Becky’s DX CW POTA Activation | 10m ham radio on🔥! | 14 Contacts & 10 Countries with Morse Code
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- The most DX POTA contacts we've EVER had!! As a solar storm approached, we jumped on 10m at lunchtime and it was AMAZING. The first 8 contacts were all DX from different countries, and we also got long distance US contacts. We were camping at Joe Wheeler and used our Icom 7300 to an EFHW on the POTA20 mast. Using 30w, ham radio and morse code reached all over the globe!!
73,
Michael N4FFF es Becky N4BKY
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📍 WHERE ARE WE:
Joe Wheeler State Park: www.alapark.co...
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POTA Information : US-1043
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⚙️ OUR GEAR (featured in this video):
ICOM 7300 (also our home RIG)
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Watts : 30
Antenna: Xtenna EFHW:
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NanoVNA Antenna Analyzer
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Becky’s Key:
cwmorse.us/pro...
Mast Holder (Aluminum Ground Spike that works perfectly with POTA20)
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Silicone Cable Ties
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Cheap Sony Headphones
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Naturehike FT07 Ultralight Camping Table, 1.6 LBS Portable
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Kelty Low Loveseat Double 2 Person Camping Chair
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Alvantor Screen House Gazebo
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DJI Osmo Pocket 3, Vlogging Camera
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Polo by Ham2k
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📒Contacts - Thank you everyone!
OK2VWB
SM3NRY
PA4T
DL3LJ
ZS1WJG
SP1FM
VE7CRX
DJ3XM
KG7CW
KJ7BS
IK5QLO
CE3FZL
N6HI
IZ6BTN
⚙️ OTHER GEAR WE USE:
INIU Power Bank USB-C PD Capable
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12V USB-C PD to Barrel Plug Trigger Cable
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EF ECOFLOW Solar Generator 1024Wh
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Ham Radio Duo
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Home is Where Your Honey Is - RV Camping adventures
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🌍 Our Website
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✔️OTHER TH-cam CHANNELS / CW FRIENDS YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT
W4EMB Ed es AA4SB Shantel
/ @w4emb
KQ3Q : Lidi
/ @kq3q
KI7QCF : Forrest
/ @utahforrest
K5YVY : JoeBrett
/ @k5yvy
🍿WATCH NEXT:
Getting started with POTA using CW | How-To guide
• Getting started with P...
Becky's Fastest CW POTA Activation Attempt Ever | Race against UTC end of day!
• Becky's Fastest CW POT...
Morse Code CW in a Browser or Phone !!!
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🎵 Epidemic Sound - Music & SFX in our videos - share.epidemic...
📌DISCLAIMER:
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#hamradio #dx #pota #sota #qrp #morsecode #cw #qrz #sota #rv #rvlife #adventure #camping #travel #travelcouple #licw #skcc #hiking #biking
How often do you get DX on a pota?
Not yet. Will have to try it on my 7300 one day. You two are Wow!
i have gotten DX a few times when using the G90 on 5 watts -- also well done folks - what was the orientation of ur EFHW N-S ??
I don't do POTA but other types of activation. I practically never get DX (as in "other continents") with my 5W QRP.. But that's OK. I have a couple of hours outside in nature, playing some radio, working my usual bunch of chasers in Europe, so it's all good 🙂
@@PaulK7VIQ Thanks! We usually operate QRP but because we were near the camper we pulled out the 7300 and a little more power 🙂 73, Becky es Mike
@@brianve7jyd943 Yes, it was orientated N-S 🙂
Becky, your straight-key work is so easy to copy. Dot-dash weighting is near perfect. Good job.
Awww, thank you so much for saying! I really do enjoy the straight key and the music it makes 😊🎶 73, Becky es Mike
Hi Becky and Mike.
Thanks for the great video of your POTA activation.
It was a real pleasure to have a QSO with both of you.
Keep up the good work. 🙂
Thank you and look forward to getting you in the logs more in the future! 73 Mike N4FFF es Becky N4BKY
Nice contacts. I met a guy from Germany on 20m cw 24 years ago and we've met and are still friends to this day via internet. Great hobby.
Incredible story!
