What Is It?

It was a really simple thought: wouldn’t it be neat to put a little widget on my website to show when I’m on the air for a POTA activation? Just something that says KC8JC is on the air on this mode at this frequency. Go check him out! It didn’t seem like it would be too hard given that the POTA.app site has an API (unsupported) that has all of that data. Why not grab it and go?

My first thought was to do something in PHP but then, over a cup of coffee, I decided that I’d just do it as a javascript function and let it run when the page loads. Why get fancy or weird about it?

So What Does It Do?

It’s really simple. This thing just hits the POTA.app API to see if anything comes back. My site is pretty low traffic, so I’m not thinking that this will be any more burden than I put on it when I go to a park and sit there seeing if RBN or POTA is hearing me when I’ve gone 20 minutes without a contact. I try not to get desperate, but I imagine I’m not alone there. If there’s a spot for my call, it shows the mode and frequency. Really, really, brutally simple.

But what if I’m on the air and NOT doing POTA? What then?

Well, why not have it hit PSKReporter and see what comes back? Why not? So I did that too.

Where’s The Code?

This isn’t particularly elegant and I’m putting it here more so I remember what I did than anything else. Also, it’s important to note that I’m using this with Jekyll. If you choose to scoop this up and run with it, put it in the includes folder so that it gets packaged up correctly. I’m still REALLY new to Jekyll so it took me a bit to figure that out. I gotta say, for generating a static site, it’s really neat even if I’m not a ruby guy and I have to keep looking up how to keep stuff up to date so that things work on multiple platforms. Again, that’s a Me Problem.

This isn’t going on Codeberg, I don’t think, but if you promise not to laugh, here it is:

<div id="pota-widget" style="display:none;">
  <div class="widget widget--pota">
    <h3 class="widget-head">on the air now</h3>
    <div class="pota-spot">
      <div class="pota-spot__park">
        <span class="pota-spot__ref" id="pota-ref"></span>
        <span class="pota-spot__name" id="pota-name"></span>
      </div>
      <div class="pota-spot__freq">
        <span class="pota-spot__mhz" id="pota-freq"></span>
        <span class="pota-spot__mode" id="pota-mode"></span>
      </div>
      <a class="pota-spot__link" id="pota-link"
         href="#" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

<script>
(function () {
  var CALLSIGN = 'KC8JC';
  var POTA_URL = 'https://api.pota.app/spot/activator';
  var PSK_URL  = 'https://retrieve.pskreporter.info/query' +
                 '?senderCallsign=' + CALLSIGN +
                 '&flowStartSeconds=-1800' +
                 '&rronly=1';

  function show(ref, name, freqMhz, mode, linkHref, linkText) {
    document.getElementById('pota-ref').textContent  = ref;
    document.getElementById('pota-name').textContent = name;
    document.getElementById('pota-freq').textContent = freqMhz + ' MHz';
    document.getElementById('pota-mode').textContent = mode;
    var link         = document.getElementById('pota-link');
    link.href        = linkHref;
    link.textContent = linkText;
    document.getElementById('pota-widget').style.display = '';
  }

  function tryPOTA() {
    return fetch(POTA_URL)
      .then(function (r) {
        if (!r.ok) throw new Error('POTA error - probably my fault...');
        return r.json();
      })
      .then(function (spots) {
        var mine = spots.filter(function (s) {
          return s.activator &&
                 s.activator.toUpperCase() === CALLSIGN &&
                 !s.invalid;
        });
        if (mine.length === 0) return false;

        mine.sort(function (a, b) {
          return new Date(b.spotTime) - new Date(a.spotTime);
        });

        var spot    = mine[0];
        var freqKhz = parseFloat(spot.frequency);
        show(
          spot.reference,
          spot.name || '',
          (freqKhz / 1000).toFixed(3),
          spot.mode || '',
          'https://pota.app/#/',
          'view on pota.app →'
        );
        return true;
      });
  }

  function tryPSKReporter() {
    return fetch(PSK_URL)
      .then(function (r) {
        if (!r.ok) throw new Error('PSKReporter error - probably my fault...');
        return r.text();
      })
      .then(function (xml) {
        var doc     = new DOMParser().parseFromString(xml, 'text/xml');
        var reports = Array.from(doc.querySelectorAll('receptionReport'));
        if (reports.length === 0) return false;

        // Sort spots with newest first
        reports.sort(function (a, b) {
          return parseInt(b.getAttribute('flowStartSeconds'), 10) -
                 parseInt(a.getAttribute('flowStartSeconds'), 10);
        });

        var newest  = reports[0];
        var freqHz  = parseInt(newest.getAttribute('frequency'), 10);
        var mode    = newest.getAttribute('mode') || '';
        var count   = reports.length;

        show(
          '',
          'heard by ' + count + ' station' + (count !== 1 ? 's' : ''),
          (freqHz / 1000000).toFixed(3),
          mode,
          'https://pskreporter.info/pskmap.html?callsign=' + CALLSIGN,
          'view on pskreporter →'
        );
        return true;
      });
  }

  // Try POTA first; Try PSKReporter if not spotted there.
  // All failures are silent and the widget stays hidden if both come up empty - NICE!.
  tryPOTA()
    .then(function (found) {
      if (!found) return tryPSKReporter();
    })
    .catch(function () {
      tryPSKReporter().catch(function () {});
    });
})();
</script>

That’s all there is to it. If it doesn’t find anything then there’s nothing on the site. If it does, then there should be. So go test it with a callsign that’s on the air when you’re messing around with it. Oh, and change the callsign in the code above or you’ll only see when I’m on the air. I’m not sure that’s what you want. Good luck with it!

