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POTA hunting is fun too
This isn’t a problem though as there is still plenty to do with ham radio anyway. Primarily, POTA of course. I love to hunt almost as much as I love to activate. This means I can sit in the comfort of my shack and still work POTA contacts!
Lately I have been buried with work and have not had time to get out to a park to activate.
This isn’t a problem though as there is still plenty to do with ham radio anyway. Primarily, POTA of course. I love to hunt almost as much as I love to activate. This means I can sit in the comfort of my shack and still work POTA contacts! What a time to be alive! Normally, I use my TenTec Omni 7 and occasionally I will add my 500 watt amplifier if the bands are kinda poor. This allows me to get through when I normally could not with just 100 watts. It also allows for the thrill of the hunt. When your a hunter, you are moving around a lot. You are looking for stations that are most of the time down in the noise. This makes it really challenging as you have to figure out who you are listening to. Sometimes, it is not who is on the spot page… You just have to figure it out. You also have to figure out how they work hunters so you can position yourself in the best possible place to be worked. This means you get to listen a lot more than transmit and for some people this is a deal breaker. It is not for me. I don’t know why, but it is almost therapeutic to sit and listen to an activator working through his or her pileup. It is mesmerizing to me for some reason.
Here is the setup I am using currently. A TenTec Omni 7 with one of my handmade WK4DS CW Paddles attached. I love chasing CW POTA myself. The comfort of the shack isn’t a bad thing. Not all POTA has to be in a rainy pavilion in some far flung state park. You are allowed to also have the opportunity to work POTA from this side too. Just power up your base rig at home and have some fun is all you need to do.
Now there are some things that I do differently when I am at home. I only paper log at home. This is two fold. First it eliminated the need to have a computer running in the shack while I operate. This is the source of some of my RF noise in my shack and I know it. If I want to work some weak station then the first thing I do is power down the computer and turn off the monitors. Secondly, I still like to write down my QSO as I go, this gives me the ability to read over the conversation and remember things I might want to bring up on the next turn. I know this is more about rag-chewing, but it affords me that memory feature of the QSO. So I still write my QSOs for now. I no longer log to just log the contacts, but simply for the ease of reference. It does also give me the ability to confirm a QSO from my shack should I get a card for one.
Now, sometimes when I am POTA hunting I scan the bands that I can worl easily and look for activators on the spot page like you see above. This allows me to quickly scan and find any operators that I can hear good enough to possibly work. Contingent on getting through the pileup that is…haha. I can only use my amplifier on 20m through 10 meters at this time and I dont think 12 meters is good there. This is because the antenna is only resonant on those bands good enough to not need a tuner. I don’t have a tuner wired in with the amp so when I use it, I can only couple directly to the antenna. If I want to be able to use the amp,, I have to stick to bands that are close to resonant.
Learning how to use FT8 in the shack enabled me to effectively deploy it in the field.
Another thing you can do is experiment with new modes. This is where I learned how to operate FT8 on the sBitx V3 before I took it to the field for an activation. I have a Astron RS-35M bench power supply that has a pair of Power-poles on the front for powering various things you might bring into the shack. I use them to power radios here before I take them to the field so I can make sure they work. Second to that, it also allows me to learn how to use them before stepping out of the house and not having the owners manual in hand… That has happened… haha.
When I bought my LNR MTR3B V4 second handed, I tested it in the shack only to find it went deaf after about 30 minutes of air time. It was like you simply turned off the receiver. I sent it back to LNR and I am pretty sure they send me a new radio. All that aside, I would have possibly gotten out to a park only to find the radio is dead… That is really frustrating to say the least. (LNR is a great outfit, they took care of me and I was not the original owner of the radio, I was even willing to pay for the repair and they were having none of it, highly recommend them if you are looking for a tiny radio with a lot of features…alot of features… Anyway, this is also the place to setup you antennas and to play with your new power pack. You know what? You can also hunt POTA stations with this test setup! Kill two birds with one CW key! A lot of people that I know will never setup their antenna at home to see how to use it, to solve problems with the setup when you have access to tools… You get the idea. This is a really good opportunity to use the antenna to see how well it works for you. Who knows, you might hate using verticals and you dont want to learn that at a park…
All that and you also get to use your nicest keys since those usually never venture outside your shack…
So the next time you think you can only go out and that is all, just remember that there is another side to POTA and you can play that one too.
I hope this has motivated you to get out and play with your radio gear a little.
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David - WK4Ds
73
The WK4DS POTA Hunter Station Amateur Radio (and a little ragchewing too)
What does a simple POTA hunter HF station look like? Just like any other HF station… This is what mine looks like currently. If you haven’t already figured it out, I have a Ten Tec fetish and I don’t care 🤣 The Omni VI+ was a dream rig back when I first got into radio and I could not afford one at that time, but as time went on, I was able to piece together a nice station sans amplifier…for now… and I have really enjoyed using this old girl on the air. I also have the 238 manual tuner in the closet as well waiting on a time when I will need it.
My current station mainly consists of a Ten Tec Omni 6+ with matching power supply and automatic antenna coupler that I run primarily into a vertical antenna I have out in the yard. I still need to finish the installation of my wire antenna in the front yard in the trees so that I will have a second antenna to work with that will complement the station. I also have a splitter worked out to where I can set up and use my QRP radios in the shack easily. This allows me to test the radios and learn how to use them before I go into the field to do an activation. This reduces the stress of figuring out the radio in the field while trying to make contacts.
My current key of choice is the Ten Tec KR 40 keying module, this key is designed to work with their older radios and is able to do all sorts of things other than just keying output. It is an electronic work of art to simply be a key lol. I also have my other regular keys that the radio will operate with since it has a key input and a paddle input on the Omni. Not to be left out I also have a Logickey K3 keyer that I am going to get working as well. This will also make me have memory keying with my Omni since it does not natively have a memory keyer built in.
I am planning on adding a second HF rig to the shack to complement my Omni 6+ so that I can have the Omni calibrated and have a couple of small issues repaired on it and while it is out. Having the second rig makes it to where I will still be able to operate. I am currently searching for one of several radios to fit this position in my shack, such as the Ten Tec Jupiter/Omni 7, the Ten Tec Eagle, the Ten Tec Orion, or even something simple and small like a Kenwood TS 590 or similar. I really want nice filtering as I like to listen to CW on the air regularly and it is very tiring to listen to the bands with a lot of band noise. A radio with good roofing filters or IF filtering makes this a much more pleasurable experience. That is all my ham shack at home has in it to hunt stations with. My current antenna is a 17 m vertical that I can tune all the way down to 40 m and still have a decent signal going out. This is why I want to put a large wire antenna in the front yard. I really want to be able to work the lower bands and the large wire antenna will allow me to do that. Thank you for following along today and if you have not done it yet please subscribe to my blog thank you very much and hope to see you on the air soon. last but not least I have a good old 2 m radio to get on the local repeater and talk Symplex to my local buddies with. Everybody has to have a 2 m rig to get on the repeater ha ha.
73 WK4DS