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Very interesting, Stuart. Great out-of-the-box thinking on these videos about calling CQ.

Thanks for taking the time to explain why you stopped leading with CQ POTA etc, I asked you about this when you stated that you got 500 QSOs and now i see why if you simply cut out all of that extra verbiage. I also wanted to know if you took folks out to log for you but found that i couldn't contact you anymore. but now i understand why and it makes sense because of people out there hating on POTA folk. i just didn't understand how hunters would benefit if you're now just calling out cq 20 but i guess i ask too many questions lol lol - 73 stuart and i hope to continue being a pal and working you on the bands :)

You are correct. I was followed around for a while this past weekend by an intentional QRM'er I labelled as ROMEO HOTEL aka 'Round Hole'. As soon as I stopped calling, there was a dead carrier 1/2 a second behind me after unkeying the mic. As well as the carrier would appear while the other station was returning. I did call CQ on 10m without mentioning POTA or WWFF and it went away only to return if WWFF or POTA was mentioned again on the same frequency or if I was asked for my park number by the other station. They even followed me up and down the band for a period of time.

I had this experience last weekend on 20m. Only AFTER I had been operating pota a few minutes did someone throw a dead carrier in the middle of my passband. It happened several times over a 10 minute period. I went QSY to a different frequency, and the dead carrier followed me. So it could only be intentional.

I haven't experimented with this on SSB just yet, but I have noticed I get different results on FT8 if I call CQ POTA vs just CQ. I need to do an actual experiment with this, but I think my hit rate is higher for **spotting myself** for POTA than necessarily for **calling** CQ POTA. Anecdotally, this past weekend, a few times I forgot to queue up the custom CQ POTA message and just called CQ, and got answers faster than I seemed to get for CQ POTA. It seems backward to me, honestly, but like you said, never argue with success. I think a lot of people feel like they have to run a POTA activation like they'd run a contest, and stick to the script and all the rest of it. But flexibility is the key. Chase DX, chase QSO partiers, chase any contact you find on the bands. It all counts!

It blows my mind that there are people out there that dislike POTA so much that they will interfere with someone. Personally I think POTA is amazing! I love nothing more than turning on my radio and finding someone calling CQ POTA. I havent specificially done POTA yet but I have activated a couple parks near me. But once I have POTA all figued out so I can log correctly Ill be doing it for real in the 2 POTA parks that are within 5 min from the house.

This should not have to be a thing. The sad hams need to find something else to do.

How do you handle people who respond to your CQ hoping for a rag chew?

The only problem with that for me is as a POTA hunter/activator looking for park to park contacts, I don’t know if I have a POTA operator until you say your park reference number or “CQ POTA”. A lot of parks in my area have very little to no cell service or WiFi so I can’t look at any of those spotting pages. Either way though, I have a lot of fun in the park playing radio. Good luck W9DXP

Thanks for hunting yesterday. Vy 73 DO1EDK

I always simple call „cq“ and just upload the log to POTA or whatever portal. On the other hand - when hearing or reading „cq pota“ I always try to make the contact, so that‘s a little bit weird 😂

Soda, Coke. My husband calls it pop.

VE9 prefix helps too, I'd imagine. ;)

Good point, I’m going to try it. Could you tell us the where to self spot in addition to WWFF and POTA. I know DX HEAT won’t allow self spots. VO1OK

Great points! When I activate a park, I'll work anyone. I don't care why you're on the air - if you're making contacts when I'm making contacts, I'm working you on my POTA activation. Most times when I'm getting my gear set up and starting my activation, I'll spin the dial a bit and log the first 5 or 6 random contacts before I even start to hunt for an open frequency to camp out on. And there's been a few activations I've done where I really only had time for 15 or 20 contacts anyway, so I won't even bother to spot myself, I'll just do the whole activation by scanning for random CQ's. 73

how many sections do you usually use? I ordered 10 but I think 40ft is way too much for these pols.

Great Video PD2AJ 73 88

I was course 8548....12 platoon....what platoon were you?

Hi Stuart, if you come to France, I will introduce you to good cuisine ❗️

People just want to complain. Some people will complain about anything. 73!

I need some good fish & chips!!!! 73!

looks yummy love to see the 2 of you together wish i'd been there to join you thanks for the review the very best to the 2 of you greg

Hey you Guys, good Morning and happy Humpday. That Meal looks damn delicious ...hopefully you saved some for Archie. Where the Heck is he...? 🤔

Agreed, either work the contest stations or head to the WARC bands. Ever since I got involved with POTA a year ago it seems as though most of the activators stay within the 20 meter band. You won't find a clear frequency at all in the U.S. General portion of 20 meter during a contest weekend and you might be lucky to find a clear frequency in the U.S. Amateur Extra portion. Sure if you have mono band antennas switching bands will take longer, but if you use hamstick style antennas quick disconnects and marking the resonant point on the whip will speed things up a bit.

