Nice Job there. So fun to watch you having so much fun. Wish I could get my kids to come help me do an activation. They are older now with families now. Keep up the good work and be careful. Get your Extra and get your sister up to a General as you make a great team. 73 DE KA7QVE
The 6 meter VHF grid hunting and activating is a niche (but a large niche) part of the VUCC side of the hobby. The FFMA (Fred Fish Memorial Award) is the crowning achievement (in my opinion) of 6M operations. You can read more about it here http://www.arrl.org/ffma There are a lot of people that go out on grid activation's during the 6m summer season. The main season is pretty much May-August. I consider the Perseids meteor shower pretty much it, but that's just me. There are also a lot of guys doing this outside of the main season, mainly during the Geminid meteor shower, but there is meteor scatter (and Tropo) activity all the time. Many SOTA operators also do grid activation's because a high summit can be a great place to launch your 6m signals. With 6m chasing, we use every propagation method we can get our hands on. Es (E skip), Aurora scatter, Meteor Scatter (I plan on activating DM90 with mostly Meteor scatter during the peak of the Perseids), Tropo, TEP (Trans-Equatorial Propagation), Airplane scatter (there's an app for that!), Ionospheric Scattering, EME, etc... You name some way to get a grid report from point a to point b, we are probably doing it or trying to figure out how. One of the cool things about 6m, is you can suddenly find your screen filled with stations from around the world. Nothing like being caught up in a JA station pileup out of nowhere! You may thing this stuff takes big equipment. Not true. During the season some guys activate while driving from grid to grid with no more then a whip antenna. I use a portable wire dipole and an m2 6m3 and a 7300. The guys that go out with backpacks (not sure if they are the sane ones, lol, carry batteries with them). I can't imagine going up hill in CM79 carrying 85 lbs on my back, but Petr does it. His after action reports usually begin and end with "I almost died", but that's just how Petr likes to operate. lol. I use either a little Honda style generator or rv park power. Or, just as ya'll did in your video, a couple of batteries in the back of the truck. I've learned to favor rv parks as I found during the summer months, I like a/c. It all depends on how you like to operate (just like your POTA operations). Most of what is done is using digital modes, but still plenty of SSB and CW to be had! It's just with the way the environmental conditions (condx) can be from moment to moment, weak signal can be your best friend Here are a couple of examples (there are tons more) of the fun to be had and places to see. http://www.n5tm.com/rare-grid-dx-pedition-to-dry-tortugas-el84/ http://www.bigskyspaces.com/w7gj/2020Grids.htm https://www.qrz.com/db/n4eme If you decide you want to learn more, shoot me an email (I'm good on qrz) and I'll send you an invite to the Slack VHF chat group. I think there are over 500 hams that are a serious part of FFMA signed up at this time. A lot of knowledge there for sure. You can also look at https://www.pingjockey.net/cgi-bin/pingtalk and http://www.on4kst.com/chat/start.php and get a feel for what's going on in the VUCC world. Lot of 2m and 1.25m talk on pingjockey as well. I hope I've peaked ya'll's interest a little bit and didn't bore you too much! It's really a fun part of the hobby and a lot can be learned!
Absolutely fantastic. It made me think of my start as a ham but the gear was not portable. We went to my friends house and used his fathers gear. He would come out to the shack and laugh at us trying to dip the plate and max the grid. (Backwards for those of you who never used tube finals.) We worked all over the world and got so excited when we worked Russia. Of course the sun spot cycle was very high and 10 meters went all day. Remember ladies, that to marry you the fellow will need a license, a Ham license. Tom W4DAX
You both are shining examples of youth in our hobby and we need more people like you and your sister in amateur radio. Glad you both were safe and had fun with your POTA activation! I have been working a lot of POTA stations on 20 and 40 meters lately--a good thing--and I hope to hear you calling CQ POTA someday soon here in EM86. 73, Sean KS4TD
