Category: POTA Activation

I went back to Hillsdale State Wildlife Area (US-7929) again yesterday afternoon. It was another beautiful, unseasonably warm day – it got well into the 70s while I was out there. I actually had to prop up my backpack to act as a “sun screen” for my radio, since it was getting too hot in the direct sunshine.

Recently, I’ve been bringing my laptop and doing a bit of FT8 before I start CW. Doing FT8 on an activation is pretty relaxing – you can sit back, read a book, enjoy the scenery, without having to constantly field calls.

I left a little early because a bunch of people showed up. I’m going to have to look for some different activation spots with fewer people around.

It’s been a bit since I’ve gotten out to do a “real” outdoor POTA activation. The weather in Kansas City was very nice this weekend, with highs in the 50s, so I took my radio out to Hillsdale State Wildlife Area (US-7929). This is an undeveloped wildlife area attached to (but separate from) Hillsdale State Park. There are a few boat ramps along the north side of the lake, that’s where I usually set up.

I spent some time this week working out how to set up FT8 on my FT-891, using my old MacBook to run WSJT-X. There were a bunch of weird issues to work through in order to get WSJT-X working on the Mac, which are probably worth their own post at some point.

Anyways, I got about 40 FT8 contacts, then took a break for a bit, then got out my key and got around 60 CW contacts. Doing FT8 for POTA is definitely a more relaxing experience – you can sit back, admire the scenery, watch the birds, talk to other people, etc. with no issues. Doing CW, on the other hand, requires almost 100% concentration, which is fun in its own way, but can also be exhausting.

Anyways, here’s some photos.

I took my new mobile antenna out today to do some more POTA. I wanted to try doing a “run” of activations, where you hit up a string of parks, one after another, without having to do a bunch of setup and teardown. The timing was perfect, as the warm weather officially departed today – it was about 60 Fahrenheit when I woke up, and around 20 Fahrenheit just a few hours later.

I stopped at the Dr. Frederick Marshall State Conservation Area (US-10579), as well as two “State Conservation Areas” (US-10578 and US-11226) that are really just boat launches for fisherman (and not particularly inspiring ones either). US-11226, in particular, is about 50 by 50 feet and filled with trash and dead possums.

The conservation area was actually pretty beautiful – the parking lot had a beautiful view over a sweeping tallgrass prairie field, which was particularly dramatic with the sleet and gusting winds. Maybe some day I’ll go back and take my dog.

The new screwdriver antenna worked pretty well – it is definitely not as efficient as the MC-750, but it’s certainly serviceable, and I was getting calls and decent signal reports from both coasts. I’ll post another blog post tomorrow with some more information about the new antenna.

The weather here in Kansas City continues to be insanely nice for December, so I’m continuing to try to make use of the opportunity to do as much POTA as possible (especially since I’m going to be out of the country for most of January). This morning I went out to Miami State Fishing Lake (US-7391), which is about 45 minutes south of Kansas City, near Osawatomie and Paola.

The lake itself is really nice – it’s very remote, and there are a bunch of man-made “piers” with camp sites and fire pits, as well as a boat launch and vault toilet. I set up on one of the piers overlooking the lake, with my nice new POTA work pad that my XYL got me for Christmas.

I started on 20 meters and had about 60 calls from the United States and Ontario. After about an hour, I switched to 15 meters and immediately had several DX calls – the first person to call me on 15 meters was from Belgium, and I also had a call from Italy and a park-to-park from England. This was my first time using the antenna on 10 and 15 meters – it worked great on all three bands.

I went out to Douglas State Fishing Lake this morning, which is a man-made lake about 40 minutes southwest of Kansas City. This park doesn’t seem to get a lot of love on POTA – this was only its 6th activation of 2025.

The weather was beautiful, sunny and about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. I set up at a boat ramp on the east side of the lake. I was expecting to be the only person there, due to how remote the area was, but there were actually a bunch of people launching boats and walking dogs. There’s a nice fire pit here overlooking the lake – I think I am going to have to get into campfire POTA soon.

It is still extremely warm here in Kansas City (50s and 60s Fahrenheit), so I went out and did another POTA activation this morning. It was extremely damp and foggy – I picked a spot with a picnic shelter because I was hoping it’d be drier, but everything was still pretty soaked, so I set up my portable table and chair. I had about 50 CW contacts on the 40 meter and 20 meter bands.

This was the first time I tried to use the 40 meter loading coil on my portable whip antenna – it seemed to work fine. My SWR was around 1.3 and I had plenty of contacts.

I also stopped at Lone Elm on the way home and got about 30 more contacts. I would like to get kilos for the three National Historic Trails that pass through Kansas City.

I went back and activated Lone Elm Park in Olathe today during my lunch break. This is another 3-fer which counts for the California (US-4566), Oregon (US-4576), and Santa Fe (US-4579) National Historic Trails. This site was a campground that many people stopped at on their way west.

It was pretty nice out today – around 55 Fahrenheit and no wind. There’s a nice shelter at the park which actually has a large wood fireplace and chimney – it might be fun to build a big bonfire out here and do POTA one night.

I think that a lot of people come to this park to eat lunch, so there was a fair number of people wandering around, especially on a nice day like today. No one talked to me, though.

I activated Minor Park in the southern part of the Kansas City metro area today. This park was a regular stopping point on three National Historic Trails: the California Trail (US-4566), the Oregon Trail (US-4576), and the Santa Fe Trail (US-4579) – this means it counts as a three-fer (triple credit) for Parks on the Air.

It was about 40 degrees Fahrenheit out. I tried wearing some thin gloves to see if it would keep my hands warm – I was still able to work the radio and my iPad and everything with no issues, but unfortunately, my hands still got cold pretty quickly.

Today was also the first time I had to explain to a non-ham what I was doing. An older gentleman dropped by and asked what was going on – I tried to explain what I was doing, and let him listen to the Morse code for a bit. He was just like “ok, thanks, have fun!” so… I guess it went OK?

I went back and activated US-7929 (Hillsdale State Wildlife Area) again this morning. It was a bit warmer out than last time, around 45 degrees F. I went to another boat launch on the north side of the lake, about a mile to the east of where I was last time.

I brought my dog Truman to see if he’d enjoy going out with me. I think he got bored after about 15 minutes – he’s a beagle, and he wanted to keep walking and explore the beach more. I tried to get him to just sit and relax, but he seemed like he was getting cold and restless, so I ended up letting him sit in the car for the last 30 minutes or so. I’ll try to take him out again, but I’ll probably wait until the spring, when the weather is warmer.

I had a lot of callers – there’s not a lot of POTA competition on a chilly December morning. My friend Robb (K2MZ) from LICW called me park-to-park as well.

Here’s some more photos.

I activated US-7929 (Hillsdale State Wildlife Area) the morning of Sunday, December 14. It was very cold (about 15 degrees Fahrenheit), and I had to stop after about 45 minutes because my fingers weren’t working.