🤙 Hey there…

All the gear I use for a successful Parks On The Air activation, and more generally, my amateur radio station setup. I discovered many little accessories and tricks to make this easier

A difficult POTA activation at Buena Vista Creek Ecological Reserve (US-12610), where limited access, high RF noise, and poor operating conditions made for a frustrating and hard-earned activation. Should this spot be a POTA location?

This is the story of my first Parks on the Air (POTA) activation, which was unforgettable for a few reasons, and how I ended up on a podcast because of it! I live in San Diego, California, but my wife and I grew up in Northern California. Our families are still in San Francisco and Mendocino County. So it’s typical to make the long drive up to the Bay Area for holiday family time. Last Thanksgiving was no different. I loaded up some tasty playlists and queued up a bunch of podcast episodes for the 8+ hour drive. As I chased the white lines up I-5 through the Central Valley of California, I binged on Cliff’s Notes on Amateur Radio. It’s a great listen if Amateur Radio and Parks On The Air are your thing. And these days, those are my things! Cliff KQ4UUR has been podcasting since 2005 so his presentation and content are really dialed. He started a podcast series interviewing prolific POTA hunters and it’s really fun to hear the different ways people approach the hobby. There’s a POTA park about 2 hours east of San Francisco, US-3558 San Luis Reservoir Recreation Area. It’s not too far after getting off I-5. The reservoir & dam mark the start of the Pacheco Pass, which leads to Gilroy and Highway 101 and on to the Bay. It’s a good place to stop and stretch the legs before making the final push into The City. I finished Cliff’s interview with Mike AL7KC right before I pulled in to the empty parking lot overlooking the placid reservoir. A cold winter wind blew through the picnic table gazebo where I set up my temporary station. The whole drive, I’d been rehearsing my first POTA activation in my head. Now I was finally here to do it. I got everything connected and operational around 15:45 Pacific/23:45 UTC. Even though this spot is near a major interstate, there’s not much around so the noise floor is very low. Signals poured across my waterfall and it was a little overwhelming at first. Definitely not like my noisy suburban neighborhood. ...

I share an amazing Parks On The Air activation at my local beach. Thanks to the magic of saltwater, I talked to Australia, Alaska, Canada and much of the US.

Getting a good night’s sleep outdoors is harder than it should be. I break down a full car camping/overlanding sleep system — sleeping bags, insulation types, temperature ratings, sleeping pads (including the most common mistake campers make), pillows, and accessories — so you can actually wake up rested.