A friend and Elmer Mark, AA2MA, picked up an IC-706Mk2G for me from the Huntsville Hamfest.  He found me a good deal and arranged all of the mailing.  Here’s the backstory.

I wanted an all mode, all band radio. I wanted something I could put in the car that could give me every opportunity to communicate in an off-grid emergency. I did a little research, discovered a friend’s, NZ5K IC-706. Some weeks later, I traded my IC-7300 for an FT-891A and the hunger was fed. Then Mark asked if I wanted anything from the Huntsville Hamfest and I blurted out “IC-706MK2G, please!”

So, I’ve had the radio for a few months, have played with it from the kitchen table, but never in the park.  That changed today.

I initially planned to activate US-6553 Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site but when I arrived, there was a Denison ISD school bus in the parking lot and croquette balls and mallets near the pavilion right where I run my feedline.

With my keen detective’s mind, I deduced a school class was touring the site and would soon gather at the pavilion for lunch and games.

As an activator, I never want to crowd or inconvenience other visitors so, no harm, no foul, no bad feelings – I hopped back in the wagon and moved on to US-0548 Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge.

My goal for the activation was to get some quality time with the old, new to me, IC-706Mk2G.  The rev G of the radio has the narrow band filters installed.  At home, pressing the filter button just snuffs out everything so I was curious what that really meant.  In truth, I’d convinced myself that I was being overly dramatic and that she’d be fine from a picnic table.

Park

US-0548 Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1946 to provide habitat for migratory birds, wildlife, and plants native to the area.  The location offers great views, suitable picnic tables and the best antenna trees of most North Texas Parks.  I settled into what we local POTAters call the day use area, on a round picnic table in the shade near the water.

Loadout

• IC-706MK2G
• Bioenno 20ah LiPo4
• 40-10 EFHW with Sparkplug 49:1
• BaMaKey TP-III Paddles
• POLO Portable Logger
• Admin pouch of pencils, key cable, etc.

Activation

I planned for CW and getting set up about noon, I opted for 20 meters.  It was noisy for a Friday and sounded like the IF filter was wide open.  As experienced before, the filter attenuated way too much when selected.  So, trolling the band, I casually hunted POTA activators while fiddling with the filter. The first hunter, W2BX Glenn from North Carolina, came back at 17:14 UTC and it was off to the races.

I settled on 14.535, called QRL, and got to work with CQ POTA.  Propagation was great and hunters piled up.  It was fun!  But I don’t have any experience with older radio, performance, and features.  My first HF rig was the FT-891, my second was an IC-7300.  My baseline for how radios perform includes great receivers with great filters.  So, this IC-706 was a bit outside of my operating skillset.  I got pretty rattled.

I called QRT, swapped rigs to the 891, and slipped right back into the same frequency and it was smooth as butter.  I finished the day with 18 contacts, could have stayed longer, but felt I’d accomplished what I came to do. 

The weather was perfect – clear but a cool 80 degrees.  There was enough wind to notice, but not enough to make me want to go home.  All in all, a great day in the park.

I can’t really reconcile the Italy call and have to think I got something wrong.  Listening to the video afterwards, it sounds like what I copied, but the call isn’t registered with QRZ.  It really helps if hunters will use the spot page to re-spot the activator after a QSO.  This gives the activator a record to reconcile with their log.  In the end, all I can do is log what I copy and ignore what I don’t.

This trip was well worth it and I’m glad I got outside.  I made a little video below, just to make a video.  No.  I’m not becoming a YouTuber.  Like this blog, it gives me more to do and more of a memory of each activation.  POTA is too fun to let it all run together, and I’ll get bored if it does.

Note: I have a long way to go in the video game. I try to not sound like a droning West Texas hick and sound like an idiot instead. And I’m not sure why I frantically pan back and forth in the beginning. Watching this part makes me a little seasick. Dramamine anyone?

TNX ES TX
KA5TXN
DitWit