POTA Lessons but Fun by the river at Wheeler Wildlife Refuge
Posted by n4fff 25 days ago
Today we visited Wheeler Wildlife Refuge in Alabama. What a beautiful spot! We'd been at this spot before, right by the river for another sunset POTA, and this time was just as beautiful. Just as we got started, an owl let out it's characteristic WHO-WHO-ha-WHO, which was his best Q in morse code. I learned a good lesson today, but more on that in a minute. For the antenna, we used a vertical 17' whip and ground spike mounted right by the water's edge. The radio was a CFT1 running QRP. Becky activated right before me with our new custom design straight key, the Duo Straight Key One, but I used my paddles. When I started, I had only about 15 minutes to activate on the Friday UTC day. I set my paddles for 18 wpm and decided I'd only give each thing 1x instead of 2x. As I got started, I'm not sure what happened. We're used to there being some other stations occasionally that can't hear us because we're QRP and sometimes we need to move frequencies. Just as i got started, there were multiple very strong stations and what sounded like multiple people tuning up. I was trying to move fast to get in my 10 so I quickly QSY (changed frequencies) up a little bit. I got a few more, rushing all the while, and it happened again. I suspect a contest was starting up. In my haste, I don't even remember if I switched frequencies again, before I settled in but eventually, I knew that I was past the UTC deadline. Somewhere in there I'd gotten Alejandro from Mexico and Jean from France. I slowed down to my normal pace. As I was making contacts, I realized that it was a mistake to even try to go fast just to try to get my 10. I don't care if I activate or not. I love getting to connect with you all, make new friends, while enjoying being outside. When Becky and I POTA, we often love to exchange names in addition to signal reports. We know some hunters are still learning and don't copy what we send, but we remember barely getting our own names also. It's the personal touch that we love about radio. Also, we know signals come and go, fading in and out. We like to give signal reports and states twice, so that everyone can enjoy the contact. In the end, I realize that I just want to go at my own speed. Ultimately, it isn't about the points for activating. It's just an excuse to get outside and meet all of you! POTA Activation Report ===================== Operator: N4FFF Park Reference: US-0161 Start Time (UTC): Fri, 23 May 2025 23:46:22 UTC End Time (UTC): Sat, 24 May 2025 00:33:11 UTC Duration: 0h 46m Total QSOs: 25 Number of States: 18 Number of Countries: 4 Contact Summary by Country ------------------------ United States: 22 QSOs Canada: 1 QSOs Mexico: 1 QSOs France: 1 QSOs Contacts by Distance ------------------- 1. F4ILH (JEAN BAPTISTE, DX) - 4454 miles 2. N7JTT (John T, WA) - 2046 miles 3. K2MMT (Chris, CA) - 1671 miles 4. XE1UYS (Alejandro, VE) - 1178 miles 5. K1NF (Nels, ME) - 1117 miles 6. N0MRK (Mark A, CO) - 1065 miles 7. KC0TAF (Mike, MN) - 884 miles 8. W2ELS (Ron, NY) - 765 miles 9. AA5CF (Ken M, TX) - 742 miles 10. WB3DDJ (MICHAEL E, PA) - 727 miles 11. K5COL (Chad O, IA) - 678 miles 12. WK0E (Marty, NE) - 674 miles 13. K3MTO (Christopher L, FL) - 667 miles 14. NN3E (KEVIN J, MD) - 654 miles 15. WZ3J (Lou, MD) - 646 miles 16. VA3UZ (Allan Timothy, ON) - 645 miles 17. WE5K (Stephen L, TX) - 627 miles 18. KG4EXY (JOHN L, VA) - 602 miles 19. KE4Q (Frederick, FL) - 551 miles 20. N0FRC (Christopher A, MO) - 547 miles 21. KM4JEG (Bobby, NC) - 539 miles 22. K4MW (PETER D, VA) - 538 miles 23. W4AFB (KEITH A, FL) - 534 miles 24. KB4LCI (DAVID B, VA) - 521 miles 25. K4KVC (Kenneth A, FL) - 155 miles