I’ve found myself taking for granted the collection of close parks at home. Looking at the dots on the POTA map, I daydream about Air BnBs and clusters of dots in exotic lands like….. Arkansas. I think about the East Coast and all the parks and all the licensed amateurs within the sound of their key. But, you know? We’re in a sweet spot right her. So, to break the summer doldrums, I took a Rove.

The Rove is a POTA challenge and recognition associated with nod to RaDAR, Rapid Deployment Amateur Radio. RaDAR originated in South Africa headed up by Eddie ZS6BNE and is not completely dissimilar to POTA. It involves activating multiple parks in a single UTC day – takes a bit of map recon and a bit of windshield time.

From my QTH in Anna, I planned 33 miles to Bonham State Park, 5.5 miles to Sam Rayburn State Historic Site, 25.6 miles to the Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site, 2 miles to the Butterfield Overland Stage National Trail where it joins Munson Park in Denison, 16 miles to Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, then 40 miles home. Altogether, the route was 120 miles with five stops to setup, activate, then CSMO.

Understandably, the need is speed in the park, git, git, git – get in, get the 10 QSOs, and get moving. As a result, I didn’t take time to admire the majesty of the outdoors and forgot to take pictures. Doh!

Loadout:

• FT-891
• 20Ah LiPo battery
• WRC and magic carpet
• BaMaKey TP-III Paddles

Starting at US-2991 Bonham State Park, I worked 40 meters.  I put the WRC with Sporty 40 coil on a Faraday blanket hams call a magic carpet and my kung fu was weak taking 28 minutes to find 11 contacts – rather, for 11 hunters to find me.  I had to assume the slow air could be partly attributed to time of day, but I also began to question propagation conditions a little. 

On to the Rayburn’s place… US-6601 Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site was empty, no one but employees.  I checked in with feller taking a smoke break on the stoop of an outbuilding and set up on a picnic table under a big oak.  I called into mostly dead air on 40 for a few minutes then pulled the jumper on my Sporty 40 and QSYd to 20 meters. Took about 30 minutes to gather 10 QSOs.  Turning out to be a slow day for POTA.

Now, nobody gave their QTH as a pirate ship in the Gulf of Guinea so there’s a glitch somewhere.  Pretty sure my paper log shows FL for that guy.

At US-6553 Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site I ditched the magic carpet and went back to my radial ground plane.  Now, that’s more like it!  SWR went back to 1:1-ish and the activation went quickly with 11 contacts in 10 minutes.  Blame the carpet?  Maybe.

I setup on US-9757 Butterfield Overland National Historic Trail where the official trail map shows it clipping the bottom of Munson State Park in Denison.  There’s some judgement here as well as the “spirit of the game” to consider. 

1. POTA says you have to be 100 feet from the trail.
2. The trail is NOT where the stages ran but is where the National Park Service says it is.
3. There’s a good smudge of ambiguity in the maps available.
4. Do your best in the spirit of the game.

With WRC and radials, I found 11 contacts in 20 minutes, including the obvious repeat offender off the West coast of Africa.

At US-0548 Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge I found rain.  Yes, rain in August.  Driving the dike over to the fishing area on the Big Mineral, it seemed like it was all over.  The sprinkles turned onto a steady shower so I turned around and headed for home with four activations and a failed Rove.

By the time I got to the entrance to the refuge headquarters, the rain stopped. I pulled in and set up under the covered pavilion next to the main road.  With WRC and radials, I found another quick activation – 10 contacts on 20 meters in 9 minutes.  Now, that’s a hopping good time for me and was a great way to end the rove.

It was a good day, not so much for propagation though there were some spectacular moments, but for learning. I secretly fancy myself as a pretty savvy portable operator, but moving your station five times in a single morning just grinds in the opportunity to really think about efficiency, economy of movement, and the economy of logistics.

I’m a logistician at heart – a planner and layer-inner. I keep a small radio shack/garden center/camping supply house/coffee shop/gun store in my car. I maintain a truncated representation of that in my little POTA backpack. I think about things, enjoy gaming the potential needs and points of failure, and get satisfaction in solving them before they happen. After all, when did Noah build his boat? BEFORE the rain!

The recurring pitching and breaking of camp this day drove in some reality. All we really need is the Trinity of Portable Operations – transceiver, power, and antenna.

Now, there’s obviously some administrative needs to consider like a feedline, key, and logbook, and don’t forget “care” items like water and first aid, but that’s pretty much it. I learned today that I don’t need to consider every possibility. I just need to consider today. That makes for a much easier 100-foot trek to the picnic table.

As always,

TNX ES 73
KA5TXN
DitWit