Susan's Radio Adventures

The park I chose is a small state recreation area, nothing dramatic, but it qualified for the Parks on the Air program and more importantly it's close enough that if everything went wrong I wasn't stranded somewhere two hours from home. I pulled into the parking lot around nine in the morning thinking I'd have plenty of time to get set up before the bands got too noisy.

What I Brought (And What I Forgot)

My radio for this was a Xiegu G90 running at 20 watts. I know a lot of POTA folks go full QRP at 5 watts but I wanted a little more margin on my first outing. My antenna was a 40 meter end-fed half-wave that I bought as a kit and soldered up myself a few weeks ago. I'd tested it in the backyard and it seemed to work, SWR was reasonable on 40 and okay-ish on 20. I brought a 12 amp-hour lithium battery pack, a little antenna analyzer, coax, a notepad for paper logging because I didn't want to deal with a laptop outdoors yet, and way too many granola bars.

What I forgot: my coax adapter. I had the antenna's BNC connector and the radio's SO-239 and nothing to connect them. Stood there in the parking lot staring at my gear bag for a solid two minutes feeling like a complete idiot. Fortunately I had a short patch cable with PL-259 on both ends that I'd thrown in as an afterthought, and I had a barrel connector in a little bag of miscellaneous hardware I keep in my car. It was awkward but it worked. Lesson one: make a checklist and actually use it.

Getting the Antenna Up

I'd planned to do a sloper, running the end-fed up at an angle from a tripod to a tree branch. The trees at this particular picnic area were not cooperating. First branch I could reach was maybe twelve feet up and the tree was weirdly positioned relative to where I wanted to set up. I ended up doing more of an inverted-V shape, sort of, with one end up on the tripod at about ten feet and the other end tied to a low branch. It was not elegant. The counterpoise wire was just laying on the ground which I've since read is actually fine for this type of antenna, so at least that part I didn't overthink.

Getting the analyzer readings wasn't terrible. SWR was around 1.8 on 40 meters at the resonant point, which the G90's internal tuner handled without complaint. On 20 meters it was uglier but still matchable. I called it good enough and started operating.

The Operating Part

I'd decided to call CQ on 40 meters first since it was still morning and 20 might be better later. I picked a frequency around 7.245 MHz, listened for a couple minutes to make sure it was clear, and started calling. Nothing for about three minutes. I moved up a bit and tried again. Still nothing for a couple minutes, and then someone came back to me and honestly I got so flustered I fumbled my exchange. They were patient and we got through it. First contact logged. I may have done a small fist pump right there at the picnic table.

After that things got a bit easier. I ended up with eleven contacts on 40 meters over about an hour and a half. A few hunters were clearly just running through activations quickly which I appreciated because they were efficient and easy to work. A couple of people wanted to chat a little which was also nice, and one person asked how my antenna was working which led to a genuinely useful two-minute conversation about end-fed antennas.

I switched to 20 meters around eleven and got four more contacts, including one station that was quite far away geographically, which was exciting. Total for the day was fifteen contacts which is one more than the ten you need to count as a successful activation. I realize fifteen is not impressive by the standards of experienced activators who routinely log forty or fifty contacts in an outing, but for me it felt like a genuine accomplishment.

Things I Would Do Differently

The checklist thing I already mentioned. Beyond that, I'd bring a taller support for the antenna. Ten feet is pretty low and I think I lost some efficiency there. I've been looking at the lightweight mast options, the fiberglass push-up poles, and I think even a 20 or 25 foot mast would make a real difference. I'd also spot myself on the POTA website next time. I didn't do it this time because I was nervous and didn't want people to show up expecting a competent operator, but honestly the spotting system exists for a reason and it would have helped me get contacts faster.

I also should have brought something better to sit on. The picnic table bench was fine but after ninety minutes my back was not happy. Some of those activators I see in photos have these little camp chairs that look much more reasonable.

Would I Do It Again

Yes, immediately, already planning the next one. There's something really satisfying about making contacts from a field setup that feels different from working from the shack. Maybe it's that you solved a bunch of small problems to make it happen. Maybe it's being outside. Probably both.

I'm also thinking about trying to learn CW eventually so I can work the CW segments where there seems to be a lot of POTA activity, but that feels like a longer-term project. For now I'm going to keep doing SSB activations and try to get a little better at the process each time.

If you're on the fence about doing your first activation, I'd genuinely say just go do it. You will forget something. Something won't work quite right. You'll work through it and you'll learn more in that one morning than you would from a month of reading about it. Or at least that's how it was for me.

Thanks to everyone who came back to my calls last Saturday. You have no idea how much it meant to a very nervous first-timer.