A full day of POTA.

I’ve had a few setbacks with Packtenna antennas.  They’re pricey, but look really convenient, with everything you need on a tiny wire winder. With their 40-10 EFHW out of stock, seemingly permanently, I ordered the 20-10.  The 20-10 will work, right?  They put a mini banana clip on the end of their wires so all we need is another 33-ish feet of wire to make a linked EFHW.

Click to access packtenna_qst_article.pdf

The setbacks – I ordered their 20-10 EFHW, it shipped immediately, and it came in on a Thursday.  I got it to the park that weekend and boo, 10-1 SWR.  Nothing I did could bring it down.  I sent a note to their “Contact Us” and was immediately answered by an owner, George Zafiropoulos, KJ6VU.  George explained they had an issue with their manufacturer failing to scrape the coating from the magnet wire at the solder points.  He sent an apologetic email, the tracking number of the replacement unit he shipped, and $15 to my PayPal for the return of the failed unit.  Now that’s some customer service right there.

The replacement unit was the same – No continuity between the radiator and the BNC center conductor.  I sent another email to George and again, he replied immediately with a tracking number for a replacement antenna that he’d tested personally before packaging and shipping.

It arrived on Thursday, I did a quick continuity check myself, and raised it in the park on Saturday, linking in another 20m element to make it a 40-10 EFHW.  I’d cut about 35 feet of BNTECHGO 26 Gauge Silicone wire in POTA orange, soldered a male mini banana plug to one end and used shrink tubing to form a loop on the linking end.

Loadout

• Elecraft KX2
• Spiderbeam 10m mast
• Packtenna 9:1 Random Length Wire antenna
• Packtenna 20-10 EFHW antenna
• Yaesu FT-891
• MFJ Travel Tuner

Activation

In the park by 08:00, I snagged my favorite picnic table.  I raised the antenna in an inverted V profile with my Spiderbeam 10m mast and adjusted the length of the linked element until SWR read 1.3:1 on my RigExpert Stick Pro Antenna Analyzer.  With the tuner on my KX2 in bypass, the radio showed 1:1 on 40, 20, 15, and 10, and I was off to the races with 5 watts.

40 meters came in strong but short legs, as expected.  I found a clear frequency at 7.063 Mhz, set my spot on POTA.app and called CQ at 08:44 local.  K5OHY came back at 08:45. 40m was surprisingly quiet and steady, offering up 9 QSOs by 08:56. 

The air was in a real hurry to be somewhere else with gusts up to 25mph.  This was a pretty good test of my mast deployment and guy line system.  I’ve broken two telescoping masts in the past when they fell in the wind: an MFJ and a Spiderbeam.  They are a bit pricy by my budget and needless to say, I don’t want to fork out for another one.  My system worked as anticipated, the mast was rock solid.

After a quick trip to the trees for a nature-break, I QSY’s to 20m and quickly QSO’d with KN7Y at 09:05.  I found, nine more hunters on 20m and QRT’d for a breather. 

I’m slowly increasing my stamina, but the decoder in my brain starts to fatigue at about 15th QSO.  This is magnified by “difficult” code; someone really fast or really slow.  I get wiped out by the unusual and unexpected like someone sending with a bug or slowly with a straight key.  I struggle to copy and it’s discouraging – I just don’t want to be that “diddy dum dum diddy” guy sending question mark after question mark.

I put the KX2 away and plugged in the FT-891 and hunted with 50w. 20m was crowded with parks by this time, mid-morning, and I quickly got four P2P.  With the Yaesu still set to “megaphone”, I spotted and called CQ POTA again.  And the frequency exploded at my picnic table.

One CQ and 18 contacts later, I interrupted the pileup with my QRT.  Enough is enough!  50w is just too loud for this beginning CW operator.  The last QSO was particularly challenging – a full pileup that I worked down to two hunter who just kept sending on top of each other.  K5OHY and I suspect another K5, maybe another K5O.  I must have gone back with K5O? five or six times until one gave up and K5OHY came in clearly.

Levent KB5TMU and James KW5CW rolled in at about 11:00 and I wrapped my activation with 43, CW contacts in my log; nine on 40m, 33 on 20m and one on 15m. I passed the feedline to James and his new-to-him KX2.

KW5CW, James, is a CW master.  Some weeks earlier, I’d gifted him a Tufteln knee board field desk for his QRP rigs. With KX2 and PD2 paddle strapped to his thigh, James called CQ on 20m and quickly racked up 10 to qualify his activation.  James eventually moved over to my FT-891 and 50 watts and by 14:30 when I broke down and left the park, James had collected 101 CW QSOs.  He transitioned to the FT-891 and ATAS-120 mounted in his Toyota and was calling CQ when I rolled out of the park.  He last hit my HamAlert at 16:42, showing that he was still calling from Bonham State Park.  I don’t know his final tally, but suffice to say, the guy is a machine.

It was a long and windy activation that stretched my physical and CW stamina.  I enjoyed good conversation, saw the master at work, and got a full-bodied activation myself.

CU AGN ES 73
KA5TXN
DitWit