The Arkansas River Headwaters is a unique recreation area that follows the upper Arkansas River in Colorado, extending roughly from Leadville to Pueblo. POTA has it listed as the Arkansas River Headwaters State Park, but the Colorado Parks and Wildlife website shows it as the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area. This area is a bit unique, a cooperative effort involving Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the Bureau of Land Management, and the US Forest Service. See map here.

Joyce/K0JJW and I decided to activate this park earlier this week, enjoying a nice sunny day. We operated from the Collegiate Peaks Overlook, which has a picnic area and an excellent view of Mount Princeton and adjacent peaks.

For POTA, our standard station configuration is the Yaesu FT-991 transceiver driving an end-fed halfwave antenna, usually on 20m or 15m. We have a collection of end-fed halfwave antennas that cover 40m and up.  We have bigger and smaller transceivers available to us, but the FT-991 is small enough to be portable but includes an antenna tuner and has 100 watts of output available. (Typically, we run about 50 watts of RF output on battery power.) Our power source is a Bioenno 12V 20aH LFP battery.  This battery is lightweight and compact, capable of running the FT-991 for hours.

Bob working VE4RBH and AG7KO on 20 meters.

We set up our station on a convenient picnic table. We had hoped to lash the mast to a conveniently-located post or tree, but none were present. Our backup plan was the drive-on mount, held by the front tire of the truck. The 20m band was alive so we just set up on that band and never looked back. We also worked some of the locals on 2m FM. It is always fun to see who shows up on that band.

Here’s Joyce working AA5UY in Louisiana.

I don’t think we have really optimized our POTA setup but we have found an approach that works well. Never underestimate a properly-fed halfwave antenna up in the air.

73 Bob K0NR

The post POTA: Arkansas River Headwaters State Park (K-1208) appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

Recently, I commented on participating in the Parks On The Air (POTA) program: How About Parks On The Air? Since then Joyce/K0JJW and I have done a few POTA activations, including a few combination SOTA (Summits On The Air) + POTA activations. We are starting to sort out how SOTA and POTA work for us. I am sure this will evolve over time as there are many operating options with both programs. But here is what we’ve done so far.

Recall that we’ve been focusing on VHF/UHF operating for SOTA, although I did break down and actually made some HF contacts from a SOTA summit recently. VHF/UHF  is a good match for SOTA (Height Above Average Terrain). However, for some remote summits, it can be a challenge to get enough radio contacts (4) to qualify for the SOTA points. Using HF can be a big help in generating contacts. POTA can also be done with VHF, some parks have high elevation, but many of them are not attractive VHF locations. POTA requires 10 radio contacts to qualify for points, so that raises the bar a bit, too.

Yesterday, we decided to hike up Mt Herman (W0C/FR-063) for a short afternoon VHF/UHF activation. I posted both a SOTA alert and a POTA alert.  We made plenty of radio contacts (40 total) and submitted logs to both the SOTA and POTA websites. I know there were SOTA chasers out there but I’m not sure if anyone worked us specifically for POTA. As usual, a lot of hams give us a call just because it is fun to work someone on a summit (without any SOTA or POTA interest).

The majority of our SOTA activations in Colorado are in national forests, which count as “parks” for POTA. So it is easy to tack on a POTA activation when doing SOTA.

Vehicle-Based POTA

Joyce and I also did some POTA activations from a vehicle. It is pretty easy for us to get to Pike National Forest (K-4404) or San Isabel National Forest (K-4407) and set up a portable station.

We used a Yaesu FT-991 and endfed halfwave antennas for 20m and 15m, supported by a SOTAbeams pole. This is the same configuration I’ve used for portable operating from many locations, including some Caribbean islands. I recently purchased a 20 Ah LFP battery from Bioenno Power to use as a power source so that we don’t rely on the vehicle battery.

We focused on HF for these POTA activations and were pleased to have decent pileups of stations calling us on the 20m and 15m bands. Fifty watts to a halfwave antenna works just fine. We also made it a point to call on 2m FM and usually picked up a handle of contacts on that band, too.

What’s Next?

