Or, what a difference a day makes.

So I loaded up the truck and moved to…oh wait, that’s another story. I headed to my nearest POTA park, The Illinois Beach State Park, (K-1000 in POTA-speak). The park is right on the shore of Lake Michigan, about an hour north of downtown Chicago. As you may have guessed, the park was pretty empty on December 31, 2021. Overcast, 37 degrees, a light breeze and Lake Mishi-Gami was as calm as a farm pond. Fantastic conditions for January 31 in the Chicago area.

As we closed out 2021 and rang in 2022, I figured I’d do some Parks On The Air.

I chatted for a while with another POTA activator, Arron, who had already begun making contacts on CW. He was set up with a small campfire and a big antenna.

After our chat I moved to a different part of the park and set up shop. I was on the air in no time and made close to 50 contacts in about an hour. Not record setting, but I went and took some of the accompanying pictures while stretching my legs and making New Years Eve dinner plans with the XYL.

On the Great Lakes, conditions can change dramatically in just a short time. Today, January 1, 2022, I decided to go back and activate K-1000 again. Notice anything different about the lake? It has been less than 24 hours since I took the first group of pictures. The skies are still overcast, but the wind is howling, (in Chicago we call it The Hawk), the snow hadn’t started yet, and the temperature is hovering around freezing.

Well I made enough contacts to activate K-1000, (K-K), when, ring-ring-ring. “Are you up at the park again?” I could hear her eyes rolling, but she knows I have a problem. What’s the old idiom, Behind every great man is a great woman…A SEXIST WOULD SAY.

Today I was using a helical whip antenna with a magnet mount on top of the Family Truckster. When I packed-up, the antenna had loosened from the base and the “stinger” had vibrated loose from the main body of the whip because of the wind buffeting. Note to self, 3/8″ spanner wrench.

Watching the spray shoot 20 feet up into the air, I couldn’t help myself from taking a few picture. Right on the shore, with the wind whipping, I wished I’d had some of those gloves that work on a phone screen. I could only take a few pictures at a time before my hand had to get some pocket time. I wouldn’t have taken any if it weren’t for two layers of pants, six layers, (really), on top, neck gaiter, wool hat and gloves.

Did I mention the dissimilarities in atmospheric conditions after the earth makes one rotation on it’s axis, especially when standing at the littoral zone of very large body of fresh water and a weather map displays tightly packed isobars?

73 Everyone, and Happy New Year. I’m glad to have 2021 in the rear view mirror.

I was thinking about why I find Parks On The Air, POTA, attractive. I’m a relatively new “Ham”. I’ve only been licensed since January of 2021, but since then I attained the General then the Amateur Extra license. Check out my post on online study guides.

There is the obvious element of POTA which is operating from remot(ish) locations. Getting outdoors, seeing different locations and enjoying the changing seasons. POTA can be a year round sport.

In addition to the outdoorsy aspects of POTA my biggest pleasure has come from improving my skills as an operator…much improved.

On one end of the radio operator spectrum you can scan the dial for hams calling “CQ”, (seek you). When you make contact you generally have a short chat or QSO at which point you move on to your next QSO.

When I was first getting introduced to HF communication, I was curious if there was a more organized way of making contacts. Enter HF nets. Like UHF/VHF nets, these are more likely to be organized and scheduled regularly. HF nets do attract a lot, (a lot), of participants given the nature of long distance HF communications. You could easily be the number 50 in the queue, so if you’re itchin’ to talk this might not be the ideal method of getting on the air. There is a lot of standing by.

At the other end of the spectrum is “contesting”. Contesting is the high volume, high speed portion of the hobby. The idea is to make as many contacts as possible during the time frame specified in the rules of that contest. If you’ve listened to a contest in progress it probably sounded very chaotic. It’s not, it is just very fast paced, with each contest specifying the elements needed during each exchange to count as an official contact for that contest. Contests are based on bands and times. That is, there is a start time and an end time and the band(s) on which the contest will be operating. You still must scan the dial to find the contesters.

I’m not very good at it, but contesting is fun once you get comfortable with it. Notice I said comfortable, not good.

That brings us to POTA. Right off the bat, you can find the POTA stations who are at the “P” by going to parksontheair.com and in the top banner clicking on “POTA Spots”. The page that is now displayed can be filtered by band and mode, (CW, SSB, FT8, etc.). If you are wanting to do 40meter SSB you would select those and the page would now display who’s on the air, the park they are operating from, the frequency they are using, when the last time someone heard them, and a few other bits of information. Tune them in, make contact, exchange pleasantries, 73 and log your new friend.