Final

Hobby of hobbies indeed! I’m not sure that this was the best reason to burn down my site and start over, but I’m really starting to think critically about the tech I use. Why on earth am I using a database and a bunch of nonsense when my site is really a static reference and series of stories about a dude and his radio? I’m trying to get rid of complexity where I can and this is a pretty great place to start. Besides, it makes hacking together things like this more attractive because there isn’t the overhead of the monolith that is Wordpress.

And hey, maybe static sites are just QRP websites? I didn’t think of it that way until just now.

I hope this was at least amusing and maybe you’ll use it to catch me on an activation some day soon!

72 de KC8JC

New Coat of Paint?

I had a weird dream last night where I wanted to put something on the front page of my radio blog that would put up spot information for me when I’m in the field and either the POTA site or the Reverse Beacon Network caught me in the field. It would be the kind of web widget that I would turn on or off depending on circumstances. Like, for a local park? Great! Advertising that I’m on vacation in a foreign land? Maybe less good? I don’t know. I didn’t really think about it that deeply but what did occur to me is that I’d have to do it as Wordpress plug-in or widget or something and I haven’t messed around with that stuff in really, really long time. Honestly? I didn’t want to start now. So instead, I did something really silly.

Total Reboot

I decided while I was walking the dog that I’d just torch the Wordpress install and blast everything into Jekyll and call it even. So that’s what I did. I played around with some ideas I had for a theme and dug around in my archive of stuff that I’d messed with before for other sites and pulled this out. It’s a fun pseudo-cyberpunk look and if I don’t like it in a week? I’ll change it. And it will be less of a pain that dealing with Wordpress. Not that I’m down on Wordpress! It’s great for people who need that kind of stuff. I just…don’t. I’m good with a text editor and rsync.

Hopefully, the RSS feed will work for everyone and things will be OK on that front. We’ll find out the hard way!

If you notice broken stuff, either email me at my callsign at this domain or grab me on Mastodon at @KC8JC@Mastodon.Radio

73 de KC8JC

Utilities Are Good For You

Every week, I participate in Winlink Wednesday. I do my check-ins with pat. Once a month, they as for a weather snapshot to go with the check-in. This isn't particularly onerous, but I have top open my weather widget and then type out the weather. That seems like the kind of thing one could automate, right?

Enter wttr.in.

With a simple curl command, you can pull your local weather from the internet in a billion different formats. But the one thing it won't do is put the wind's direction in simple text. No. It give arrows. And that? That's not great for a copy/paste. It's also not great for me because I have to think about what the arrow is trying to tell me. So what to do?

20 Minute Of Free Time

I had 20 minutes. I started to poke at making a bash script that would grab the weather, look for the arrow, parse it out and make it text. Then dump it to the console. Easy enough!

curl -s 'wttr.in/?format=%25T%20%25C%20%25w%20%25t&u' \
| sed 's/↖/NW/g; s/↗/NE/g; s/↙/SW/g; s/↘/SE/g; s/←/W/g; s/→/E/g; s/↑/N/g; s/↓/S/g'

The arrows in the code block above are rendering in an unexpected way and I don't care to wrestle with Wordpress right now.

Is this the most elegant solution? Probably not. Does it work? Yes! That's the definition of all shell scripts, right? If it works, you run it. And probably never change it.

But That Only Took 5 Minutes

I had more minutes left! What to do?!

Well, first, I made a silly parser to grab the most recent bluesky post from the local parks district because they use that to share when the mountain bike trails are opened or closed. I got crazy with that and used emojis and other nonsense. I'm not posting that here because if you don't ride mountain bikes at that specific park, it's not useful at all. And I'm not convinced it's useful to me except when pared with a script I'll run once or twice a day.

That Was Dumb…But Still 10 Minutes To Kill!

So what if - hear me out - I had the band conditions in there somewhere too? What if I grabbed stuff from Ham QSL and dumped that to the console too? What if I even took a really poor stab at listing band conditions? Well, with 10 minutes and an open text editor, this is what I built:

echo "━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━"
 echo "📻 BAND CONDITIONS..."
 echo "━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━"
 curl -s https://www.hamqsl.com/solarxml.php \
 | awk '
 /<kp>/        {gsub(/.*<kp>|<\/kp>.*/, ""); kp=$0+0}
 /<aindex>/    {gsub(/.*<aindex>|<\/aindex>.*/, ""); ap=$0+0}
 /<solarflux>/ {gsub(/.*<solarflux>|<\/solarflux>.*/, ""); sfi=$0+0}

 END {
   cond=(kp<3?"Quiet":(kp<5?"Unsettled":"Storm"));

   band80 = (kp>=6?"Poor":(kp>=5?"Fair":"Good"));
   band40 = (kp>=6?"Poor":(kp>=5?"Fair":"Good"));
   band20 = (kp>=6?"Poor":(kp>=4?"Fair":"Good"));
   band15 = (kp>=5?"Poor":(kp>=3?"Fair":(kp==4?"Fair":"Good")));
   band10 = (kp>=5?"Poor":(kp>=3?"Poor":"Fair"));
    printf "Kp:%.1f Ap:%d SFI:%d %s | ", kp, ap, sfi, cond;
    printf "80m:%s 40m:%s 20m:%s 15m:%s 10m:%s\n",
      band80, band40, band20, band15, band10;
 }'
 echo "━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━"

I was having all kinds of trouble with getting the XML parsed and I wasn't willing to use a real language so…awk to the rescue, I guess? I could do this in a much cleaner way and dumping it to the internet like this is probably irresponsible. But KC1SRI asked nicely on Mastodon, so here it is.

