POTA

I love playing radio in the great outdoors! Living in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains makes it a perfect match too. Once I learned about Parks on the Air, I became hooked on portable radio. Without a doubt, I spend more time on the radio operating portable than I do at home. It also has rekindled my wife and I's love of camping. As the kids got older, we seemed to less and less camping. Now that our son has moved out on his own, and our daughter is out of high school and working full time and getting ready for college, we have been able to combine radio and camping that have led to some great adventures.

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Scenery like this is the reason I love POTA! This is off one of the forest service roads near the area where I grew up, in an place called Cherokee Park. Northern Colorado in the summer time is pretty hard to beat.

K-4406, Roosevelt National Forest

KX2, 40/20 trap dipole

July 5, 2021

My favorite state park to go play radio. It's only about 30 minutes from home, and views like this make it pretty easy to spend an hour or two here.

K-1210, Boyd Lake State Park

KX2, 29' end fed random wire, 9:1 unun

June 8, 2021

My daughter wanted a father-daughter adventure trip to South Dakota for her graduation present. We visited Badlands NP on our last full day. Set up for an activation and had 15 contacts in about 20 minutes before the wind decided my antenna was too straight and bent the mast below the coil!

K-0005, Badlands National Park

FT-891, BNC V.2 vertical on the hitch mount

May 29, 2021

OK, so this isn't POTA..... but, if you are staying in a cabin in the Black Hills of South Dakota, just as well string a wire around the place and work on your Morse code skills a bit right?! Oh, and don't forget a little Irish beverage too. :)

KX2, 29' end fed random wire, 9:1 unun.

May 28, 2021

These little covered picnic tables at Boyd Lake State Park face to the east, so getting here around 4PM after work with the sun setting behind me makes for a nice shady spot to sit and check out the lake.

K-1210, Boyd Lake State Park

FT-891, BNC V.2 vertical coil on a tripod

May 7, 2021

One of our nice warm Colorado winter days! Once in awhile I'll bring the mag loop along, and I really would like to start using it more often. It's faster to set up and put away, and is every bit as good a performer as any other antenna option I have to choose from.

K-1209, Barr Lake State Park

FT-891, home built 3' diameter magnetic loop

February 7, 2021

Probably my all time favorite POTA photo! 30° and picture perfect! Set up along the Pourde River, northwest of Fort Collins. No cell service to spot, but thankfully I didn't need it. Activated the park in about 20 minutes.

K-4406, Roosevelt National Forest

FT-891, 17' SS whip adjusted to 20 meters

December 31, 2020

The POTA Hut! Several of us that are a little nuttier than the others have bought some type of ice fishing hut so we can still get out in the winter. With a little Buddy Heater inside, life is good.

K-7490, Pawnee National Grassland

FT-891, BNC V.2 vertical on the hitch mount

December 14, 2020

We had a very large wildland fire close by in 2020 that burned just over 200,000 acres from August to December. You can see the smoke in this picture, that was how all of our fall and early winter looked! Didn't activate a whole lot during that time.

K-1210, Boyd Lake State Park

FT-891, Wolf River Coils SOTA Special vertical

September 6, 2020

Combining camping and POTA. We were able to get a really great tent site overlooking the reservoir. This was at the beginning of a large wildland fire that eventually burned just over 200,000 acres, and the smoke from it is visible along the mountains.

K-1245, Steamboat Lake State Park

FT-891, Wolf River Coils SOTA Special vertical

August 14, 2021

Our first camping and POTA adventure to Wyoming. We found a great spot with a couple campfire rings already build, and a beautiful view out into the meadow. You can see the antenna mast on the other side of the pickup set up on a DIY drive-on mast mount.

K-4403, Medicine Bow National Forest (Wyoming)

FT-891, 8010 EFHW inverted "V" @ 33'

July 31, 2020

The view at around 11PM during the activation posted above. With my batteries running low, I turned the FT-891 down to 10 watts, and had contacts into New Zealand and Australia, including a mobile in Australia! Just doesn't get any better than this! After this trip, I have built several LiFePO4 batteries ranging from 5Ah to 200Ah.

K-4403, Medicine Bow National Forest (Wyoming)

July 31, 2020

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