When Things Go Wrong at the POTA Activation

I found myself up in Pennsylvania on Saturday, February 10, 2024, and decided to go activate K-1352 Fort Washington State Park @PennsylvaniaDCNR in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania. With my FX-4CR at 5 Watts for the Parks On The Air @ParksOnTheAir (POTA) activation I wondering what 10 meters would bring me. But once I got setup and ready to start the activation, the problems started, one after another. Check out what happened in the video! Thank you to the all of the hunters and fellow activators for the contacts! ALL amateur radio operators world-wide need to know the DX CODE OF CONDUCT. It was meant for DX contacts, but it really applies to ALL aspects of amateur radio (DXing, contesting, POTA, SOTA, Field Day, special events, etc...). DON'T BE AN ALPHA HOTEL! http://dx-code.com. EQUIPMENT USED: Radio: FX-4CR SDR HF Transceiver DIRECTLY FROM BG2FX - GET YOUR OWN AT www.bg2fx.com! Mount: ULANZI MT-33 Flexible Mini Tripod @ulanzi Antenna: MFJ 1610T 10M & 1620T 20M HF Sticks and Shark Antenna S-F15 Hamstick Tuner: MAT-TUNER mAT-10 Automatic Tuner N9SAB's 1:1 QRP Nano Dipole Balun/Choke for Common Mode Currents/Noise Reduction Gen II - http://bit.ly/3UEy9Zf Case: Apache 2800 Weatherproof Protective Case (Medium) Tri Mag Mount: MFJ 336S Battery: Bioenno Power 12V, 4.5Ah LFP Battery Tripod: UBeesize 64" Phone Tripod @ubeesize9784 External Microphone: DJI Mic Kit & DJI Lavalier Mic @DJI Camera: iPhone 15 Pro Max Logging Device: iPad Pro (Spotting, information & logging) Logging App: HAMRS - https://hamrs.app Tumbler: RTIC 30 oz Insulated Tumbler @RTICOutdoors Ham Stick Bag: Lixada 55 Inch Fishing Rod Bag Large Tool Bag, iPad Pro sleeve and various pouches from Special Operations Equipment @SOEtacticalgear (SOE) - https://www.originalsoegear.com or https://www.soetacticalgear.com 3D PRINTED QR CODE PLAQUES - EMAIL Jess N4JAH via QRZ.com -- 💚 Support the Channel 💚 Please like 👍 & subscribe ✅ and click the bell 🔔 for notifications of new videos! Don't forget to leave a comment 📜! ☕️ Buy Me A Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/K3JRZ 🅿️ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/K3JRZ Connect with me on: ✖️🐦 X/Twitter at https://twitter.com/k3jrz -- Parks On The Air - https://parksontheair.com Parks On The Air Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/parksontheair/ Parks On The Air Slack group - https://parksontheair.slack.com Parks On The Air spotting/stats/awards/and more site - https://pota.app LOCATION INFO: PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources - https://www.dcnr.pa.gov/StateParks/FindAPark/FortWashingtonStatePark/Pages/default.aspx Fort Washington State Park on Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Washington_State_Park -- MUSIC COPYRIGHT 1992 - 1997 BY GANGSTER PUMP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. -- CONTACT TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 - Intro 01:25 - Activate! 01:35 - KJ5BUL 02:22 - EA4TL 03:19 - N5VMN 03:37 - K4NYM 04:24 - N4CWB 04:32 - KB3WAV 04:45 - K3MTO 04:53 - N9VFR 05:11 - W8DF 06:22 - KD9PNI 07:02 - K0KLB 07:52 - W4CTY 08:16 - K9XN 08:52 - ND4Y 09:16 - Recap/Outro -- I am not affiliated administratively with the Parks On The Air organization, but a happy participant in the POTA program. Q: What is Parks On The Air? A: Parks On The Air (or POTA) for international portable amateur radio (ham radio) operations that promote emergency awareness and communications from national/federal and state/provincial level parks. There are activators and there are hunters. Activators go into POTA approved parks, set up their amateur radio equipment and call CQ (CQ is an invitation for any amateur radio operators listening on that frequency to respond and make contact). Hunters will contact the activators and upon a successful contact, the activator puts the hunter into their logs that will be uploaded to calling area representatives who will then upload those logs to the POTA system. Hunters do not need to upload any logs. Q: What are the Parks On The Air rules? A: The rules for Parks On The Air can be found at https://parksontheair.com/rules/ . Q: What are the Parks On The Air frequencies? A: Any frequency that an amateur radio operator has permission to legally use in their country based upon their level of license. Repeaters cannot be used. More info can be found at https://parksontheair.com/faq/ . --