parks on the air

A Road Trip and a New Radio

Road Trip! I love the sound of that. I am taking an impromptu road trip north and turning it into a POTA Rove. I put my FTX1 up for trade on QTH.com and very quickly got a good trade offer for a Kenwood TS-590sg. I have always wanted one of those. A nice simple radio that is robust and easy to operate. I am going to add it to my field radio collection.

Some of you know I have a penchant for operating big radios at low power. I don’t have to worry about overheating and I like that the controls I use most are easy to get to. Most of the time my field work is either in my micro camper or at a nearby park picnic table. Weight is not an issue. I normally operate at about 20 watts. Sometimes as high as 30-35 depending on band conditions. I don’t need more than that.

My adventure starts Friday afternoon as I head towards Indiana. I’ll stop somewhere for the night around dark and then pick it up the next day. I plan on stopping at a park in Ohio and then a park in Indiana to add those two to my activation list. Michigan, another needed State is nearby and I hope to add that one to the list. From there I will generally head east and see what mischief I can get into.

Gear for the trip was my IC-7300 and LDG tuner. The antenna was a Chameleon 17’ stainless steel whip and a Chameleon CHA Hybrid Micro Balun sitting on top of a carbon fiber tripod. Counterpoise was a Chameleon wire with about 20-22’ used. Since this was a shoot and scoot trip I used FT8 with my Lenovo T14 Thinkpad. I brought a 100 amp/hr LiPo battery for the radio with a Bioenno BPP-160 for the laptop. I ran the radio from the backseat and the laptop on the center console from the drivers seat. Setup and teardown only took a few minutes. I collapsed the antenna and stuck it in the back seat when I was done. Slam, Bam, Thankyou Ma’am.

Friday night I stopped in Lexington KY, for the night and I was on the road by 6 AM the next morning. My fist stop was Lake Laramie State Park in Minster, OH. The GPS put me at the back of the park and I had a nice clearing by the lake to myself. It took a while to get my 15 contacts ( I always get spares). Band conditions were up and down like a roller coaster. After working out a few kinks to my setup, I packed up and headed toward Indiana. The trip was mostly county roads and highways. The scenery was beautiful passed through farmland with corn as far as the eye can see. I also passed through some Amish communities and was treated to traditional horse and buggies on the road.

My next Park was Ouabache State Park in Bluffton, IN. I found a little spot in a picnic area and set up shop. Again, the band conditions were not that good and I was glad I was running FT8. After completing my contacts, I packed up and headed for New Haven, IN were my trade was to take place. I arrived on time and after chatting with my trading partner we were both satisfied with the trade and once again I was on the road heading toward Michigan.

Coldwater State Park is a hunting preserve. When I got there, there was no infrastructure. Just a parking area and bulletin board. I was alone and in about an hour I was on the road again.

This was leg of the trip was a long one. I spent the night in Zanesville, OH and the next morning found me heading for southwestern Pennsylvania. The park I chose was Ryerson Station State Park. This park was nestled in the Allegheny Mountains with twisty-turney, uppy-downy roads both into and out of the area. There was no cell service for miles. It took me a little longer to get my contacts but I succeeded. From there is was a short hop to Picketts Fort State Park in Fairmont, West Virginia. This was a nice park and I found a shaded spot in a picnic area. This was a hot weekend and at some of the parks, I operated with the A/C running. At Picketts, I rolled down the windows.

Leaving Picketts, it was a long haul to Hungry Mother State Park in Marion Virginia. This park while still being in the mountains was more open and the contacts came easier. From there I drove to Statesville, North Carolina and spent the night. The next morning I was up early and drove 8 miles to Lake Norman State Park, my shortest hop. I found a spot down by the lake and made my contacts fairly quickly. Back on the road for the last 5 hour drive back to the home QTH.

I now have activated 17 States. I was a fast and fun trip but while my mind was willing, the body not so much. At 68 it’s probably time to start slowing down a bit. I am at the point where to activate a new state it is a one to two day drive just to get there.

So why is the FTX1 leaving? To start off with, it is not a bad radio. I have two other small radios, an IC-705 and a KX2. Between the FTX1 and IC-705, my preference is for the 705. It is more in line with the way I operate. Plus, as I have said earlier, I mostly use big radios so having 3 small radios is a bit superfluous. The FTX1 is off to a new home and I get another big radio for the field.

When I got home, I did hook the TS-590sg up and played around for a few minutes. The radio is easy to use and on CW the relays are super quiet. The controls are fairly intuitive and easy to use. I am going to bring this radio on my next outing. Over the next couple of days, I will go over it and set it up to my liking. Don’t forget to check out my video, and thanks for stopping by. 73 de Scott

WGARS Spring Fling 2025

Today was the club’s semi-annual outing and this spring it was one of our old haunts, Cheaha State Park US-1037 in the fine state of Alabama. There are 3 things we as a club like to do, we like to eat, we like to socialize, and once in a while we talk on the radio.

As usual, food was in abundance.