Thank you for sharing that! We love making contacts and then exchanging emails and making new friends from all over the globe. Hearing other peoples stories and where / how they got into ham radio and CW is always a treat! 73, Becky es Mike
This is so fun to watch. Being European, it's super common to hear these calls on the air. And so when I hear a H or a B and 9, I instinctively think "Oh Switzerland" 😂
Funny hearing Thomas SM3NRY. A regular and avid POTA & SOTA chaser! An activation isn't complete without a QSO in either CW or SSB. 😂
Thank you! I imagine to you, all of those calls signs are like us hearing one after the other from TX! It was so much fun and definitely a challenge to hear those come in that didn't start with a K, N, or W 🤣🤣. And yes, looking on QRZ at SM3NRY's setup, I can imagine he is able to hunt and chase all over the world! 73 Becky es Mike
@@HamRadioDuo It's funny, us Europeans are like "Ooh, California" or "Oregon, nice!" as West Coast is a bit rarer for us (well, me at least).
Tu fer nice contact and inspiring me to learn cw . Still a long way to go but i already have a lot of fun hunting pota. 73 Toy Visser ZS1WJG
So happy to hear you've gotten into CW and was great to get you in the logs. Our goal is to show just how fun it is to get out there and get on the air! 73, Becky es Mike
wow!!! 👏🏻👏🏻 muy buenos DX, mis felicitaciones, fabulosa banda 10Mtrs
Qué bonita Caravana 🤩 es realmente un espectáculo; poder hacer lo que hacen es un auténtico sueño, y que lo compartan un placer para nosotros, gracias.
73/72
¡Gracias! Quedamos asombrados con nuestros contactos ese día, ¡y siempre es divertido acampar en un parque de POTA! Apreciamos que te unas a nuestras aventuras.
73, Becky es Mike
CW is my goal in 2025! Love seeing this demonstrated. TU
Thank you and what a great 2025 goal! CW is challenging and rewarding at every step of the way. Keep it fun and celebrate all the little milestones! 73 Becky es Mike
Another Great video duo! Nice contacts! And cool sound defector😎
Thanks JoeBrett! It was a great day for 10m and we love the sound deflector. Didn't realize how much of a difference it would make, but it really helps! 73, Becky es Mike
For those of us not knowledgeable of Morse how about using CC to translate the tones. That way those that want to practice have a way to check themselves. Great video!
That is a fantastic idea and we have been thinking of how to do it. Right now, it's pretty easy to make CC for spoken words with transcription. For morse code, it has to be done manually and it is VERY VERY time consuming. We're still looking into ways to possibly do this in the future. Thank you! 73 Mike N4FF es Becky N4BKY
Tnx Becky and Mike again for the nice POTA-QSO to AL , 73 de DJ3XM
Was so happy to get you in the logs, John 😊 Hope to hear you again! 73, Becky es Mike
Some very tough DX but brilliant video, you both made me smile with having earbuds in you were leaning into the speaker for the weak stations 🙂Good to see your cast off Mike. 73 Phil G0BVD
Nice observation, Phil ... Haha! We went back and watched and realized we did that several times. That's funny! Mike is super glad to be free of the giant club but sill a ways to go to recover :-) 73, Becky es Mike
@@HamRadioDuo Mike is in good hands with you looking after him Becky. Have a lovely weekend. 73 Phil
Great straight key technique! 10 meters has been amazing lately
Thank you! I definitely prefer the straight key😊 Hopefully we will be able to activate 10m again soon! 73, Becky es Mike
I love your sending. So readable and smooth.
Awww thank you for saying, Scott. The straight key is my favorite and to me it's like making music on the air! 73, Becky es Mike
@@HamRadioDuo I'm a straight key slave. 😁
wow ! Very fine tuned hearing ! 73
Thanks! There were some really tough ones in there. The more we are on the air it seems like we are able to pick out a tone and stick with it better. Mike is super good and tuning in with the radio which also helps a ton! 73, Becky es Mike
Thanks for sharing!
Brilliant! What a great day! 33 from Lucy
Thank you! It really was an amazing experience. 73, Becky es Mike
Great DX!!
Thanks Lidi, it was really amazing! 73, Becky es Mike
Very good! Yes, 10 meters will be great this winter. Remember to listen for the ARRL 10 meter contest the weekend on December 13. Starts Friday night 7 PM EST. I have even worked over 1000 QSOs in a good 10 meter contest! Signals should be really strong by then.
