Light off road, camping, good food and a Parks on The Air

Awesome video Chuck!

 

I love the concept of Parks on the Air -- getting out into the beautiful Arizona nature and enjoying a crisp, cool morning with my radio gear! Sounds like a day made in Heaven! However, in reality I'm mighty disappointed now, on multiple occasions I've gone out and haven't been able to activate. I started with an IC-705 running on battery (5 W) and a dipole at about 12' in the center (on a big, cactus -- all we've got, fellas). No contacts and my wife made me quit after listening to me calling CQ Pota for three hours. I had another IC-705 experience that went the same way. So -=- I sold the IC-705, bought a Xiegu G90 (love that little radio) and started out again, this time with 20W. I bought a buddy stick and tried that, as well as an end fed long wire (EmComm Chameleon). Still, unable to activate. Not one contact. My friend brought his entire shack, IC-7300 and a jumbo battery and was able to get 25 contacts from same locale. WHAT IN THE WORLD am I doing wrong? My idea of POTA is actually having the gear in a knapsack. I'm not going to bring my home radio into the woods. Thoughts??

 

Weird. I go out with my KX2 (10w) and two wires connected to a BNC post adapter and generally get my 10 contacts (and more) in a few minutes. I usually average 1 contact per minute for the first 10-15 minutes, then it slows down afterward.

Are you spotting yourself? I generally do that and have people calling me before I can get fully set up (lesson: Don't spot until you're ready to transmit). If you're not spotting, or even if you are, have you tried doing a park-to-park to confirm you're being heard and to further get the word out that you're activating that park?

Chris

 

Thank you Chris. No, I have never spotted myself. And I don't put my frequency into the POTA page, I just say "20M and 40M SSB" or something like that. Good idea on the Park to Park. I'll try that. I know the radio gets out because on the IC-705, I switched to 2 M and got a bunch of locals. Then, on the G90 I got into a net and they gave me a decent signal report. So -- My guess, as you indicate, I need to be more aggressive about helping people find me. Thanks! Dave, W7DGJ

 

There are some who don't like the concept of self-spotting, but if you did a P2P, people would hear you and possibly chase you from there. Then you could ask your next contact to spot you if they're engaged with the program (some "chasers" are just random contacts curious about your activity).

But, in general, I've found POTA chasers to be an aggressive bunch with good ears (though sometimes not as good as their mouths, lol). If they know you're there, they will try to contact you.

Chris

 

TU fer taking us along, hoping to see a little CW from you. I assume for your off road rig you have neutered your Cat.