Memorial Day POTA with our new Duo Straight Key ONE! - N4BKY
Posted by n4bky 22 days ago
Mike (N4FFF) and I have been super busy printing, building, and shipping our new keys that we just released for Pre-Orders so we decided a quick POTA break was in order! Wheeler Wildlife Refuge is our closest go to park and there are so many different places we've been, but you can't really beat right along the river. We were testing out the key but also a new EFHW from Reliance Antennas that we are hoping works as well as the K6ARK EFHW. Generally they are sold cut for 40m with a bullet connector to drop it to 20m. But, we don't like setting up 40m antennas since they are so long! After we played around with it and explained, he's now going to start selling the 20m EFHW BUGOUT mini separately that can plug directly into our radios. Definitely going to do more testing, but it did well today. Mike activated before me and his map was literally all in the NE which is where mine started, but then slowly opened up further West and even South. It's amazing how the exact same setup can get such a different contact map. We were both on the CFT1 and used the Flat top version of our new Duo Straight Key ONE. I activated with the Navy Knob last time and I think for POTA I like the Flat top better. The navy knob is very ergonomic and when sitting at a desk with a good height and arm position it feels great, but when conditions are a little varied, the flat top is easier to manage. Just my two cents, but so far that's my initial impressions. Thanks to all the hunters who helped me activate. It was a steady stream of clear signals coming in and a few quiet tough ones which always makes it more fun! We sometimes record our activations, but today was just a fun trip to the park with POTA Rose in tow. I've attached a few pictures of our location and below is the trip report! 73, Becky N4BKY es Mike N4FFF Trip Report POTA Activation Report ===================== Operator: N4BKY Park Reference: US-0161 Start Time (UTC): Mon, 26 May 2025 21:48:00 UTC End Time (UTC): Mon, 26 May 2025 22:54:22 UTC Duration: 1h 6m Time to Activate: 47m 32s Total QSOs: 20 Number of States: 15 Number of Countries: 1 Chronological QSO List -------------------- 1. W3JPH – PA – 680 miles 2. KG4EXY – VA – 602 miles 3. K3SLH – PA – 753 miles 4. KM3STU – NJ – 834 miles 5. WA2SPL – VT – 1024 miles 6. N2DI – NJ – 794 miles 7. N4XAT – NJ – 767 miles 8. WB2MQQ – NY – 927 miles 9. N7BBQ – AZ – 1578 miles 10. K1NF – ME – 1117 miles 11. KP4MI – PR – 1652 miles 12. N2XTO – NJ – 792 miles 13. N7WPO – WA – 2075 miles 14. W6DAS – CA – 1747 miles 15. K1TH – MA – 1016 miles 16. K4NYX – FL – 637 miles 17. K9DXA – IL – 512 miles 18. K3MTO – FL – 667 miles 19. KA0LDG – ND – 989 miles 20. N0OMG – MN – 890 miles