{"id":44495,"date":"2020-07-26T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2020-07-26T13:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=44495"},"modified":"2020-07-26T09:00:12","modified_gmt":"2020-07-26T13:00:12","slug":"parks-on-the-air-finally-biting-the-cw-bullet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/07\/parks-on-the-air-finally-biting-the-cw-bullet\/","title":{"rendered":"Parks On The Air: Finally biting the CW bullet!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I mentioned in a previous post<\/a> that one of my Social DX goals<\/a> was to activate a Parks On The Air (POTA)<\/a> site in CW (Morse Code).<\/p>\n

Mission accomplished!<\/p>\n

Yesterday, I mustered up the nerve and drove to the Blue Ridge Parkway (site K-3378 in POTA).<\/p>\n

My wife and kids were knee-deep in another project so I planned to go solo until my dog, Hazel, caught wind I was leaving with my radio backpack in-tow. Always ready for a hike or road trip, she jumped in the car the moment I opened the door.<\/p>\n

I’ll admit it: I was nervous<\/em>. I had the same jitters I had the first time I spoke in front of a large crowd.<\/p>\n

In the end, though, I really had nothing to fear. The POTA community is a very kind, courteous, cohesive and supportive group of radio operators.<\/p>\n

I picked the Blue Ridge Parkway as my first site not only because it’s so convenient to where I live, but it’s also one of the most activated parks in the POTA program. I knew a BRP activation wouldn’t attract a mad pile-up of park hunters because everyone in POTA has this one in the books already.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My full radio kit–including my KX2 transceiver, KXPA100 100W amplifier,\u00a0 two antennas, Heil headset, two battery packs, chargers, and all accessories–is packed in my Red Oxx C-Ruck<\/a> and always ready for action. I grabbed the full kit, although in truth I only needed the KX2, my CW paddles, coax cable and antenna.<\/p>\n

Conditions were rough yesterday. Propagation was pretty good, but there were pop-up thunderstorm everywhere in the region, so the bands were very<\/em> noisy with constant static crashes. Herein lies one of the great things about CW: you can use a filter width so narrow that it doesn’t affect you as much as it does operating phone.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Because I had limited operating time, I deployed the Wolf River Coils TIA portable antenna. It takes me all of 4 minutes to set up.<\/p><\/div>\n

I got on 40 meters, started calling “CQ POTA<\/em>” and the next thing I know I had 13 stations logged.<\/p>\n

My nerves dissipated quickly after I logged the first couple of contacts and I was even looking forward to stations answering my call. The operators were also incredibly patient with me and two of them even followed me to higher bands and made contact there.<\/p>\n

\"Hazel<\/a>

Hazel was a bit upset this activation didn’t include a hike, so several times she insisted on “helping” with the logs as I sweated it out!<\/p><\/div>\n

All-in-all, I logged 17 stations in one hour on three bands using about 10 watts of power.<\/p>\n

\"Elecraft<\/a>I deployed my station quickly, and I packed it up quickly. A pop-up thunderstorm, once again, chased me off the air. That’s okay, though, because I was already feeling pretty chuffed about bagging my first CW activation.<\/p>\n

If I’m being completely honest here in front of my community of radio enablers, as soon as I arrived back home, I started mentally putting together a super-compact CW activation kit built around an LnR Precision MTR3B transceiver<\/a>. I’ve always wanted one of these little CW-only transceivers to carry in my EDC bag for impromptu field radio fun, but never could justify it. Until now! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\n

Do you enjoy the SWLing Post?<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