We had several stations set up under the pavilion. QRM was held to a minimum. We had Xeigu G90’s, Tru-SDR, Icom IC-705, and my Yaesu FT-710. I set the radio up and turned it over to the club President John WD8LQT. John, like me is a CW op and I wanted his opinion of the FT-710. I didn’t have to twist his arm too hard. The setup was the radio feeding a Chameleon micro transformer with a 12’ whip and about a 20’ counterpoise. The radio was powered by a 20 amp-hour Bioenno battery and the paddles were a Begali Expedition.

Band conditions were poor and it took John most of the time at the park to get his 10 contacts. There were stops for eating and chatting. Early in the activation, I decided to change antennas to be sure we had an atmospheric issue and not an equipment one. I had my Diamond RHM-12 which recently proved itself to be a good performer. Once the switch was made and some searching through the bands, John started making contacts on 20 meters. I believe it was atmospherics and not the equipment. John got his 10 contacts and we called it good.

John’s comments about the FT-710 were quite favorable. Like any radio, there are pluses and minuses. In general he thought it was a very good radio for CW. There is more commentary from John on the YouTube video posted below. John did have one epic fail. The ear buds he was using which looked rather ancient finally gave up the ghost. I took it upon myself to intervene and unceremoniously threw them in the trash. John will thank me.

My review of the FT-710 is drawling to a close. I find that I like the radio. It performs well for its price point and has some features found on more expensive radios. It has its quirks as all radios do, but none that I find overly objectionable. I plan on keeping the radio and it has found a place among my field radios. I imagine the radio may make an appearance during this year’s Field Day.

Night on Bald Mountain

This trip was to Cloudland Canyon State Park located in NW Georgia. It is a very nice campground about a 2 hour drive from the home QTH. I got at the campground Tuesday, around 2000Z and quickly set up. Radio du jour was the Yaesu FT710 Field which is currently under review. The antenna was my 28.5’ random wire vertical. I am also trying out my Maestro Evolve III laptop along with HAMRS Pro software.

Band conditions were a little off so I started on FT8. It was slow going but I made 15 contacts before the new day. After supper, I went back to FT8 to try to get 15 more contacts before the storms hit.

The whole time I had moderate winds and some pretty good gusts. Right before the storms I lowered the antenna and put a garbage bag over it to keep it dry. The antenna is weather sealed, but the push up pole when it gets wet, is a real pain to dry out.

How about the FT710? In general, I like the radio. I think it’s a keeper. It is fun to use and performs well. It has a few niggles that I camp about but I like it. I talk more about the issues on my YouTube video. I will say that this radio is very different than the first one I got. The first radio was probably released too early and still had growing pains. This radio just feels better. In general I feel this radio and the IC-7300 are about equal. Either one will work well.

Evolve III. This is a pleasant surprise. I paid about $122 for it and for a field laptop it does well. Last night I ran WSJT (FT8) and AcLog without any issues. I was also running. BktTimeSync with a GPS receiver in the background. It is a little slow to start up but once it’s running, it does fine. I run it with a Logitech M310 mouse.

I am also trying out HAMRS Pro. I have it on Windows, Mac, IOS (iPhone, iPad) and they all sync up. I will talk more about HAMRS in a follow up article.

This is Wednesday morning and I am going to try to do some CW before I pack up and go home. Bands conditions are so-so at the moment. I will break my normal procedure are hunt a while to try out some of HAMRS features.

I only managed to make one CW contact hunting and activating. I could tell I was getting out as I showed up on HamAlert. Here is a QSO map of the activation.

If I remember correctly, I had issues last time I was at Cloudland. The important thing was I got out for a while and I had fun. It isn’t always about the numbers. Below is a video about the activation and my thoughts on the FT710. Stay tuned es 73 Scott

POTA Activation K-2169, Me, VaraC, 160 meters and more

This weekend I had the opportunity to activate Cloudland Canyon State Park in NW Georgia. It was a digi weekend with me running FT8 and experimenting with VaraC. I also tried a new antenna combination to see how it would work on 160 meters.

The weather. I book my campsites 4-6 months in advance so I take what I get when I go. This weekend called for rain Friday and was supposed to clear up Saturday PM. It didn’t. It drizzled/rained from the time I got there until 0200 hrs Sunday morning. Since I mingle FunComm with EmComm, this was another test of my gear. The only issue I had was I needed to better seal the window where my coax goes into the camper. You shouldn’t let the weather stop you from going as long as it’s safe. I go year round and because of that, I have a good understanding of my gear and my clothing under varying conditions.

The gear. The antenna was a Chameleon EmComm II ver. 1. This version had a clunky antenna wire and insulator that is more from permanent/semi-permanent installation so I didn’t use it much. This year, Chameleon had a Black Friday Sale of 25% off. I decided to upgrade the wire to a 60′ Kevlar with a winder. I also ordered their new 40-meter OCF dipole which will be used on SOTA activations. I had some 14 gauge Flexweave wire that I cut to 50′ for a counterpoise. My intention was to use this antenna down to 160 meters. I ran the antenna as an inverted “L” ish. The vertical portion went about 25′ up my mast and the horizontal portion was more of a slope and facing north. The nice part was that the entire antenna fit within my campsite. I used the lantern hook on the site to secure the antenna. For rope, I used #36 tarred bank line. The rope is a little sticky so it holds knots well and does not absorb water like para-cord does. I used a clove hitch to secure the antenna ring to the mast and it held fast. The Bank line has replaced all of my para-cord.