Final

That's it. This is what happens when a dude has 20 minutes and an open terminal and a couple of really half baked ideas. This thing will probably turn into a big, long script that dumps out calendar stuff too just because I can.

73 and thanks for reading!

Pat Is My Friend

I've been over the topic of my move from Windows and Windows-only ham software in the past, so I won't rehash it. For minimal context I will say that there are no Microsoft products in my shack (aside from my Microsoft Surface Go 2 that runs Ubuntu). I would love to say that I only use FOSS but that's not true and might not ever be true. There are always going to be trade-offs. I will always choose FOSS when there is a good option for my use case.

That said, my love for pat has only grown over the past couple of years that I've been using it. Why? Because it's simple and incredibly versatile. I can run it as a process in the background and access it through a browswer or I can run it from the command line like the 1337 h@XX0r that I am. That level of flexibility cannot be matched by other software for Winlink work.

Making It Easier

The one thing that I find challenging is remembering all of the things that pat can do. In service of my memory, I made a couple of notes that I'm going to memorialize here. The first of these is getting pat set up to use the web client.

I wrote a nifty little script that I call "startpat.sh". I drop it into my /user/local/bin and call it a day. I have this on all of my radio related computers. It is simply:

#!/bin/bash

rigctl -m 2 M PKTUSB 3000

pat –listen “ardop,varahf” http

This script assumes that I have rigctld running somewhere and I almost always do if I'm running my radio. I won't go into that here as I cover that in detail elsewhere on the blog. It also assumes that the modem, Ardop or VARA HF, is running as well. The rigctl command is putting things into data mode and setting the passband. Then the script sets pat up to use either Ardop or VARA HF as a modem and spin up the http listener.

With that script running, I go to http://localhost:8080 and I get the pat web interface. From there, I can check my mail or send more mail or manage the mail with a very nice, if simple, GUI. This is a total win and probably best for a lot of people who are new to Winlink operations. The pat manual covers the features nicely.

The Command Line

The thing that makes pat very powerful for me, however, is using it from the command line. I find that using a trackpad in the field is a nightmare and I often forget my Bluetooth mouse. Being able to call pat from the command line and do All Of The Things is great!

The first thing I might do is compose a message.

pat compose

Based on your settings, that kick off some interactive prompts. It asks for the source, destination, and subject of the email. It also asks if you want to keep the messge on a peer to peer transmission. I've never done that and I probably should. Once you've answered those questions, you get dumped to text editor. For me, that's vim. I write my message and when I quit, I get to tell pat to go ahead and queue it up for sending. Very easy.

One thing that the web UI does is compile and maintain a list of stations for connections. That includes the callsign, frequency, bandwidth, and mode. From the command line, assuming an internet connection, you can get a list of gateways like this:

pat rmslist -s -m varahf -b '40m' > pat.txt

What does that do? Let's break it down.

pat rmslist will give you a listing of all of the registered Winlink gateways.

-s will sort them by distance from your station (as defined in your configuration).

-m sets the mode. In this example that is VARA HF.

-b allows you to specify which band you want. 40-meters in this case.

In this example, I dump all of the results into a text file called pat.txt. When I open that text file, I can see all of the stations that I can try to connect with along with a handy string that I will need to copy for command line use:

varahf:///WW2MI?bw=2750&freq=7102.1

That string that is given in response to the rmslist command is exactly what is needed to connect pat from the command line.

pat connect "varahf:///WW2MI?bw=2750&freq=7102.1"

This kicks off an attempt to connect to WW2MI on 7.1021 MHz using the VARA HF modem with a bandwidth of 2750. After issuing the command, all there is to do is wait for it to connect and then watch as it sends all messages that are in the outbox and then pull down any messages from the server.

With all of my mail downloaded, I can read it interactively with:

pat read

That gets me into some serious Pine and Mutt nostalgia. It's glorious to read email from the command line. Everyone should have that experience! For real… It's cool!

Quick Trick?

I'll be honest, I usually get my mail using telnet.

pat connect telnet

Since I'm almost always checking in to a net when there are plenty of other people doing the same thing, I like to get out of the way. Getting my mail with telnet means that the radio isn't used at all. It all goes across the internet. That's just a thing I do sometimes to make things move faster.

I'd never do that to send a message to something like Winlink Wednesday, for example, as it defeats the purpose. I need to be sure that my station can connect over the air.

Final

Since I moved to pat, I've not looked back. Winlink Express was a nightmare for me and I've no desire to revisit it. pat lets me work my way on any platform I use (Linux or MacOS).

There are plenty of other tricks and I've looked at writing wrapper scripts for some of the things I do, but I don't want to rely too heavily on scripts. I like to know how to use the software so that I can if I'm somewhere else like the club site or at another station.

pat works flawlessly on MacOS and on my Linux systems. I can't really say enough good stuff about it but I will close by saying that I don't think about it much and I think that says a lot. The less I have to think about using a piece of software, the better it is.

And if you're wondering if pat can do something with regard to Winlink, the answer is going to be Yes. Dig around in the manual or ask pat help as it is quite thorough.

