten miles away in the city of Lake Geneva, WI. Grabbed my POTA pack that contains the ic-705, feedline, key, etc. and head out.

It was about 11:45 so I stopped by Burger King and got a Whopper Jr, then on to the park. While downing the burger I debated what antenna to use. The Wolf River Coils TIA mini with 17' Chameleon whip and four ten foot counterpoise wires won out. It's pretty quick and easy to set up and always performs well. So in about ten minutes it and the rig were ready to go.

I sat in the drivers seat with the radio in the passenger seat. The preset antenna was dead on at 10.119mhz. So I spotted and called CQ. After just a couple calls the first one came back, K5QBX. He was followed in quick succession by another dozen. Furthest was southern California, just over 1700 miles. Nearly all were around 559 both ways. Then it dried up so I switched to 20 meters. Got nine more including AL7JX in Alaska, 2860 miles.

It was fun to work CW again. Most of my past activations have been CW but the last few weeks I had switched to SSB which is also fun. I am really pleased with my setup. It's easy to "grab and go" and depending on the antenna I choose I can be on the air ten to fifteen minutes after arriving on site. And it almost never disappoints in terms of results!

2021-10-15 My day started off at 7:30am at the dentist's office for a scheduled cleaning. Then a 2 burrito breakfast with coffee at McDonalds (to undo the cleaning). Since my dentist was Lake Geneva it was a short drive to K-1440 Big Foot Beach State Park to do a quick activation.
Set up my ic705 in the car and strung up my Km4ACK EFHW as a sloper instead of as an inverted vee, my usual way. The transformer hung from the driver's side rear view mirror by a short piece of 1/8" bungee. The far end was supported by my 20' carbon fiber pole resting in a tree, a trick I learned from a K8MRD video yesterday! It is so easy to simply lean the pole up in the branches of the tree. Why didn't I think of that?! Thanks, Mike.
Tried calling activators on 40 meters but the pileups were too big. So switched to 20 meters and landed two CW and one SSB activators in just a few minutes. Then settled down on 14,267 and started calling CQ POTA. grabbed another 8 SSB. Good signal reports on all. 30 minutes total and had to quit. Thanks to all.
I worked from inside the car because it was in the 40's and sprinkling on and off. One thing I like about the 40 meter EFHW is how easy it is to change between 40 and 20 meters. Just change frequencies on the radio and go! With all my other antennas I have to change a tap or link on the antenna as well. You get do more exercise but it is more hassle!

2021-09-02 Today I went to K-1440 Big Foot Beach State Park near Lake Geneva, WI, about 15 miles from my house. After setting up I noticed a signal so strong that it "hissed CW" on nearly every band! Tuning around I discovered it was WD5GRW calling CQ POTA on 30 meters. He was pegging the S meter on my x5105, S9+60! Not surprisingly, when I responded to his call he came back with an equally strong report. My first time to contact another activator in the park I was currently activating!

After I finished my activation with 2 on 30m, 4 on 40m and 9 on 20 meters I looked around the parking lot and there sat a car with a tall pole on the hitch! So I went over and had a nice chat with Jim. He was running a Yaesu FT891 and a DIY vertical end fed about 33 ft long. He was in the midst of a multi-park rove including parks in Wisconsin, Minnesota south Dakota and Nebraska, as I recall on his way back to his home base in Texas. It was fun to meet a fellow activator and work him only 500 feet away without even knowing it! By the way that was our twelfth POTA contact, including this one our second P2P!

The setup was my xiegu x5105, 9 ft foldable vertical with my DIY tapped loading coil and a Burger King Whopper! Including Jim, I got 3 P2Ps. Total on-air time was one hour and 20 minutes. All contacts were CW.

The lesson learned? Eat more hamburgers! A little grease on your paddle makes things go more smoothly!

