NT1B

After getting the POTA bug, I wanted to do another one. Originally, I was thinking about Manchester State Park. Having been there once before on a camping trip, I knew it had a similar setup to Illahee State Park where I’d done the last POTA. I just missed the last Fauntleroy-Southworth ferry and the next one was delayed. While waiting, I did some more POTA browsing. For whatever reason, I decided to save Manchester for later and explore somewhere new to me by checking out some parks on the Key Penninsula. ...

After a few early experiments in operating portable, Justin and I decided to take the plunge and do an actual POTA at Illahee State Park. We’d been bike camping here a few times since it’s one of the more bike accessible state parks from Seattle because of the Seattle-Bremerton ferry. It’s only about a mile to the ferry from our home, then about 3.5 miles (albeit uphill) from the Bremerton side to the park. ...

After upgrading to my extra ham radio license, I picked up a Yaesu FT-710 and started building an HF station at home. Although my QTH has plusses like easy access to a high roof that has help a lot with antenna performance on transmit, ultimately I live in an urban area in Seattle with a lot of QRM. There’s both a constant level of static that varies from S5 to S9 depending on band and time of day, but also some very strong focused noise on frequencies like 14.250MHz that probably comes from LED lights or other devices in my neighborhood. I’m able to hunt very strong POTA signals or “booming” stations with directional antennas, but it’s a lot of work. Moreover, I still haven’t found a great way to put up a permanent antenna at home. I set up and take down a dipole whenever I want to play radio. ...