73 and thanks for reading!

It's Been A Minute…

It occurred to me that I haven't been posting to ye olde blogge very often and I think that is largely because Life is doing that Life Thing where time is at a premium and I have mostly been playing radio in between other things. No real experiments lately and no really exciting stuff to post. On top of that, the weather that we've been "enjoying" in NE Ohio provides very little incentive to go outside. Well, until recently.

Something started to crack in January and I needed to get out. I don't do well with cabin fever and we haven't been out to do much hiking because hiking in -5dF isn't my idea of a great time. My face isn't particularly pretty, but I'd prefer that I not freeze it off anytime soon. In desperation, I turned to the Jeep.

Operating Mobile

I've said a dozen times that I really don't enjoy operating from the Jeep. It's cramped and I hate sitting in the parking lot. That said, earlier in the winter I installed the IC-7100 in the Jeep and was ready to use it for activations as needed. So that's what I did!

I've been frequenting my very local park: US-9401 aka The Cooperrider-Kent Bog State Nature Preserve. It's a very, very small park with a boardwalk and a couple of benches. The only option for activating the park is from the vehicle. There are too many trees and there is no way to be out of the way of other park visitors. It's a Class A POTA Nightmare Site.

During the summer months, it's a popular place for people to grab a walk on their lunch breaks. There are plenty of people talking on phones and walking the very tight loop around the bog while swatting at bugs. In the winter, it's mostly work trucks parked waiting for their next appointment or the occasional smoke break for someone. In situations like that, it's easy for me to keep myself out of the way. Again, the parking lot is only big enough for about 8 vehicles in total with room to turn around.

Useful Gear

The biggest improvement to my mobile experience came from a moment of inspiration as I was cleaning out my shack/office. Years ago, I got a couple of sets of crab clamps to hold my mast to my bicycle when I'm doing that whole Ham On A Bike thing (see also Jim, N4JAW the Original Ham On A Bike). One of those clamps allows me to mount my paddle base to the grab bar on the passenger side of the Jeep. This is better (for me) than strapping the paddles to my leg or doing something with a clipboard. It's really a neat solution.

I still have my camera clamp that allows me to mount the IC-705 to the same bar. It's a pretty great solution to working in the Jeep.

Wait. The IC-705? I thought I just said I had the IC-7100 in the Jeep. Yeah. Well. The head unit isn't playing nice. I think it died on me. I cracked it open and there was nothing obvious going on in either the head unit or the main transceiver. A change of cable didn't produce any results either. I'll keep poking at it until I get tired of it and then perhaps send it off for service. We'll see.

Anyway! The paddles and the IC-705 mount nicely in a temporary fashion and keep the radio right in my face. The other neat addition to my kit is the Rite In The Rain hand desk. It is very, very rare that a commerce site recommends something that I actually click on - much less buy - but here we are. It's a seemingly waterproof box that holds pencils, notebooks, and a couple of cables. It's also a really, really great clipboard with a hand strap that is useful. It's also the perfect size for what I'm doing.

Activations

Activations have been great despite the cold. I've picked up some regulars who are always there when I need them. That's fantastic when it's chilly outside. Which brings me to some interesting observations.

I like to give honest signal reports. All of them are subjective, but I have a methode and the meter on the IC-705 to help me along. That said, I've noticed that there are hunters who will hang out until I call QRT (which I always do as I try to be a good operator). When a hunter jumps out of the snowstorm like a yeti as I'm trying to close up shop I will, of course, do the contact. But I'll be real: that operator is always magically "5NN" because that's really fast to send. I feel almost bad about it, but when it's cold and the weather is becoming an issue, I gotta move on!

Over on the Ham Radio Mastodon, Ian M0TRT suggested "QRT WX" as a modified Q-code of sorts to say, "I'M FREEZING TO DEATH HERE! GOTTA GO RIGHT NOW! THANKS!" I might start using that. There were other suggestions, but I'm not sure any of them parsed as well as that one.

Speaking of Ian, you have checked out Spothole, right? If not? You really should.

QSO Map

I'm not going to post a bunch of QSO maps. I'm just going to lump all of January and February to this point into one map because it looks neat and I've got those Life Things to do that get in the way of cropping pictures almost as much as it gets in the way of doing activations.

Final

This is a way of saying that I'm back in the field and back on the blog. I have a post coming up on a piece of software that I use all the time, so stay tuned for that. Thanks for reading along!

Oh... And I got in two activations between composing this post and getting it onto the blog. I don't know what kind of powerful illness my kid brought home but it wasn't fun. Cannot recommend. Anywho, back up and around and hopefully on the air soon!

72!

Out To The Woods

The Parks On The Air Support Your Parks weekends are always a great excuse to get out and operate at a park. I really feel that events like this force the issue with enough enjoyers of the hobby and really are valuable items on the calendar. I mean, if once a quarter you are forced to look at your portable rig and say, "OK! Let's go!" then it's worth the price of admissions (which is still $0 - or pretty close).

This year, it coincided with a weekend that my wife and I had tentatively booked for a final trip out in the camper. I always want to believe we'll sneak in one more, but I know better. We decided to try a New-To-Us campsite and went with Pymatuning State Park - US-1407 - in Pennsylvania. Situated on a lake (reservoir) that straddles the state line with Ohio, there are state parks on both sides of the border. We picked PA because, pragmatically, there were more campsites available.