2020-11-21 Back again today to K-1440! Was supposed to be cold but was actually about 40 and calm with sunshine. I wanted to use my DIY 29' end fed wire antenna this time. It is built around the QRPGuys 9:1 "random wire" transformer. Has a 29 foot piece of 26 gauge wire for the radiator and a 17 foot counterpoise made from 24 gauge speaker wire. Far end was supported with my 20 foot carbon fiber fishing pole. 25 feet of RG-174 connected it to my x5105 QRP transceiver.
To stand up the carbon fiber mast i modified my DIY drive-on stand by adding a cross piece so it would be free standing. Worked perfectly with my very light wire. Anything much heavier would need a rock on it to keep it stable.
My plan was to use an antifreeze jug to tie off he driven end. But I forgot to take it with me. Had to set up in two places due to the foot traffic on this nice day. The first place I tied it to a metal "gate" that the park had put across the road indicating the camp sites were closed for the season. Worked great but I felt nervous about the people passing through near my wires.

After about an hour I relocated to a very isolated spot but couldn't find anything to substitute for my antifreeze jug, so I tied it off to the mirror on my car. Seemed to work well as I got quite a few contacts on 40 and 30 meters.

I worked 20, 30 and 40 meters CW with 30 meters being most productive today.

Now I'm really in a quandary. The last three activations, at this park I used three different antennas! 1) DIY 1/4 wave 20 meter vertical with loading coil for 40 and 30. 2) Wolf River Coil vertical with 213 whip and set up for 20, 30 and 40. 3) Now this 29' wire. All three worked very well with my 5 watt QRP rig! Guess I'll have to carry them all so I don't have to choose!

2020-11-20 Back to K-1440, Big Foot Beach State Park, near Lake Geneva, WI today a little before lunch. Stopped on the way and got a Burger King hamburger then set up. This time I took my Wolf River Coils antenna with the mini coil, pre-tuned for 20, 30 and 40 meters with their 213" whip and my DIY counterpoise, four ten foot wires. Feedline was 25 feet of RG-174.

Rig was again my 5w QRP x5105. Started by hunting on 20 meters and got one right away. Then tuned to 14.032, posted a spot and started calling CQ. After about three or four calls I got three responses in succession, about a minute apart. Then it just dried up!
So relocated to 7.046 and called CQ. and got 14 calls in about 35 minutes. Then that dried up! So I relocated to 10.108 and called again. Got eight calls in 16 minutes and that dried up!

So I shut down, went for a walk on a trail and headed home.
Fun day. Temps were in the 50's, hazy sun and light breeze. Got to get out and enjoy POTA activating before the snow flies, which is inevitable here in southeast Wisconsin!

Once again, thanks so much for all those who gave me a call. I log on paper so don't recognize many of you as repeats but when I process the logs I see you. Thanks.

2020-11-18 After lunch I headed down to K-1440 Big Foot Beach State Park to do an activation. Set up my QRPGuys 3-band Vertical alongside the car using my DIY drive-on support. Ran the 15 feet of RG-174 through the back door to my x5105 QRP rig.

Tuned around and got two P2P stations on 40 meters, one CW and one SSB. Than posted a spot on the POTA spotting pace and settled on 7.059. After calling CQ a couple times WT4U answered followed by a string of 11 others. Then it dried up.

So I switched to 20 meters, reposted and called CQ. After a bit W6LEN, 1700 miles west responded. He was followed by four others. Most exciting was when NL7V, 2300 miles away in North Pole Alaska responded! One more call and things suddenly dried up again! Fun day. Overall things were a bit slower today than on Saturday. Once again I was impressed that QRP and that simple vertical antenna make a practical portable station. And of course I feel that way because the hunters responded. Thanks again!

Just a quick observation. I set the antenna support under under the right rear wheel putting it and the vertical antenna just a few feet from me. Most other times it was under the opposite side front wheel, perhaps ten feet away. Is that important? Not sure but as I was using the antenna on 40 meters I was puzzled why the SWR as reported by the radio seemed to jump around as I transmitted, particularly using SSB. Then I felt a "hot stinging" on my finger while sending CW. I was holding my DIY mini paddle down with my hand and brushed my finger across one of the screw heads that connects to the ground-side of the audio cable between the radio and paddle. When I switched to 20 meters all was well. Reflecting since, I'm thinking I had RF getting back into the rig via the coax or whatever. Something to investigate. It took 18Wh or 1.3Ah to recharge the x5105 after the hour on the air.

