Thoughts on POTA Activating
2021-08-11 I made my first three POTA Activation contacts in August of 2019. Didn't know that was what I was doing, though! I had gone on a fishing trip to a nearby lake in the Wisconsin Kettle Moraine State Forest, K-4352. I'm not a fisherman but wanted to go with my friend so brought my fairly new Xiegu X5105 and even newer Wolf River Coils TIA 1000 antenna. I had almost no portable operating experience outside an occasional Field Day and had little idea what I needed or how it would go. It actually went fairly well. In the couple hours we were at the little lake my friend caught three fish and I caught three contacts! One of his fish was pretty respectable size and one of my contacts was with a SOTA activator in Colorado, about 1000 miles west! I wasn't a registered POTA member at the time so only later learned that my contacts qualified! All three were CW on 20 meters.
My next six qualifying contacts were about a year later when on a birthday campout for my teenage grandson at K-1458 Kohler-Andrae State Park on the shore of Lake Michigan north of Milwaukee. I was the chief cook and bottle washer for the group of about ten teenage boys along with my son! While they were off on a hike I set up my X5105 with a QRPGuys 40-10 meter EFHW antenna using a fiberglass fishing pole for center support of the inverted vee. The six contacts were all CW and on 40 meters. No particularly exciting distances but I was amazed at how well this kind of tossed together QRP setup worked. It whetted my appetite for more and led to my registering with POTA and becoming a pretty active hunter about a year later.
My first intentional POTA Activation as a registered POTA member was about a month later in August 2020. I went to K-4265 Bong State Recreation Area about ten miles from my home. My setup was a Xiegu G90 and the QRPGuys 40-10 EFHW. Came home with ten 40m CW contacts in my log running 20 watts. I was wiped out and glad to get the tenth. Thankfully they all qualified, my first full activation! I've gone on from there and now have just over 1000 activation contacts in my log. The rest of this page will talk about things I've learned or better said, am learning about activating rigs and antennas and power as well as some about preparing and operating.
Radios for Activating
The first questions when it comes to portable operating for most of us are about radios. I've been interested in low power very portable radios for years. My first "good one" was a Yaesu FT-817nd I got back in late 2009. I had big dreams for it but never really did much other than field day that took advantage of its unique portability. I just hooked it up from time to time to my station antennas and played with it. But after about six months it did get me playing with potentially portable verticals, dipoles, etc. It even inspired me to build a PAC 12 vertical which I was never very pleased with.
For me the real break in my low power portable asperations came when in 2018 I purchased the Xiegu X5105 truly all-in-one 5 watt rig. With it's unbelievable internal auto tuner and most importantly for me, broad range SWR sweep function the world of portable and antennas opened up. In the early days it had lots of software problems but has now matured to a very capable, reliable rig. I've logged just under 350 activation contacts with it, most recent just five days ago. I've used a variety of antennas from "random wire" end fed with a 9:1 unun to EFHW, to verticals, trapped and inked dipoles, etc. It has never disappointed and is always packed in a little case ready to go.
The next step in radios for me was a Xiegu G90, 20 watt all mode rig with everything internal except the battery. I've logged just under 300 activation contacts with it. It went on my most "exotic" trip also, a canoe trip in the Boundary Waters Wilderness Canoe area in k-4491 Superior National Forest in northern Minnesota. I logged 21 contacts, most distant was to Oregon, most distance to France, 4194 miles! I used my EFHW inverted vee there.
Finally, early this year, clearly smitten beyond reason with the portable/POTA bug I got an ICOM IC-705 earlier this year. In the five months I've had it I've logged 430 activation contacts. The most distant was with a station on some island in the south pacific or somewhere over 9000 miles away. I was running ten watts using my Wolf River Coils antenna with a 17' whip and four ten foot counterpoise wires from K-1440 Big Foot Beach State Park about 15 miles from my home here in SE Wisconsin. Expensive, the IC-705 is a dream radio for portable operations.
For me, any one of the three above radios is more than adequate for POTA activations. They each have some unique features none of which "make the difference in a successful activation. These are just the ones I have experience with. I've dreamed of playing with a more pocked sized one but as of yet have not done so.
Antennas for Activation
Portable antennas come in every shape, size, complexity and cost. Any antenna can be a portable one but some lend themselves better to transporting to the site, simplicity of setting up and versatility in use. In my experience three types stand out, 1) 40-10 meter end fed half wave, 2) end fed random wire and 3) a vertical.