It's a nice enough park. The facilities are great and the only complaint I have is that it backs up to a State Route and that means some traffic noise which tends to take me out of the moment. Under normal circumstances, I can see how that's not a deterrent. The entire park is really about the water and this was, for many, a last hurrah for their boats. We didn't have boats. Just a couple of Scouts, a Rottweiler, and some radio gear. Sounds good to me!

Be Prepared

It was the Jamboree On The Air weekend for the Scouts and for the first time in a long time I wasn't participating with a group of Cub Scouts. My dad was pulling that duty and having a great time. I did have two Scouts with me, but we really didn't think about it much. They were having too much fun doing other stuff like wrangling their new roommate - The Marbled Orb Weaver aka The Pumpkin Spider. Man, that thing was big enough to pay rent for sure! But also harmless to humans and just generally hanging out in the corner of their tent until I evicted it for them.

Now, I'm an Eagle Scout and I tend to think that I go into camping trips like this with enough experience to know what I need and how to get stuff done well. The fact is that after some wilderness experience, I know that I can live outside for 72 hours with no shelter or gear whatsoever. But that's not the kind of camping we were doing, was it? No. It was not. We were glamping (mostly) and I had my radio to think about. So it was that I made my first mistake: I didn't write down the number of the Park. Ya know, US-1407. The identifier I'd use on the air, etc.

Sigh.

The other thing that I didn't do was schedule the activation on the POTA site so that their system would look for my signal on the Reverse Beacon Network and tell people that I was planning to be out there so maybe go look for me or spot me.

Two strikes.

There was, of course, not a single bar of cellular data to be had at the park so I did what any sensible operator would do: I went War Driving!

Remember that? Back in the day? Wandering around looking for open access points. Seeing how poorly people locked down their WiFi in those early days. No? Just me? Oh. OK.

I drove toward Jamestown, PA and by the time I spied a Dollar General store I had enough bandwidth to do what I needed. I grabbed a screenshot of the POTA page for the park and scheduled the activation. Then it was back to the camper (all of 3 miles away) and time to get on the air!

Getting On The Air

I set up my Chameleon whip with extension as I always do on a trip in the camper. It's just so much easier than depending on trees or worrying about the dog getting tangled up in a wire antenna with assorted stuff. I can keep the antenna on the far side of the camper and spread the radials out where no one will step on them. I win all around.

Inside the camper, I had my trusty IC-705 and my Hardrock-50 amp. Why bring along the HR-50? Why not?! When I'm in the camper I feel like it's luxury time. I could, in places where we have shore power, bring along the IC-7300 and have a good time. But I like giving the HR-50 a workout now and again and it reminds me of how all of my stuff works. It's good to practice.

I started out doing some CW. I brought along my Begali paddles because, again, semi-glamping. Things were going very slowly. I got one contact before moving over to FT8. FT8 was good to me. I got enough to activate the park and then went back to CW a little later in the day and got enough to make me happy. It really is like fishing. I wanted to catch my limit with each mode.

I pulled out the headset and tried a little SSB, but after calling for about 30 minutes and not a single person coming back, I decided that I'd move on. I stuck with CW and FT8 for the rest of the trip.

With my Saturday activation in the bag, I grabbed a nap and we did stuff around the campsite. Knocking things off the list like dinner, etc. and enjoying telling jokes and reading books.

When the Zulu clock hit 00:00 I got back on the air. The night was young! I got another activation between FT8 and CW contacts. Life was good!

Scooping Up PDFs

I managed to grab my Late Shift Activator award for 100 QSOs. I landed the Support Your Parks Activator AND Hunter awards. And I got the Wiggins Acalypha Hunter award for 700 entities hunted. I don't check these very often, so it's fun to see them show up on my profile.

QSO Maps

Here's what it looked like on the map.

Final

It was a great weekend to camp and a perfect weekend to get on the air. I love doing these events and I'm glad that I was able to toss another into the log.

Thanks for reading along and 73!

My Contest

I'm not a contester. In fact, I only do two contests each year and they have something in common. I do the Freeze Your Acorns Off QRP Contest in February and the Ohio State Parks On The Air Contest in September. Both are sponsored by my local club, PCARS.

FYAO is fun because there's great food and we sit outside at a local (non-POTA) park that is pretty darned close to my house. It's usually cold and miserable. It's a short contest and my dad and I like to radio together for that one. We are perpetually in third place.

OSPOTA is different. That's one where I go to a very POTA-able park with my wife, a dog or two, the camper, and some really great food to hang out and spend about 6 hours on an 8 hour contest. It's a lot of fun for me and my wife gets to do some fun hiking with the dog while I'm doing that radio thing.

Like prior years, we went to Salt Fork State Park - US-1989 - and put up the camper on a relatively boring slab close to the bathroom. I really need to make my reservations sooner next year so that I can get the spot we'd had previously. That's a problem for next year.

The Gear

When I take the camper out and know that we will have shore power, I will often take along a switching power supply and my Hardrock-50 amplifier. Given that low power for OSPOTA is up to 100 watts, the 35 or so that I usually run with the HR50 is perfect. I don't run batteries for this unless the noise is unbearable. The bands were rough, but that wasn't really due to any localized interference that I could hear.

When I'm going to dump more than 10 watts into an antenna, I just take the Chameleon setup. This time it was the extension, the Cap Hat, and the whip. I rarely take the Hat out of the garage, but when I do, I notice benefits with the setup. Physics and all that jazz.