At this point, our outdoorsy portable operating is looking like this:

• SOTA Summits – if the summit is in a park, we will probably go ahead and submit a POTA log along with the SOTA log. Many of the W0C SOTA summits are in national forests, national parks or state parks. VHF-only activations will probably have less impact on POTA…those chasers/hunters tend to be on HF.
• POTA Parks (day trip) – another option is for us to just stop by one of the national forests or a state park and get on the air. (Pike National Forest is about 2 miles from our home.) This will be focused on the HF bands but we can always make a call or two on VHF.
• POTA (RV camping) – we’ve been RV camping in state parks and national forests this past year. An obvious additional activity is to set up on HF for a POTA activation. We haven’t done this yet.

I’ve already done a combination VHF Contest and SOTA activation, so this could be extended to include POTA. Three Things In One. In fact, some locations qualify for more than one POTA park, so maybe it is time for a Four-In-One.

73 Bob K0NR

The post More On SOTA and POTA appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

Charlie/NJ7V invited Joyce/K0JJW and me to be on the All Portable Discussion Zone, on the Red Summit RF YouTube channel. We talked mostly about Summits On The AIr (SOTA) using VHF/UHF. It was a fun experience for both of us.

The post K0JJW and K0NR Interview on Red Summit RF appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

Once again, I was asked by a new ham “which handheld transceiver should I get?” This is a frequent and valid question that comes up. Often the question gets framed as “Baofeng or something better?” I say “something better.”  I am not writing to bash Baofeng radios or the people that use them. The radios are an incredible value on the low end of the market…amazing what they can do for $30 or so. Besides, I own several of them.  I just think that if you have a few more $$ to spend, you can get a much better radio. What’s wrong with these low-end Chinese radios? Out of spec harmonics on transmit and poor adjacent channel rejection on receive.

Digital? Probably Not

The other question that usually surfaces is “should I get a digital radio?” Here “digital radio” means D-STAR, Yaesu Fusion or DMR. My answer to that is “No,” unless you have a specific reason for going digital. Adding digital to a radio results in two things: 1) a higher price and 2) a more complex radio. Actually, the price difference may not be that significant, especially for a DMR radio. However, the complexity factor is always there.

What is a specific reason for going digital? You already know that there are digital repeaters in your area that you want to use, you have ham radio friends already using digital or you are technically-oriented and have researched the topic to know that it is something you want to try. If one of these things is true, then go for it.

Oh, you do need to know which digital format to get. No radio does them all and the industry is fragmented between D-STAR, Fusion and DMR. I find this very disappointing but life is sometimes like that.

Narrowing It Down

So narrowing the topic down, we are looking for an affordable (under $100) dual-band handheld that is not a cheap Chinese radio (Baofeng, etc.) and is not a fancy digital radio. My opinion is the quality ham radio manufacturers are pretty much Alinco, Icom, Kenwood, and Yaesu. The price points on basic handheld transceivers keep changing, so be sure to check the date on this post and do a little price shopping.

The Alinco DJ-VX50 is about $100, so not too expensive, but I am not seeing any eham.net product reviews on it. Also, it seems to be out of stock at several vendors, so I am not sure of its production status. Icom and Kenwood have exited the low-end handheld market, so nothing to consider there. This leaves Yaesu as the only “brand name” player in this space. I have been recommending the Yaesu FT-4XR as a good alternative: see What About the Yaesu FT-4XR? at about $80. I recently noticed that the Yaesu FT-65R has come down in price to about $85. With this price difference, it probably makes sense to go with the FT-65R. (I really wonder about Yaesu’s product line strategy at this point. Why are there two similar radios priced so close together?)

Here is a quick comparison of the two radios: Yaesu FT-4XR vs FT-65R, which is right for you? Conclusion: FT-65R is probably better for most people. Also, check out the HamRadioSchool.com article: Yaesu FT-65R Product Review.  The eham.net product reviews are generally positive on the FT-65R, but there are a few negative themes that surface. Some people are reporting radio failures that may indicate a manufacturing issue with the product. (It is made in China.)

The Good Old FT-60

The other theme that surfaces is that the FT-65R is not a complete replacement for the venerable FT-60R. Joyce/K0JJW and I have a couple of FT-60Rs that we really like and frequently use. Yaesu still sells this older model because it is so popular and, frankly, it is a really solid radio. The HamRadioSchool.com review of the FT-65R mentions several things that people tend to like on the FT-60R that were left out of the FT-65R (e.g., dedicated VFO and Squelch knobs.) The biggest complaint I hear about the FT-60R is that it has an old-school NiMH battery (the FT-65R has lithium-ion).