Wait, what? That sounds like shooting fish in a barrel. Well not exactly…it’s easier!

You know where they are. They want to talk to you and have a short QSO, it’s going on all day, every day, usually till shortly after sundown. The big deal, at least to me, is how much doing POTA will improve your radio skills. It’s kind of like contesting-lite.

Before we go any further, a couple of terms. The station shown on the POTA website soliciting calls, (CQ POTA), is called the Activator. He/She is “Activating the park”. The station calling the Activator is called a “Hunter”. Once the Activator makes ten contacts he has Activated the park. Yay! A certain number or types of activations earn awards. The same applies to hunters. So, without leaving the comfort of your shack you can earn awards, and at the same time help the activator score points. Win-win.

I’ll make a post about specific operating details soon, but a minimum contact consists of you calling the Activator with just your callsign; them responding with your callsign, a signal report and their park number; you respond with a signal report, your location, and “73“. It’s really that simple, and not generally at the breakneck pace of a contest.

So how will POTA make you a better operator? The way POTA is structured, you can spend more time making QSOs and less time searching for Activators. That allows more time for getting into a grove making contacts. You really will get better once you find your rhythm.

For me as a new-ish amateur radio operator I started out Hunting. It was the logical place to start…very slow paced. In another lifetime on the radio, I learned that knowing what was going to be said was just as important as the actual words themselves. This holds true for POTA exchanges. You will be amazed what you can pull out of a very weak and/or noisy signal when you know what is supposed to be said. Since the POTA exchanges are brief, you’ll catch on quickly. Just listen for a few minutes and you’ll be ready to jump in. See, you just got better and you haven’t even left home yet.

Rather than me going over all the “lingo” and such, check out a great YouTube video where Mike, K8MRD,  teaches his neighbor how to POTA. It really filled in some of the gaps for me about doing Parks on the Air. Mike is a prolific, right to the point YouTuber. You’ll see the rhythm at which Mike operates. That won’t be you, (or me), at the beginning. but once you get that cadence down you’ll be making tons of contacts.

Like the tourist who asked the New Yorker, “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?” To which the New Yorker replied, “Practice, practice, practice.”

Seven tree

A friend recently asked me if I had any recommendations for studying for the FCC Technician Exam. I said yes I do, and here is what I said. I told my friend that I am partial to the FREE online study tools. The following three are my favorites. Each has it’s own advantages, but it really boils down to what your learning style is.

All three are interactive and give immediate feedback. You’ll gain the most from registering for them because the study guides keep track of your progress if you are registered.

I started studying for the “Tech” license in December of 2020 and by March 2021 I’d advanced to Amateur Extra. I encourage folks who have the time to keep studying for the next higher license on once they pass the Tech exam because you’re already in the study mode and that study mindset helps quite a bit.

If you aren’t aware, all of the questions, (and answers), for all three license classes, Technician, General and Amateur Extra are publicly available and are known as the question pool, or pool. When you go to take the exam, the questions, (and answers), are taken directly from the pool. The questions and answers are exactly the same as those in the online study guides. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

First up is the study guide from the American Radio Relay League, ARRL. The ARRL is the national association for Amateur Radio founded in 1914. Head over to the ARRL for their study guide.

Next is HamStudy by Signal Stuff. They are, in part, an online retailer who’s products are of particular interest to Technicians, but also “…dedicated to enhancing the use of technology in the amateur radio licensing technology.” I am very pleased with both their physical and intellectual products. Here is where to get started, hamstudy.org.

Finally, HamExam by Ron, NA0Q. Ron says, “I originally built this site in 2003 to help my wife earn her Technician license, and since then it has helped thousands of hams get their license and upgrade.” He is realistic about online test prep and says…”that memorizing the test is no substitute for understanding the material. If you have problems with certain questions, please search out more information on those topics.” Truer words were never spoken.

I can personally say that one product is no better than the other, just different. I like and use all three. Do read the fine print though. Not because there are any “gotchas”, but because there is a lot of useful functionality that isn’t right there in your face.

Since this is an amateur radio blog, I figured it might be helpful to add the solar data widget from N0NBH.com.

Where oh where?

Nothing to do with Amateur radio of course, just for fun.