Given that this year the rules allowed for Phone and CW my IC-705 was really the only choice in my pile of rigs. I wanted to do a little FT8 to grab some additional POTA contacts before and after the contest, so why mess with a good thing? I tossed my wireless router in the bag along with my Ubuntu-Powered Surface Go 2. It's a tried and true setup.

Operating

The contest runs for 8 hours. That's the perfect amount of Butt-In-Seat for me though my wife points out that I always stop at about 6. Again, not a contester. I jumped on the air on 40M after some warm-up FT8 and found the bands wanting. I called around and finally started to get some contacts. I was alternating between CW and SSB. I did really well with CW - even getting some other Ohio parks which is a requirement - but SSB is where the contacts come from in this contest, I think.

Which brings me back to my personal style of operation. The evolution of my participation in the hobby and how I play radio when I'm in the park has been interesting for me. My current style is a far cry from the digital only operating I did when I first got started. In some ways, I'm glad I did that first. It's not trivial to get a digital field station running smoothly and reproducibly. In fact, given the specific posts on my blog that get hit again and again, it's difficult. I got that knocked out early and I still practice it, but it's not what I go to the field to do when I want to relax. For me, that's now CW.

My opinion today is that CW is engaging and relaxing. I run about 16 wpm. I'm not out there to make 150 contacts each session. I go for about 90 minutes or so most of the time - depending on the weather (space and terrestrial). I really enjoy the rhythm of a CW QSO and the surprises that it brings along. Grabbing the occasional DX with 5 watts is a thrill! And while the POTA exchange is pretty dry, it's still entertaining enough that I keep going back to it. It's like playing mahjong on my iPad; the same, but different each time.

The elephant on the table is that I still don't love working phone. I don't know that I ever will. But I did feel more comfortable this year for OSPOTA and I got into a pretty good rhythm with my fellow activators and hunters. It's also clear that if I want to bag a lot of contacts, I need to do more of that. I'm sure I will as the winter descends and I start working more with the IC-7100 in the Jeep. Having 100 watts sitting there is attractive when it's cold out and you want to hurry things along.

The Hardrock-50

I love this piece of gear. That's partially because I built it from a kit and partially because it's just a really great amp. It has everything I want and nothing that I don't need. The built in ATU is fantastic and it pairs nicely with the IC-705.

It does get hot. The manufacturer mentions that you're going to see it hit 140dF sometimes on the display. And that's just fine! Well, it is until it isn't, I guess. So to mitigate that, I picked up a USB powered mini-fan to set on top of it. This is probably the jankiest solution to the problem, but it dropped the temperature from 140dF or so to 89dF in a couple of minutes. It's quiet and doesn't generate any RF noise. It was also pretty inexpensive. I really need it when I use the HR50 in the hot summer months. It's a good little guy to keep in the big box I take when I do this kind of operating.

Highlights

I had a few really exciting moments. One was a phone contact with OE6MMD. It is VERY RARE for me to get a call that starts with O. Austria? From the middle of Ohio? At about 20 watts? Sweet! Ron was very, very patient and repeated his call about a dozen times for me. We were on 20M and it was a bit noisy. Thanks Ron!

I also had a great time doing a little hunting. This year's rules required any station in a park to make 4 park-to-park contacts with other Ohio park stations. The real magic of this contest is to make lots and lots of park to park contacts. I don't have a great NVIS setup (maybe next year?) so grabbing Ohio parks can be a bit dicey. I did get what I needed on 40M, but I'd like to get more next time around.

QSO Map

This map includes FT8 contacts from before the contest as well as all of my submitted SSB and CW contacts. It felt like I was doing really well to TX and points west. I even got 3 provinces along with my Austrian contact! Not too shabby!

The QSO Map for the activation of US-1989 by KC8JC.

Final

I didn't take many pictures on this trip. It was a quiet one and my wife and our Rottie and I just kind of hung out. Not everything is a photo op, I guess.

The contest was fun, as always. I really enjoyed grabbing over 100 contacts in the time I was on the air. One of these years, I will kilo this park, but not this one.

Thanks for reading along and I hope to hear you on the air!

73!

Endless Variation

It's pretty clear that POTA is my thing when it comes to this hobby and that my real goal is to get outside and play radio whenever I'm able. Usually, this is a solo run to the park or maybe with my wife if we're out cycling. Aside from a couple of ourtings with the club I'm in, I've not done any POTA with other operators. All of that finally changed!

The ham radio community one finds on Mastodon is full of friendly, open, and fun operators. Every day I go online and have some back and forth with other radio folks who are out there having a good time with their radios and all of the adjacent side hobbies that come with the hobby. One such operator is Todd KE2AEQ. He had reason to be in town and gave me a shout asking if I'd want to go do a joint activation with him at my favorite: Cuyahoga Valley National Park US-0020. I jumped at the chance.

Multi-Op Setups

We talked over email a bit about how we would do the activation. We're both QRP nerds and enjoy CW. We thought about setting up and seeing if we could pass the key as easily as people pass the mic. I've NEVER done that before, so I was game to give it a go.

However…

The weekend we were scheduled to be at the park was at the tail of the North American QSO Party - CW. That meant that every CW op out there was going to be bouncing around looking for contacts and that POTA guys like us might starve. Sure, we could go park it on the WARC bands and hope for the best, but that sounded like a bit more of a slog. So we decided that we'd go SSB and try this hot new Phone mode everyone keeps talking about.