My conclusion is to recommend the FT-65R to newcomers to the hobby. At ~$85, it fits most people’s budgets. There is some risk that you will outgrow it down the road and want a more capable handheld for digital or APRS or whatnot. In that scenario, the FT-65R will still be a good second/backup radio. (Ya gotta have more than one, right?)

That’s my opinion. What y’all think?

73 Bob K0NR

The post Choosing A First Handheld Radio appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

The light-bulb dummy load has been used with HF transceivers from way back in the old days (and sometimes more recently). Also, the Lightbulb QSO Party promoted the use of light bulbs as antennas.

I wanted to find out if I could do the same thing with a 5W handheld transceiver, so I scavenged a bulb from an old string of Christmas tree lights and hooked it up to my Yaesu FT-60. This video shows what happened next.

After I made the video, I checked the specs on the FT-60 and found that the transmit power settings are: 5.0 W (High) / 2.0 W (Middle) / 0.5 W (Low). In the video, I said the middle setting was one half watt, which is incorrect.

I checked the SWR on the light bulb and found it to be 2.7. I was not worried about damaging the handheld radio because they are designed to work into crummy antennas such as the standard rubber duck.

I hope you enjoyed this fun experiment. Sorry about the amateurish video quality…I just shot it with my iPhone and did some simple editing.

73 Bob K0NR

The post HT and Light Bulb Load appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

On some SOTA summits that are established radio sites, there can be significant RFI on 2 meters. I recently wrote about that here: RFI on SOTA Summits. There have also been discussions from time to time among VHF SOTA activators on which handheld transceiver (HT) has the most robust receiver for use in high RF environments. (Hint: a Baofeng is not going to be your best choice.)

This led me to an excellent web page by Razvan/YO9IRF that tabulates the receiver performance of HTs as measured in the ARRL lab. This is arguably the most objective look at HT performance out there. You can do a sort on a particular parameter and see which models are best.

Probably the parameter to start with is wide 3rd-order intermodulation on the 2-meter band. (I am going to ignore the 70 cm performance because most VHF SOTA contacts are on 2 meters.) The wide 3rd-order intermod performance relates to interference rejection from outside the amateur band.

Here are the best performing HTs for this parameter. (Go to the website directly to see other models listed.)

Interestingly, the Icom IC-V8 jumps to the top of the list. This is an older single-band 2m radio…and I happen to have one hiding somewhere in the basement. I am a bit surprised there are two Wouxun radios near the top of the list but they performed well.  No surprise that the Yaesu FT-60 shows up…it seems to be well-regarded by SOTA activators.

The narrow 3rd-order intermod performance relates to the receiver performance inside the amateur band. Sorting based on that parameter shows these radios at the top:

The Kenwood TH-22AT takes the top position, followed by the Yaesu FT-10R, both older single-band radios. The general trend here is that some of the older radios, especially single-band rigs, have better front end filtering. Newer radios tend to include reception of a wider range of frequencies outside the ham band and have receiver front ends that are correspondingly more open. The Radio Shack HTX-202 gets a lot of positive comments from the SOTA crowd and is on the shortlist.  Again, the well-regarded FT-60 makes the list.

Let’s check a few of my favorite HTs to see how they rate.

My usual SOTA handheld is the Yaesu FT-1DR. The wide 3rd-order intermod is 73 dB, or 12 dB worse than the FT-60 (85 dB). For narrow 3rd-order intermod, the FT-1DR is 58 dB vs 67 dB for the FT-60. This matches my impression that the FT-1DR does OK for most summits but is not the best radio for high RF environments.

Another radio to consider is the Yaesu FT-4XR. I often have this radio on at the house but I don’t use it for SOTA. This radio uses the same receiver IC as the Baofeng UV-5R but has better input filtering. The wide 3rd-order intermod is only 63 dB and the narrow 3rd-order is 61 dB (about the same as the FT-1DR).  The table does not list any Baofeng radios but I would expect them to perform worse than the FT-4XR.