The End Fed Half Wave, or EFHW is one of the simpler and more versatile portable antennas. It does NOT require a tuner which is a bit plus. The typical 40 through ten meter ones are resonant on 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m, no tuner needed. They are fairly simple to build yourself, the 49:1 toroidal transformer being the most complex part. Other than that they are simply an approximately 66 ft piece of wire. They can be set up as a sloper or inverted vee and work well both ways. I usually set mine up as an inverted vee with a 20 ft push up fishing pole for the center support. Depending on the wire you choose, It can weight just a few ounces and pack into a very small plastic bag for transport. It's only drawback is it requires 60 ft or so of space to set up.
An end fed random wire antenna (EFRW) is close to the ideal portable antenna. Very similar to the EFHW, a piece of wire with a transformer. The two main differences compared with the EFHW is that it requires a counterpoise and a tuner but can be used on nearly all amateur bands. My favorite one is a 29ft wire with a 17ft counterpoise, set up as a sloper. It's band agility is its favorite feature, making band changes in the field easy. Just change bands and retune your tuner. My experience indicates that they are very effective on the air.
A vertical antenna is probably the most versatile. It requires the least space to set up. Depending on the length and band it may or may not require a tuner. Many are built with either an adjustable or tapped loading coil which eliminates the need for a tuner and can cover a wide range of bands. Most common ones have a vertical element (wire or collapsible whip) about 17ft long which can be adjusted to be a 1/4 wave on 20 meters. One of the most common commercial ones is the Wolf River Coils vertical with a manually adjustable loading coil. A vertical does require radials or counterpoise wires. There are more opinions than people who espouse them as to the length of the radials and whether they shouold be elevated a foot or so or simply laid out on the ground. I have settled on a bundle or four ten ft wires simply tossed out on the ground likes spokes of a wheel for all of my verticals. My two favorite verticals or the Wolf River Coils Silver Bullet 1000 with the 213 inch whip and a GABIL GRAGRA-7350TC. Both cover nearly all ham HF bands, are simple to set up and just work. The main practical difference is pack size, the GABIL breaks down to 12 inch lengths so is really easy to pack and transport.
All of the above antennas are relatively simple to make from scratch if you are handy had have way to measure its resonant frequency so you can make adjustments. If that is not you, their are multiple vendors of "ready to go" versions. I started making my own and now use all purchased ones.
POWER SOURCE
This can be as simple or complicated as you want to make it. I've opted for simple. All my radios are QRP with low power demands. So I simply use rechargeable Lithium-Ion-Phospate batteries commonly referred to as LiFePo4 batteries. My ICOM ic705 has a removable battery pack and I normally just run off that with a spare pack in my bag if needed. I have yet to need it! I have several other batteries ranging in size from 10aH to 3aH. Honestly, I selfdom use any of those.
Typical Activation
I am not an avid DXer or contester. I Just like to operate portable (and from home) and take all comers! I'm almost always operating CW. Why? I just like it! I leave the house wth a relatively small bag containing my radio and perhaps my antenna or two. I have a SOTAbeams Carbon-6 Compact Ultra-Light Telescopic Masts with a DIY stand that I take if my antenna of choice is a wire one so I don't need a tree for support.
My typical activation takes about an hour and a half with 10 to 15 contacts. I usually start of scanning the SPOTS on the https://pota.app/#/ page and making a few park to park contacts. Then I pick an open frequency and cal CQ POTA de K0BXB. That usually gets results. Under current propagation conditions 20m usually ends up being most productive but I like to explore 40, 30 and 17m.
I do my logging using the HAMRS app on either my phone or laptop. I prefer the laptop but often opt for the phone is it saves hauling the laptop along and is almost as easy as the laptop.
That's it.
My typical activation takes about an hour and a half with 10 to 15 contacts. I usually start of scanning the SPOTS on the https://pota.app/#/ page and making a few park to park contacts. Then I pick an open frequency and cal CQ POTA de K0BXB. That usually gets results. Under current propagation conditions 20m usually ends up being most productive but I like to explore 40, 30 and 17m.
I do my logging using the HAMRS app on either my phone or laptop. I prefer the laptop but often opt for the phone is it saves hauling the laptop along and is almost as easy as the laptop.
That's it.