I'm with you on this one Stuart. Work the contesters. My second POTA ever was a contest day and I made my activation entirely on working contesters. But also, I don't know how open they are north of the border, but even here in MN, 10, 12, 15, and 17 have all been WIDE open, which means plenty of room to operate, and 12 and 17 -- WARC bands without contesters -- are useful. I'll admit I get frustrated, too, when the shorter bands are closed, the WARC bands are useless, and EVERYBODY is crowding on 20, but right now? There's no reason not to just hop the bands!

HAM Life is like Real Life, you gotta fight for your Right. Be there or be square. The big Ones eat the little Ones

I agree! I was at a park during the Scandinavian Activity Contest and worked Iceland in CW for the first time. It was a ton of fun and I ended up working tons of DX that day. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Yep

Just what we need fatty foods, lol

On those weekends, I listen to see what the contester is looking for and I try to provide the necessary information that the contest station needs. I made my rounds on the QSO party's as well. Recently, I have also hit a few nets and special events stations. They all count. If you can't find a clean frequency that means there are lots of other opportunities out there.. Go Chasing!!

A few weeks ago was the Wisconsin pota contest, Iowa QSO Party, Texas QSO party, New Hampshire QSO Party, New Jersey QSO party and the Washington Salmon run between Potato Creek and Indiana Dunes I think I was close to 80 QSO without calling CQ

As an activator, I would like to work more DX, unfortunately I haven't worked much DX on 10,12,15 and 17, though its not from the lack of trying. I have a buddy that says "do you want to call CQ or make Q's", I want to make Q's so at this point 20, 30 and 40 seem to be the money bands.

Where did you get the tent pole?

Good point! I never thought about it. 😊

I have spent a lot of time in PEI, a great beautiful place to visit. We are so blessed in the Atlantic provinces to have such beautiful places. You couldn't pay me to move away from Nova Scotia and the Maritimes.

hook me up bro

It depends on condx and spare time. Sometimes like today, i managed to activate a reference during a long walk with my wife and our dog within 30 minutes. On other activations where i had more spare time, it would take over an hour. So, yes maybe getting 10 qso is sometimes too easy, but on the other hand i'm happy if i managed to get out and do an activation if i don't have that much time. Maybe it's just about having fun and getting out to pursue our hobby and not about how many qso i get. 73, Yannick - DK8YS

I’m trying to up my POTA game, definitely would accept donations of lightly used junk.

I'm interested in working as many contacts as possible during my activations, NA and DX. If also spotting to WWFF will help, I'll create an account, do so and upload my logs.

When I activate POTA, I get many calls from the US, Canada some from Europe, South America. It all depends on the conditions. I worked 20m, 17m, 15m, 12m, 10m bands with sucess. VP9NR Bermuda

I have seen them on local marketplace and have been tempted to get one to attempt to fix up for shortwave listening.

Kool....have fun. I grew up with an old Farnsworth big floor model radio, tubes on an old bread pan chassis, 12-14 inch speaker, several bands, but we spent our time Huddled, lying on the floor in front of the radio listening to the Lone Ranger, Fibber McGee and Molly, and many other drama shows....way way before TV during WWII.

I love getting DX contacts. I hope to do a pota next week on 10m.

Very cool, Stuart! I am s l o w l y teaching myself how to repair tube radios. My first, and only radio so far is a Coronado 43-8685. I'm concerned that the "only" part won't last long - those old radios are real works of art! Have fun! 73 de KJ7LLX

I love working DX regardless of what mode/ activity. I usually don’t activate parks on 20m or 40m but 15/17/10m because 20m is packed. I love when DX call me while doing POTA and I hunt DX POTA if I can. I’m on the west coast so having the east coast or even Europe call in is pretty cool.

I just purchased this antenna and noted that upon putting it together there is something rattling around inside of the transformer. Is that normal, does your BB7V do that also?

I don't see this as being accurate. I have found that when I work 20 or lower - I'm just not getting the DX. I recently adjusted my setup to work 15 & 10, and have been able to gather some DX contacts. Personally, I love seeing how far I can get out and receive on a minimal set up. I just think that the popularity of POTA has a lot of people new to HF working the bands. Who doesn't want to reach out as far as they can?

What happened to the old hub cap factory, I took part in putting ad addition on the building in 1983?

I operate HF almost exclusively as a POTA Activator. I live in a big city and the noise floor is so high where I live in the heart of Dallas that doing anything but FT8 is really difficult. Making DX even more difficult. But when I go out to a park, I almost always call CQ on 10 and/or 12 meters to try and get DX contacts. but I don't hunt contacts or DX stations. Being in Texas I feel like I'm getting DX contacts when I get contacts from Maine or NH or AK or Washington LOL.

FWIW, from the Great Lakes area, this summer 10 and 15m were horrible. It has only been the last few weeks that the MUF has opened up.