The radio was First Peter, my IC-7300 that I bought new in 2016. I use an LDG Z-11 Pro that I have had for 15+ years to keep everything matched up. I was running 25-35 watts. My other IC-7300 is Second Peter. My backup radio was my new KX2. I keep it in a backpack so it is easy to toss in the truck.

Propagation. It was different, not bad, but different. There was a lot of solar activity and I believe it pushed the MUF up above 20 MHz. I had a lot of success on the higher bands which is typically not the case in the winter. My antenna easily tuned 160 meters and I made about half a dozen contacts using FT8. How did I do? I started at about 2030 hrs UTC Friday and finished up at about 2200 hrs UTC Saturday afternoon. I made a total of 325 contacts covering 42 states and 12 countries. Some of the interesting (to me) DX was Angola and South Africa. Both of those stations called me. Angola was on 10 meters and South Africa was on 12. No DX on 40 meters. I had a Facebook request to work 40 meters for local contacts. I did my best but 40 was rather flat this time around. It had the second-highest count of contacts. Breakdown by band was: 10 meters – 18, 12 meters – 18, 15 meters – 13, 17 meters – 7, 20 meters – 136, 30 meters – 19, 40 meters – 90, 60 meters – 12, 80 meters – 6, and 160 meters – 6. One of the surprises other than the lack of low band activity was that 17 meters was fairly dead. Typically on an activation, my money bands are 17, 20, 30, and 40. This time only 20 and 40 panned out. I manage 10 bands at this park in case I want to go for another N1CC award.

VaraC. For the past week, I have been evaluating VaraC mainly for EmComm. There is a lot to like about it. For one thing, it uses the same modem as Winlink. If you have it set up for Winlink, you are good to go for VaraC. VaraC can upload files and low-res pictures. PSKReporter showed favorable propagation on 20 and 40 meters. I made a few contacts with it and did some beaconing. I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks like I can create a document in FLMsg, save it, send it via VaraC, and reverse the process at the other end. pretty nifty. I think pairing Winlink with VaraC just might be the ticket.

Recap. Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays this operator from completing his park activation… I had a lot of fun. I try not to let the elements stop me from doing what I like to do. 73 – Scott

Georgia Parks on the Air at FD Roosevelt SP K-2173

Friday evening, Mary K4SEZ and I traveled to FD Roosevelt State Park for a weekend in a very nice cabin. The cabin is located on Pine Mountain with some exceptional views. As you can guess, I brought some radios with me. I went QRV right before 1800 hrs. local to make sure all my equipment worked prior to the contest. Besides, the contest I had a regional HF net that I needed to check into Saturday morning. The contest starts at 0800 hrs local Saturday and the net was also at 0800 and lasted about 20 minutes.

Friday night was amazing! Twenty and forty meters was wide open. Using FT8, I made 223 contacts between 1800 hrs Friday and 0300 hrs Saturday morning. I worked stations as far west as Japan and Australia and as far east as Rwanda, Ukraine, and European Russia. Unfortunately, the rest of the weekend was not near as exciting. Between 0800 hrs Saturday morning and 1230 hrs Sunday, I made an additional 477 contacts. The bands were up and down and the pace was a little slower. I worked 48 States and 34 countries when it was all said and done. Sunday morning had an opening on 10 meters and I made 19 contacts many into Europe. In total, I had 700 contacts.

My antenna was my tried and true homebrew 28.5-foot random wire antenna which I named my K4SWL antenna as the original idea from Tom. It uses one 17-foot counterpoise. On this trip, the wire I used was 14 ga (I think), coated Flexweave I got from The Wireman many years ago. I was using some 20-something gauge I got from SOTABeams but because I use this antenna a lot, I worried about the thin wire breaking. I use a 9:1 UnUn with a 1:1 current BalUn to help with matching. The antenna is matched by an LDG RT/RC 100 matching unit. This is fairly new to and so far I like it. The tuning circuit out by the antenna helps keep stray RF out of the shack. It was also quite windy here Friday night and Saturday. The antenna held up well. The only issues I had were some of the sections on my MFJ push-up pole would collapse affecting the tuning. This pole is probably nearly 20 years old and should be replaced.

The radio was “The Rock” my IC-7300. I ran FT8 the whole time at 35-45 watts and the temperature gauge on the radio never moved past cool. Now that the FTDX10 has found a home in the shack, it’s nice to have my old friend back in the field with me.

The cabin is located on the ridge line of Pine Mountain, elevation ~1250′ ASL. Besides great views, it also gave my antenna a large aperture which may account for the many DX contacts I made.

I mainly worked FT8 as I also had to listen to a couple of conferences on the Internet and didn’t want to disturb my wife when she was doing things other than radio. We had a nice weekend away and of course, being able to bring radios is a huge bonus. When I get back home and settled, I may send the log to the GA POTA people. I don’t really contest anymore but they might find it useful for cross-checking.

Here is a YouTube Video of the activation.