Gear

I brought along my IC-705 and the Hardrock-50. KE2AEQ said that he'd wanted to see that amp in action when I suggested it so tossing it in the Jeep was no big deal. I got it set up and plugged in the mic (which I remembered to bring along!). With everything sitting neatly on my camp table and the Chameleon whip with extention set up next to us, we got ready to unleash 45 watts of fury!

The Activation

Passing the mic went smoothly. Once we got on the air, we were doing really well with hitting contacts. Admittedly, we got a little spoiled as we would have runs of 4 or 5 contacts and then a chunk of silence.

We had a self-professed snowbird ham, his partner, and their dog stop by to say hello. As I thought I would, I forgot his call, but it was nice to chat about the setup and encourage a Technician to go get his Genral already so we could have more HF folk to talk with when we activate! It was a fun conversation and when he took off, we got back to it.

We ended the day with about 20 QSOs in the bag. Plenty of park to park action, too! Lots of good conversation and nerd talk. We even did that thing I see all the time where two ops get on their HTs and grab 2M and 70cm Park to Park contacts for giggles. I can check that one off of my ham radio bucket list!

The QSO Map

Final

I'm really glad that KE2AEQ reached out and suggested that we activate together. It was a blast! I would definitely do that again. And if/when I get out east again, you can bet I'll give him a shout so we can do an activation on his turf. I highly recommend getting together with your ham radio community and getting outside. It's a blast!

A New State (Commonwealth)

I was first licensed as KC3JXQ and the 3 gives it away. I lived in Pennsylvania, but that was before I got into POTA and started getting out and activating. It didn't become a thing for me until 2020 when my family and I moved to Ohio. So it was that I still had a blank spot on PA as an activator. Wild, but true.

At some point in the spring, my son and I decided that we would go do some camping while the other members of our household were at Scout Camp. The idea took root and we each invited a friend. The final roster was four dudes (two old and two young) and a couple of dogs (one old and one young). The camper was still in good working order from our Michigan trip, so we fired it up and dragged it out in an easterly direction to Blue Knob State Park US-1335.

Blue Knob

The park is on the same grounds as a ski resort. The camping loop we were staying in was at 2400 ft. above sea level and that had a powerful impact on the temperature and the bugs. There were plenty of flies and gnats, but the mosquito count was nice and low. The temperatures were also hitting a high of about 80dF and night time got down to 60dF or so. Great sleeping weather and few bug bites. This is how I like to camp!

Sleeping

As a side note, we have two beds in the camper. My good buddy Michael took the dinette bed and I stayed on the main bed because that's where the dogs sleep and I didn't feel like throwing him to the almost wolves. There is no one who hogs a bed quite like a 90 pound Rottweiler. She tries to take my pillow and insists on being pressed up against me but growls if I move my arm the wrong way. This is a picky and entitled creature.

Honestly though? I sleep really well knowing she's Right There - even if she does alert me to every chipmunk and rabbit that moves in the night.

As for Nacho the Radio Beagle, well, he's a professional sleeper. He gets in his little groove and is out like a light for 18 hours at a stretch. He knows the good life when he sees it. And for him the good life is a mattress, a blanket, and being under some kind of roof.

Activities

I took along my fat bike but it didn't see any use. It was too nice to hang around camp and chat with my buddy. The younger gentlemen took to the trails and the pool and cycled up hills and down like madmen as they should. That left the older gentlemen holding down the fort with dogs, books to read, some snacks and…well…my trusty IC-705!

Naturally, I got on the air twice and bagged activations. One of the best things about camping with like-minded gentlemen is that there is no need to explain my radio. Though I did enjoy one of the young men constantly saying "It just feels so good to unplug" every time I started keying up for an activation. Yes, bro. Hurling 19th century robot speak into the ether does indeed make me a screenager.

Anywho, I did a CW only activation on the second day there. After that I did a split FT8 and CW activation. There was no one around to annoy with my beeps and boops so I cranked up the volume and let the CW fly. Conditions were good and I was really getting out.

Gear

I had the IC-705 and the TR-45L with me. I only got out the 705 because I was pretty darned lazy. Moving from the picnic table to the trunk of the car seemed like a lot of work In the moment and I had a nice cold bottle of water, so I stuck to the 705. No complaints there.

Once again, I took the MP1 SuperAntenna because I like resonance. With it set up on its tripod and off to the side of the picnic table, it was well-positioned. I did mention to everyone that they needed to stay about 6 or so inches away given that I was working with up to 5 watts of screaming power. They all obliged except Bella (the obstinate Rottie). For whatever reason, she really wanted to plant herself next to the antenna which wasn't even in the shade. Weird dog.

I brought along my Begali Traveller paddles. That was to pair with the TR-45L in the event that I felt like doing one of my famous Lifestyle Activations. It didn't shake out that way, but wow do I love those paddles. They're just amazing.

QSO Maps

Conditions were really good. I didn't have to wait for very long to bag a pile of contacts on both days. It was nice to settle into a groove and log away. The QSO Maps definitely show that I was getting out.

Final

I didn't take many pictures at all as it wasn't that kind of trip. We were all very much In The Moment and enjoying our time together and in the outdoors. It was a blast and my son and I agree we should make it an annual event.

Intro

For the past few years, our family has gone to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for a week of camping and relaxing in some of the most beautiful places along Lake Superior. I'm a Great Lakes kind of guy and my wife caught the fever when we moved to NE Ohio. Our travels have taken us to some very off the beaten path campgrounds and places that really pull us out of the daily routine. This year was a little different for us.