2020-11-05 Just got back from K-1440, Big Foot Beach State Park in Lake Geneva Wisconsin. Had 15 CW POTA contacts. Used my 5 watt Xiegu x5105 and QRPGuys 40-10 EFHW antenna setup as an inverted vee. Center support was my carbon fiber 20 ft fishing pole.
It was about 70 degrees and sunny. Way to nice to stay inside. After getting set up I spotted myself on the POTA website at 7.043. Just a few minutes later, on my second CQ got an answer and was steady for the next half hour. Total outing took about 2 hours including the 20 minute drive each way. The x5105 and EFHW antenna performed very well. I'm also once again impressed with the EFHW antenna. It is so simple to set up and does a really good job. I was also again reminded that QRP is a valid option! QRP also allows for a very small and uncomplicated gear package as the photos show. Thanks to all who contacted me

My QRP package as shown above based on the xiegu x5105 and EFHW antenna weighs five pounds. If I add my Bioenno 4.5Ah battery and cable the weight goes up to 6-1/4 lbs. That combined with the very small size of the package make it a good option over my xiegu G90 package which is about twice as much at about 13lbs. Both are great POTA rigs.

2020-09-29 Did a quick activation this morning at K-1440, Big Foot Beach State Park near Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Objective was to check out my "kit" for an upcoming hoped-for canoe trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area in northern Minnesota in 2 weeks. Setup was a g90, QRPGuys EFHW inverted vee.

Checked into MIDCARS on 7.258. Steve offered to spot me. Started calling on 7.243 and in about an hour had 15 in the log including one P2P! And almost all gave me 55+ reports. Think the kit works!

I shut down as the 45 degrees, clouds and wind off the lake were too much. Really fun. Thanks everyone. K0BXB (forgot to take pictures!)

Here are a couple photos of the backpack and gear I had with me for this activation. Contents: G90 & detached Control head, Two Miady 6Ah LIFEPO4 batteries, QRPGuys 40-10 EFHW and QRPGuys 3 Band Vertical antennas, CW Key and Mic, two 25ft and one 4ft lengths of RG-174 coax, two power cords, extra fuses and cables for key and headset, a 50ft length of small cord for tossing into a tree, two 15ft length of 1/8in bungee cord for supporting the antenna ends, a 20ft collapsible carbon fiber fishing pole mast with a spike for mounting it and four 4in orange cones to mark antenna ends. Pack weighs 13lbs. The spike is 1/2 of a fiberglass snow marking post. The pack is a Red Rock Outdoor Gear pack I found at a thrift store. Not shown is my paper log clipboard, pens and pencils in a gallon zip-lock bag in a sleeve on the back of the pack.

My POTA/portable kit is constantly changing but this worked well yesterday. Didn't use the second battery, headphones, key or vertical but it's good to have backups and options. Regarding the batteries, the radio does not consume much power and I've operated with just one battery for about a day of CW and SSB. This activation was entirely SSB. I did also have a DIY collar, guy lines and tent pegs in case the ground wouldn't accept my spike but I much prefer the spike.

2020-08-29 Yesterday about 10:00am I drove the 20 miles from our home to Big Foot Beach State Park, POTA K-1440, on the outskirts of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. It's a beautiful park with a lot of camping opportunities and trails. Very wooded and well kept. I set up my G90 on a picnic table and my Wolf River Coils portable vertical antenna nearby, in a large mostly open area with some beautiful large trees. It was warm and breezy and in the shade, quite comfortable - except for a few mosquitoes and way too many biting flies!

Had 18 contacts on 20 CW. Seventeen of them gave me a 449 or better. One gave me 339. Logged a station from Germany and another from The Azores who found me on the WWFF facebook page. I bypassed the WRC coil and adjusted the whip to resonance. Used the three supplied 33' counterpoise wires. The coil was at the bottom. Good SWR. The rig was my Xiegu G90 at 20 watts. Very pleased with how everything performed. My CW was a bit corrupted now and then thanks to those darned biting flies! Thanks to all who called me and to W6LEN spotted me both on the POTA page as well as the KFF and WWFF facebook page's. My cell service wasn't good enough to self spot.

This activation went smoother than my first one two days ago at the Bong State Recreation Area as I was more relaxed. Had to end abruptly as it started to rain. Total on air time just an hour. Took another 10 minutes or so each to set up and break down. Too much fun! Now to get the log submitted! Oh, I'm already thinking about where my next attempt will be!