Post Month Long Hiatus 18 WPM CW Parks on the Air Activation W/ the FT-891 and Japanese Ashi Paddle

This was my first POTA activation in well over a month. I had been practicing at home just about every night using MorseRunner, which definitely helped smooth out this activation. This was my first time on the air with the Ashi Paddle, and I was pretty happy with how it did. There's definitely a little play with it that messed me up a couple times, but it did well overall.
There was some pretty steep fading throughout the activation. Even though the RBN picked me up all the way in Europe, I just didn't have many people come back to me. I switched to 20M and found all the hunters there.
I tried a different set up for the audio, so you'll hear a lot more than usual as I laid the cavalier mic right by my external speaker rather than using an in-line recorder.
Link to the Printables page of Adam, K6ARK: www.printables.com/@AdamKimmerly
Today's Setup:
Homebrew Linked Dipole
Jackite 31 Foot pole
Yaesu FT-891
CB speaker from Amazon
Ashi Paddle - n6ara.com/product/ashi-paddle...
RG-316 Coax
RG-58 Coax
Homebrew 20 Ah battery box
Thanks for watching, I appreciate it.
-CnC
Chapters:
0:00 Background
1:49 Linked Dipole Kit
4:41 Audio Setup
5:10 Antenna Setup
7:55 Radio On
8:27 Ashi Paddle Initial
9:38 15 Meters
10:57 Fading
11:46 20 Meters
35:50 Closing Thoughts
38:08 Ashi Final Thoughts
40:15 Final Count

[@KYFriedHam]

Glad you're feeling better and back on the air OM! 73 de KO4TFE

[@CoaxAndCampstools]

Lol, thanks. If I had an 80 meter antenna up I would have had ailment material to talk about with my fellow OMs.

[@KYFriedHam]

@@CoaxAndCampstools 😂😂

[@LetsGoAmateurRadio]

Nice paddle.

[@CoaxAndCampstools]

It really is. I've taken it out on multiple activations and really enjoy it.