There will be two big amateur radio events January 18th–19th:

• North American QSO Party
• POTA Winter Support Your Parks Event

Will you be on the air?

North American QSO Party

⏰ Schedule: 1800 UTC January 18th to 0559 UTC January 19th.

The North American QSO Parties are favorites of beginners and seasoned operators alike. The NAQPs are low-power only (no amplifiers allowed) which makes for a lot more breathing room on the bands. Small stations can generate very effective “runs” in the NAQP contests. Multipliers count once per-band, which makes for an exciting format, as multipliers can be “moved” from band to band. The NAQPs allow stations from all parts of North America to be in the running for the top spots. The 12 hour format allows participants to do some great contesting, yet still have time for other activities during the weekend. Participants can enter in the single op or multi-op categories and also have the opportunity to combine up to five separate single op scores into a team score. ¹

:informarion_source: Visit the North American QSO Party page for information about:

• Rules
• Team Registration
• Log Upload
• Web-to-Cabrillo Forms
• Cabrillo QSO Template
• Paper Logging Forms
• List of Received Logs
• Preliminary Results
• Final Results
• Records
• Certificates

POTA Winter Support Your Parks Event

⏰ Schedule: 0001 UTC January 18th to 2359 UTC January 19th.

This ia an activity weekend where the main purpose is to get out to the parks and have as much fun as possible.

ℹ️ POTA Activation rules

Support Your Parks is a series of seasonal events held on the 3rd full weekend of the month:

• Winter - 3rd Full Weekend of January.
• Spring - 3rd Full Weekend of April.
• Summer - 3rd Full Weekend of July.
• Autumn - 3rd Full Weekend of October.

Minimalist radio fun in the form of a challenge? Yes please.

When @HamRadioCrashCourse proposed the 1 lb POTA Pack Challenge, he had to have known I’d take it as far as I could. An upcoming work trip presented the perfect opportunity.

I prepped the “Classic Band” modified truSDX with audio amplifier circuit, larger display, and thinner/flatter filter design, and paired it up with a minimalist EFHW built from an SMA connector, custom PCB, FT37-43 toroid, and 140 ft of 36 ga PTFE insulated copper wire. A 300 mAh 3s LiPo fed it the rig power. I used the internal mic and the rig’s now amplified speaker for phone operation, a capacitive touch key installed in the rig for CW, and a custom audio adapter made it possible to run digital modes.

Here’s the story of the activation.

The April RRRA Meeting is your opportunity to learn how a fellow club member gets on-the-air from the great outdoors.

Enjoy a presentation and eyeball QSOs; no club business will be be discusssed at this meeting!

Jay Goos, WS0Y, will talk about how he became active in Parks On The Air (POTA).

He will highlight the evolution of his POTA antennas made with parts obtained from Home Depot and Walmart; such as a furring-strip doublet with open ladder line; and a vertical made with a bucket, sandbag, PVC pipe, with a Slinky as a loading coil.

Jay will also discuss the rigs he uses, and how he is activating in the winter.

Do you like Field Day? Do you like to operate from remote locations?

I’ll be giving a Parks on the Air (POTA) presentation after the July 20th RRRA business meeting.

This presentation may be postponed if the business meeting runs long.

About Parks on the Air

Parks on the Air (POTA) was founded Sept. 15, 2010, to encourage amateur-radio operators who enjoy the outdoors – but who may not be interested in or able to take long hikes or make steep climbs – to blend their interests by operating from municipal, county, state, provincial, and national parks around the world. ¹

POTA has since grown into a program “for international portable amateur radio operations that promote emergency awareness and communications from national/federal and state/provincial level parks.” ²

The Parks on the Air ® (POTA) website is https://parksontheair.com/.