Last time we were in The Yoop, we rented mountain bikes to explore Copper Harbor which is well known for its mountain bike trails. The truth is, I'm spoiled with my bike and a rental was Not It. My wife had the same complaint. The only solution was to get some suitable bike racks (bike racks that work for fat bikes are kind of a niche thing) and put them on the camper so that this summer we could explore on our own machines. This was without a doubt the best idea. It was glorious!

Straits State Park

Our first stop is always an overnight at Straits State Park. It's on the north side of the Mackinack Bridge. The campsites are spaced out pretty well and you can take a nice walk along the shores of Lake Huron and view the bridge. It's really pretty and I'm usually pretty exhausted from towing the trailer by the time we arrive. But once we set up, I check the time to see how close we are to 00:00 UTC and get my rig set up. I'm still stinging from not catching the fact that I rolled over UTC on our first visit there and didn't notice that I didn't have enough contacts for either side of the UTC line. Never again!

For this trip, I brought along the SuperAntenna. It goes together quickly and I'm finding that on rough days, it's performing better than my non-tuned options. That shouldn't be a surprise, but I guess I'm paying closer attention. I put it together on its tripod and put the IC-705 together in the camper. I set up for FT8 so that I could talk to my daughter a bit while she set up her sleeping bag.

It was a slow going 10 contacts, but I got them. A big bonus for me was getting WG8X in the log right out of the gate! John is a fellow PCARS member who does a column for The Radiogram called On The Road which details his POTA adventures. He was out at a two-fer and was my first vacation contact. Thanks John! Always happy to have a Park To Park with a fellow club member.

After I got my 10, it was time to call it a night. The next day was a "short" drive to Munising and to our most primative camp for this trip.

Hiawatha National Forest

The Hiawatha National Forest is a big place. It spreads itself wide and has many wonderful camping areas. The one we chose this time was Bay Furnace. It's very close to Munising and all of the things we wanted to do there. Our site was in some deep forest and there were plenty of bugs to keep us company. Fortunately, we had the Opus Annex and some Thermacels to keep them from draining every drop of blood we had.

Our stay there included a glass bottom boat tour of two shipwrecks. My daughter added that to this year's agenda and it was a lot of fun. We got a nice tour of the shoreline and saw the wrecks in detail. It's amazing how clear the water is and how in tact these structures from over 100 years ago really are.

After a couple of hours on the boat, we made some lunch and headed over to Grand Island with our bikes. We did a quick 1 hour ride and knew we would need to come back the next day. This was something my wife has wanted to do since our first trip. The two of us went over to the island the next day and had a great ride. There were plenty of long stretches with some elevation gain, but nothing too uncomfortable. The best part was going down the "sketchy" trail that the rangers told us to walk. When you have a fat tire bike, mud and muck and wet sand are part of the fun. My bike didn't even notice it. It was a blast!

Our first night at camp, I decided to do an activation. I started off on CW and got two contacts, but then things got quiet. It had been quite a day, so I grabbed my tablet and got 8 contacts via FT8. The bands weren't showing me any love, so it was a good strategy to get the activation. And it was quick which was important because, well, mosquitos.

The two days in that site were really amazing. I can't recommend biking Grand Island highly enough. Just go do it!

Ft. Wilkins State Historical Park

Copper Harbor was the centerpiece of this trip. It was our second time out to the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula and we were excited to have our own bikes with us. There are so many trails, but the one we really wanted to hit was the one that leads to the Rocket Range. You didn't know that there was a rocket pad on the coast of Lake Superior? It's OK. Neither did anyone else. The road to get there is long and recommended for mountain bikes, OHVs, and 4x4 vehicles with real clearance. My Jeep would have loved it, but my fat bike loved it more.

It's a decent logging road out to the point where the trail splits with one side going to the bay and the other leading to the range. I didn't get any pictures of the trail because I was busy riding it, but I will say that I went through some very deep "puddles" (8 or so inches deep) and we picked up plenty of mud because of the recent heavy rains. The day we did the ride was sunny and in the mid-60s. Gorgeous weather for exertion.

At the shore of the lake, we walked around and I did some staring at the water. It's just such a wonderful place. Quiet. Remote. Silent.

And of course, we had our standing familiy joke…

Daughter: Hey! I can see Canada!
Me: No. You can't.
Daughter: Yeah huh! It's right there!
Me: YOU CANNOT SEE MORE THAN 7 MILES DUE TO THE CURVATURE OF THE EARTH!
Wife: You bite on the troll every time. It's so predictable.
Daughter: And sad. Really sad.

I activated Ft. Wilkins three times while we were there. All FT8 all day long. It was quiet and I was tired. It was nice to sit with my radio and play a bit while the others napped or did whatever they do when I'm playing radio. This did put me in the 2nd place position for activations! I'll never beat out the park leader, Daniel KD9MSP, who I met last year on our first trip to Copper Harbor. He's a great guy and it was wonderful to see a camper with a POTA flag out front. Nice to spot our own in the wild! My big regret was that we didn't have a pair of HTs to do a park to park together. I did bring along the TH-D74 just in case, but he wasn't there (that I saw).

QSO Map

Here's what it all looked like on the map.

Final

Camping, mountain biking, and radio for an entire week. I don't know that I could ask for more. The weather held for us and it was fantastic. Everyone got to relax and do something that they enjoyed. The perfect vacation. I can't say enough good things about that part of the world and I know we'll go back again.