Wow, those are some amazing numbers for one contest. We will have to look into that more for sure. This was our first real 10m DX experience and it was amazing! 73, Becky es Mike
@@HamRadioDuo you probably can’t imagine how good it can get! You might find my 10 meter antenna video interesting. Halfway through I show how I use the reverse beacon network and 10 meter beacons for testing antennas.
th-cam.com/video/MTvLIhurTVk/w-d-xo.htmlsi=wX_aSDtAwEce1p8t
73,
Don
N4DJ
Thanks for the tips! 10m was amazing. 73, Becky es Mike
Excellent job Mike&Becky.. I wud stick with sending AL, we would guess you are from the states by the N... callsign, but you have a big country so knowing roughly whereabout is great 😁😁
Thank you for the suggestion and that does makes a lot of sense. It was new to us to get so many different countries in one activation we really weren't sure what to send 🤣 73, Becky es Mike
Nice DX! Great video. 73 de K4FR
Thanks Scott and congrats on the new call!! 73, Becky es Mike
You two made great videos! Where can one buy the sound director / reflector for the IC-7300?
You can email me , good on qrz. We can discuss details of the sound deflector 👍 73
Thank you 😊 And it looks like JoeBrett send you a message. We got the sound deflector from him and it really works great! 73, Becky es Mike
Absolutely 💯 % beautiful
Thank you! We were amazed at the DX map!! 73, Becky es Mike
as i begin, i would love to see the CW characters in your video for to understand what you exchange!! ..thanks for your sharing!!
That's a great idea! In fact, we've been looking for a solution to do that. We try to post a POTA video once every week or two. They take a long time to edit already and we need to find a way to do it that isn't as time consuming. We wouldn't be able to put out the number we do if we did that without finding a good technical solution.
73 Mike es Becky
@@HamRadioDuo i agree for the time consuming but if that is possible, imagine how more easy for us to understand what is happening in your exchanges in CW.. until now, i never saw someone doing it, that could be an advantage for your channel?!?
Thank you for the nice qso and video, its a very nice thing that you are an Ham radio CW couple! 73! Andrea IK5QLO
Thank you, and was great to get you in the logs. We are so happy to share this hobby together and are having a great time learning and meeting so many great people on the air! 73, Becky es Mike
Good afternoon Guys! Jake here from northern Michigan. As usual, excellent activation at your camp site.
If I may ask, what mapping software program are you guys are using? It is not reverse beacon is it?? Thanks! Jake KC8BQN from northern Michigan
Great Job on the DX! I tried 10M on my activation on Thursday morning and got no responses :( I was using 10W, so that may have made a difference. I don't treat DX contacts any different than US. They are POTA hunters and just expect the standard exchange. N7BBQ
There are definitely less people on 10 m. I think during our activation the band conditions were great. I suspect that the fact that we had so many people from other countries was indicative of the fact that there are less people but the people that are there are more aware and able to jump on when conditions are good. We definitely plan on lots more experiments on 10 m. Walt from coastal waves and wires channel has some great videos about 10 m. He suggests that it starts to open up in fall and is good throughout the winter and early spring. I think it's mostly a daytime band and still requires conditions to be right. 73 Mike N4FFF es Becky N4BKY
That was dope. Do another video. ND9G.
Thank you! We definitely hope to have another DX activation like this someday! It was amazing! 73, Becky es Mike
Enjoyed your video, reminded me of my CW days as a ham with a G4... callsign more tha 30 years ago! I would be interested to know how you get the names of your contacts, in my day you had to look them up in the call book (if you had it)?
Thank you and good question. We use a phone App called Ham2K Portable Logger (PoLo) that links directly to QRZ.com which is the new-school call book 🤣 You just have to put in the call sign and their name and location come up on the app. Our video around how to POTA has more information that might help you have a better idea of how it's all tied together. But basically everything is available on the phone if you have the correct call sign and of course cell coverage 😊
Here is a link to that video: th-cam.com/video/_h4DqIPPzNk/w-d-xo.html
And the PoLo logging app we use: polo.ham2k.com/
Hope that helps! 73, Becky es Mike
@@HamRadioDuoThanks that's useful to know, I look forward to watching your other videos with interest...
tnx, greetings from Poland de SP1FM Maciej
Thank you Maciej! Was amazing to get you in the logs that day. The bands were awesome and hope to catch you again! 73, Becky es Mike
That was so DX epic! 73 Paul KE9BHN
Thank you! It really was amazing and so unexpected to get that many countries all in one activation! 73, Becky es Mike
M7FFR here in the UK. How did you learn CW was it through an app or other means? I’m keen to have a go but would welcome any advice from those that have self taught. TIA.