Regular readers of this blog know that I use a Yaesu FT-90 mini-mobile transceiver for most SOTA activations. I looked up the ARRL tests on it. The wide and narrow 3rd-order intermod are 85 dB and 65 dB respectively, not better than the best handhelds but near the top. My experience is that the FT-90 receiver is better than my FT-60 and FT-1DR, consistent with the ARRL lab measurements.

Another radio of interest is the Yaesu FT-818, which the ARRL measured as 96 dB (wide 3rd-order intermod) and 72 dB (narrow 3rd-order intermod) on the 2m band.  This puts the FT-818 at the top of the list with the best handhelds. Actually, I would have expected it to be even better, far superior to an HT, but apparently not.

So I need to dig out that old Icom IC-V8 that is hiding in the basement. It may be a good piece of equipment to have along on SOTA activations.

73 Bob K0NR

The post Which HT For High RF SOTA? appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

One thing to watch out for when doing SOTA activations is the presence of strong Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) on some peaks. The typical scenario is that the summit is also an established radio site with transmitters that interfere with your ham radio operations.

I use the VHF/UHF bands for SOTA, so I am writing from that perspective. My impression is that HF interference is much less likely because these radio sites don’t usually have any HF transmitters. However, they may have broadband noise sources such as networking equipment, power line arcing or switching power supplies that can create problems on HF. Anyway, this post is focused on 2 meters and higher bands.

In my experience, the transmitters at radio sites may include land mobile repeaters (VHF or UHF), NOAA Weather (162.xx MHz), TV/FM broadcast stations and mobile wireless (cellular) systems. The TV/FM broad stations are really bad news because they run a crapton of RF power.

The worst summit I have encountered is Sandia Crest (W5N/SI-001) near Albuquerque, NM. See trip report here. They even have a sign in the parking lot to warn you that the RFI may wipe out your car’s keyless remote.

Some other notable RFI-heavy SOTA summits are Monarch Ridge South (W0C/SP-058), Squaw Mountain (W0C/PR-082), Terry Peak (W0D/NW-002), and Greentop (W4T/SU-076).

In a high RFI environment, your radio receiver gets overloaded such that you can’t hear stations calling you but they can hear you just fine. This results in the SOTA activator calling and calling while the chasers get frustrated that the activator never hears their call. Not good. It may not be obvious that this is happening. This blocking of the receiver may come and go, depending on which transmitters happen to be active.

Mitigation Strategies

There are a few things that you can do to deal with the RFI:

Move Away From The Source

Probably the first thing to try is just moving away from the source of interference. This may mean moving away from the highest point on the summit but it may be better overall to give up a few feet of elevation to not have the interference. You’ll need to stay in the activation zone to be a legitimate SOTA activation.

Use A Better Radio

Some radios are better than others when it comes to receiver performance including the ability to reject unwanted signals. The low cost radios from China (Baofeng or similar) generally have lousy receivers so they are a poor choice for operating from an RFI-intense summit. Many people report better results with the Yaesu FT-60, a solid performer. Commerical radios from Motorola are even more robust. I’ve been using a small mobile radio for SOTA (Yaesu FT-90) which outperforms most handheld radios.

Change Your Antenna

Using a directional antenna can help…just point it away from the source of the interference.  Oddly enough, using a worse performing antenna can help improve your ability to communicate. For example, a rubber duck antenna on a handheld radio will allow less of the interfering signal to get into your receiver which may improve your ability to receive. As long as the antenna is “good enough” to complete the radio contact, it may be the way to go. One trick I’ve used is to deploy two radios, one for receive with a crummy antenna and the other for transmit with a better antenna. That way, you still radiate a stronger signal while reducing the interference into the receiver.

Use A Bandpass Filter

You can insert a filter into your antenna feedline to reduce the interfering signal. The best approach is to use a bandpass filter that passes the frequency you are operating on but attenuates other signals.  SOTABeams offers a compact bandpass filter for the 2m band. (Note that it has a 5W power rating which is fine for handheld radios but not more powerful transceivers.) DCI Digital Communications offers higher power filters but they are much larger in size.

Change Frequency

Sometimes a small change in frequency might help a bit if the interference is limited to certain frequencies. Another tip is to try another band. That is, if you are getting interference on 2 meters, you may find that the 70 cm band is better. Or vice versa. It all depends on the transmitters at the site.

73 Bob K0NR

The post RFI on SOTA Summits appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.