Please consider supporting us via\u00a0Patreon<\/span><\/a>\u00a0or our\u00a0Coffee<\/span>\u00a0Fund<\/span><\/a>! <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Your support makes articles like this one possible. Thank you!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I mentioned in a previous post that one of my Social DX goals was to activate a Parks On The Air (POTA) site in CW (Morse Code). Mission accomplished! Yesterday, I mustered up the nerve and drove to the Blue Ridge Parkway (site K-3378 in POTA). My wife and kids were knee-deep in another project […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6647,3],"tags":[90,2034,5083,8691,5084,7787,7786,1499,8692],"class_list":["post-44495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hd-radio","category-news","tag-cw","tag-elecraft","tag-elecraft-kx2","tag-hazel","tag-kx2","tag-parks-on-the-air","tag-pota","tag-red-oxx","tag-red-oxx-c-ruck"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-bzF","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":43915,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/proper-radio-prepping-keep-a-kit-that-is-always-ready-to-hit-the-field\/","url_meta":{"origin":44495,"position":0},"title":"Proper Radio Prepping: Keep a kit that is always ready to hit the field!","author":"Thomas","date":"June 19, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday, my family packed a picnic lunch and took a drive through Madison County, North Carolina. It was an impromptu trip. Weather was forecast to be pretty miserable that afternoon, but we took the risk because we all wanted to get out of the house for a bit. Although that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ham Radio"","block_context":{"text":"Ham Radio","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/ham-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Red-Oxx-Micro-Manager-Heil-Pro-Set-e1592575735834.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Red-Oxx-Micro-Manager-Heil-Pro-Set-e1592575735834.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Red-Oxx-Micro-Manager-Heil-Pro-Set-e1592575735834.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Red-Oxx-Micro-Manager-Heil-Pro-Set-e1592575735834.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":44960,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/lab599-discovery-tx-500-hiking-into-pisgah-national-forest-for-a-little-field-radio-fun\/","url_meta":{"origin":44495,"position":1},"title":"lab599 Discovery TX-500: Hiking into Pisgah National Forest for a little field radio fun","author":"Thomas","date":"August 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday, I hit the field again with the lab599 TX-500 Discovery. This time, I wanted to give the radio a proper shake-out by hiking to my location with the entire station in my pack. This TX-500 transceiver is on loan, so I haven't built a custom field kit for it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ham Radio"","block_context":{"text":"Ham Radio","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/ham-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/lab599-TX-500-Discovery-1-16.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/lab599-TX-500-Discovery-1-16.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/lab599-TX-500-Discovery-1-16.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/lab599-TX-500-Discovery-1-16.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/lab599-TX-500-Discovery-1-16.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":43987,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/radio-in-the-field-two-new-pota-activations-this-weekend\/","url_meta":{"origin":44495,"position":2},"title":"Radio in the field: Two new POTA activations this weekend!","author":"Thomas","date":"June 23, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"This past weekend my wife suggested that I do a Parks On The Air (POTA) activation. I think she wanted me out of the house so that she could prepare a birthday and Father's day surprise with my daughters. Of course, I happily obliged. My motto in French: \"Profitez-en bien!\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ham Radio"","block_context":{"text":"Ham Radio","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/ham-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Elecraft-KX2-and-KXP100-POTA.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Elecraft-KX2-and-KXP100-POTA.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Elecraft-KX2-and-KXP100-POTA.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Elecraft-KX2-and-KXP100-POTA.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":43713,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/taking-the-xiegu-g90-qrp-transceiver-to-the-field\/","url_meta":{"origin":44495,"position":3},"title":"Taking the Xiegu G90 QRP transceiver to the field!","author":"Thomas","date":"June 5, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier this week, I took delivery of a new Xiegu G90 general coverage QRP transceiver. I'm reviewing this portable rig for The Spectrum Monitor magazine.\u00a0Although this Chinese manufacturer has been around for a few years, this was my first purchase of a Xiegu product. I've had the G90 on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ham Radio"","block_context":{"text":"Ham Radio","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/ham-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Xiegu-G90-Field-POTA.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Xiegu-G90-Field-POTA.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Xiegu-G90-Field-POTA.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Xiegu-G90-Field-POTA.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Xiegu-G90-Field-POTA.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":45188,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/assembling-a-new-compact-field-radio-kit-in-the-red-oxx-booty-boss\/","url_meta":{"origin":44495,"position":4},"title":"Assembling a new compact field radio kit in the Red Oxx Booty Boss","author":"Thomas","date":"September 4, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"If you've been reading the SWLing Post for long, you'll have already sorted out that I'm both a radio geek and a pack geek. I recently purchased an LnR Precision MTR-3B QRP transceiver. I added it to my collection because the rig is so incredibly compact, it gives me the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ham Radio"","block_context":{"text":"Ham Radio","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/ham-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Booty-Boss-MTR-3B-case.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Booty-Boss-MTR-3B-case.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Booty-Boss-MTR-3B-case.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Booty-Boss-MTR-3B-case.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Booty-Boss-MTR-3B-case.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":43869,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/snagging-two-state-game-lands-in-three-days-for-parks-on-the-air\/","url_meta":{"origin":44495,"position":5},"title":"Snagging two state game lands in three days for Parks On The Air","author":"Thomas","date":"June 16, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"You might have noticed from recent posts, I've been on a bit of a POTA (Parks On The Air) kick lately. I've been enjoying taking the Xiegu G90 to the field and seeing just how well it performs under intensive use on battery power. So far, it has certainly proven\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ham Radio"","block_context":{"text":"Ham Radio","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/ham-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Buffalo-Cove-Game-Land-Sign.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Buffalo-Cove-Game-Land-Sign.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Buffalo-Cove-Game-Land-Sign.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Buffalo-Cove-Game-Land-Sign.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}