Pete, thank you for the comment and question about how we learned CW. We do plan to make a video around this topic but in the meantime here are some of our thoughts (we responded to a similar question with this) :
The short version is that Mike (me) tried off and on for YEARS and feels like he was learning the wrong way. Becky learned with some advise from the hard lessons Mike had trying to re-learn. Becky had the advantage of some of those lessons and being a natural fast learner and using Michael as a slow decoder at the start. All of that is to say that it was really fast and probably not something to use as an expectation. She learned most all of the letters by sound at 30wpm in a weekend, decided to get licensed only after learning the letters, which went super quick and then got on the air with the first CW (with Michael as the decoder) the day it hit the FCC.
Probably too much to fit into a comment, but here is my (Mike's) advise I wish I could give myself:
- enjoy the journey. like playing a musical instrument, it takes a lot of practice and a long time, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun all along the way. It just means you have to set the expectation that you'll be enjoying the journey a little every day for a very long time, not just checking off a box. About 20 mins per day seems like a reasonable amount.
- learn the letters by sound (learning by memorizing a map of dits and dahs means you always have to look them up in your mind and means you get stuck)
- learn the letters around 30pm so that your brain is forced to hear the sound and not individual dits and dahs. learning the letters at around 30wpm so you hear the sound doesn't mean you are aiming to have conversations at that speed. If you learn the sounds at 30wpm or higher, you'll also "hear" them at the slower speeds you actually use at the start.
- an app called Morse Mania gamifies learning the letters, which is what Becky used
- get on the air as soon as possible, before you are ready. we've all been there and that's one step to keep it fun during the journey
- after learning all the letters, get on the air and try writing everything down. just print out and or memorize some standard basic short QSOs
- after learning the letters, join clubs, take classes, and use online tools to keep over-learning the letters and working on building words.
- keep having fun all along the way. celebrate every small victory. the first few letters you learn. the first time you start having letters pop in your head when you hear a sound. the first time you hear a few letters and recognize it as a state. very step is fun and it just gets better and you never stop learning.
73, Becky es Mike
I wish some hams would play nice and send at the speed you used. I give the a couple ??? Then QRS.
Haha. We definitely appreciate it if people can match our slower speeds and we try to do it ourselves when we can. We also recognize that sometimes you may not have the ability to quickly adjust the speed if you're using paddles and such. We are grateful that the more that we learn the less of a problem that it is. We've been focused on learning the characters by sound. As long as we have plenty of space or someone gives their call sign enough time, we can eventually get it. It's still lots of fun!
For the comment and following along!
Can we get the back story on how long both of you been doing CW? thanks
Great question and we appreciate you asking. Several others have asked something similar and we are planning to make a video that goes over our "CW journey". In short, I (Becky) was licensed in March, 2024 and jumped on the air CW right away but mostly because Mike had been a ham for 10 years and was there to help me. He had put down the hobby for several years but jumped back in when I started learning CW. Mike tried his best to help me learn without the same mistakes he did that held him back.
Mike is passionate about encouraging the focus to be on the journey of learning CW. We now know people just learning CW and others who have been on the air with CW for decades. He was initially frustrated with his expectations that weren't very realistic. He describes it as getting a guitar and after a few lessons feeling like you should be a rock star and you're not 🤣🎶 We are now having fun enjoying the process of learning and celebrating all the little milestones along the way!
Thanks again for asking! 73, Becky es Mike
@@HamRadioDuo Thank so much for writing back! I will say you are dang good at CW Becky. Great Videos, This is great to see you guys as a Team in the Ham Radio World. W7LOK. Craig
dang! new camera??
We got the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 camera not too long ago and love how small it is and with great quality : amzn.to/3Y2wJaO 73, Becky es Mike
I'd still expect you to send a state. There's lots of people who collect states, and I can already tell you're in the USA from your callsign.
Thank you for that feedback! I think we were just so surprised we didn't know what to say HiHi!! For sure we will sent the state from now on. 73 Becky es Mike
Did both of you learn on straight key
Yes, we both started on a straight key and I (Becky) still prefer to use a straight key, even when portable. Mike moved to a paddle most of the time but will still practice and have QSO's on a straight key just to change things up sometimes. I like a straight key because of the rhythm of it and being in charge of each dit, dah and space. And with activating I can vary the speed more easily a little when needed for different operators. If you are just started we definitely recommend the straight key first but no worries if you really like the paddle better. 73 Becky es Mike