In short, POTA is taking amateur radio equipment to a park listed on the POTA database and making contacts from there. The people that participate in this have a wide variety of setups ranging from a small battery and radio set on a picnic table to setups that can be in poor weather and sustain operations with some form of power generation. My goal is to lean to the latter, sustaining radio operations for several days away from power.

My last overnight trip was Perry State Park on Lake Perry, KS. The spot was beautiful and I had a great view.

Since I don’t have a mast, I have to select a spot with a tall tree to get a dipole antenna in the air. I took some fishing weights and put those in a tennis ball with paracord tied to the weights. The weights are silicone calked inside the ball. I use this to throw a line into a tree, which I use to hoist the dipole feed point up as high as I can. The ends of the antenna I either stake in or find other trees to tie off to to make an inverted V. Once the antenna is in place, I can set up the campsite since my feedline to the antenna will dictate where I can go. Ill have to be cautious of dead trees as these can be dangerous. Setting up or tearing down the entire thing solo takes about 2 hours. Once in operation it looks like:

I weighed the equipment and found:

1. 200lb Gel lead acid batteries (140Ah), solar panel, and cart
2. 100lb M1950 Tent and Yukon stove
3. 100lb Personal care items, rucksack, cot, sleeping pads, camp chair, food
4. 15lb IC7200 and accessories
5. 10lb Tuner and power distribution
6. 10lb Raspberry Pi, Software Defined Radio (SDR), and tablets
7. 10lb Handheld Transceivers set with charging components
8. 10lb Backup laptop
9. 10lb Antennas and feedline

465lb of equipment. Some of the personal care items are not required such as the chair and cot. The tent, batteries, and radio can all be brought down in weight with items made to be light and I can get those over time. The current setup works well and my Lake Perry POTA activity was alot of fun.

The Yukon stove really works well. There isn’t much info on it to be found using with wood as a fuel like I am, and my experience with it isn’t helpful since we used vehicle fuels (diesel/gasoline) to burn in these when I was using one on active duty. I have the fuel burning plate, but do not intend to use that. I have no idea how we didn’t start several fires with these when using gasoline in the 80s, luck I guess. The door on the stove does not seal well, so regulating temperature when burning wood is largely dependent on bringing the coals forward or rearward and feeding the fire with smaller pieces more frequently as opposed to stuffing it. I found it wont burn overnight with wood so ill have to set an alarm after a few hours to feed it so it does not go out. The TM mentions coal or wood as a fuel, but does not go into detail. The stove works great to cook on and during my trips I have a constant supply of coffee or tea. In summer ill have to make a cooking fire outside since this stove produces quite a bit of heat.

I am really enjoying POTA activities and am looking forward to doing these as often as I can.

The cart concept would work with some very expensive items, namely lithium iron phosphate batteries, and winter tents that are light but can contain a wood stove. The cart with shelter and radio equipment was simply to heavy to move more than a few hundred feet unless on perfect terrain, and then it was slow going. I won’t abandon the concept, but ill have to wait to get the items required to be portable. In the meantime, still with an eye to winter field day, I did get a surplus shelter that I have quite a bit of experience with while stationed in Germany in the 80s. It is an M1950 hex tent, and I have coupled it with a surplus Yukon stove that I have had, but not had a use for, for years.

The shelter has ample room for the radio equipment, stove, and a second person. Its 80lb, added to 2-300lb of radio and camp gear, so this will be something that will require transportation of some kind (ATV/Horses).

I tested the setup at my farm, then took it to Lake Nebo, KS for a “Parks on the Air” activity https://parksontheair.com/. Parks on the Air encourages radio operators to take their equipment to a national or state park to make radio contacts from a field location. This was my first attempt at doing such an event and it was successful, in that I made the required number of contacts. The terrain at Nebo is not ideal for the antenna I have, and my ability to be heard on the airwaves suffered. It was fun, and I definitely plan on doing more parks on the air activity since it combines my love of camping with radio. I still need to evaluate what equipment I must have to get lighter and more organized, but with the way that most parks/campgrounds are set up moving the equipment from a vehicle to the campsite is possible without much difficulty.