My travel antenna

An ongoing question on various online forums is "What is a good antenna for airline travel?"

Compact, inexpensive, easy to set up and effective - these are non-negotiable requirements for me:

17-foot (5m) whip -  offers a full 1/4-wavelength on any band, 10-20 meters. Collapses down to 19 inches (48cm). It has a 10mm thread so an adapter will be needed for the mount listed below. MFJ (sk) and other sources offer a similar whip (shown in photo) with a 3/8x24 thread but this version collapses only to 25 inches. I'd rather have the shorter whip even though it requires an adapter.

10mm to 3/8x24 adapter -  buy two because they're easy to lose ;-)

POTA website gets a facelift

The beta version of the upcoming (new) POTA website is live and uses the same login you have for the current POTA site.

Besides being much more visually appealing, the filtering and the ability to "sticky" post are very beneficial.

IOW, if you post something in a spot about your current activation, it won't be erased by the next person who spots you. 

Also new to the site is a 'Geographic Achievement' page. 

Band filtering allows the selection of multiple bands rather than the previous page's ALL or ONE choice.

I do wish that unactivated bands could be selected. As it currently stands, if no one is activating a park on 10 meters, I can't select 10m as a band of choice. I'd like to be able to do that so that once someone does start up on that band, I'll see the posting.

I like the new site and think it's a big improvement over the old.

The work that went into it is an indication of the program's popularity.

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October: ZA/AE5X update

I've been getting a few emails asking for more info on our upcoming trip to Albania.

Thanks to Col at DX World for the image and to Bernie at the Daily DX - and to both of them for publicizing this holiday style operation that will begin in October.

I'd like to emphasize that this is a vacation, not a DXpedition. All radio ops will be a bit on the spur-of-the-moment but I will be able to pre-announce them on my blog and the POTA website a couple hours beforehand.

Dates:

• 8-13 October in Theth National Park in northern Albania. I plan to *try* to activate it but will be surrounded by mountains. NVIS?
• 13-18 October we'll be in the Tirana area and I plan to be on the air from the old Radio Tirana site 40 minutes west of the city.
• 18-30 October - southern Albania, Gjirokaster and near beaches.

 

Rig:

Video: QDX-M assists in the rescue of a spelunker

The low-frequency capability of Hans G0UPL's QDX-M proved its worth in Alberta last week.

Rescuers attempting to retrieve a cave explorer made use of a QDX-M built for the 2200 meter band (136 kHz) which, evidently, will allow communications through solid rock.

The rescue was successful and can be read about here:

Calgary Herald

CBC

According to Hans:

"There is a request to make the QDX-M firmware operational down to 88 kHz which is where the UK and European cave rescue services have an allocation. I will try to get that done in the next week or two.

W7, VE7 ops...and booking ahead for ZA

We've arrived at cooler temps and have been at our AirBnB for several days now, located between Courtenay BC and Strathcona Provincial Park. We see snow on the mountaintops from our balcony - what a concept!

Mount Rainier was our last stop before taking the ferry over from Port Angeles WA to Victoria BC.

We did a 4 mile hike there and came face to face with a black bear heading  our way on the trail. We walked away from it slowly, it did the same. I walked backwards and opened my phone's camera app and made a brief video as the bear paralleled us on the other side of a small creek.

Yesterday consisted of a beautiful 7 mile hike in Strathcona PP followed by a frustrating activation. Were band conditions poor or does being surrounded by mountains adversely affect propagation?! 10 tough, well-earned contacts went into the log, all of them weak.

Later today we are headed to a beach where I'll see if saltwater offers an improvement in radio'ing. We'll be at Miracle Beach Provincial Park CA-3807 sometime between 1900-2200Z and may go to another nearby beach (and POTA site after that).