Longmont Amateur Radio Club-LARC

Serving the Longmont Colorado Community!

“The mission of the Longmont Amateur Radio Club is to promote, support, and lead amateur radio activities in a manner that honors and exemplifies the radio amateur’s code, builds camaraderie within our membership, and serves our community’s needs.”

POTA

Sawhill Ponds POTA Activation

Recently the Parks on the Air organization added more places where you could do a POTA activation. While looking at the map on the POTA.app website, I noticed a park really close to my QTH. It wasn’t even activated yet so I took it upon myself to activate it for the first time.


So the other day, my XYL and I went to Sawhill Ponds to do a quick POTA activation. A YouTube video is linked below.

I successfully activated it on FT4 and FT8 including getting 2 XE stations! I like to run FT4 whenever I can, since it’s less crowded so its easier to not be “talked over” by higher powered FT8 stations. I’m also impatient and FT4 QSOs are twice as fast as FT8.

Normally, obtaining digital QSOs doesn’t surprise me when QRP @ 5 watts, but this activation was a challenge because there are noisy power lines very close by, as well as a large solar station nearby — so I didn’t even try SSB.

The other surprising thing about this activation was that my QSO’s were all to the east and southeast of my station, but my radial was pointed southwest! Normally I can QSO with California stations on less than 1 watt but no one on the west coast was interested (or ignoring L-vertical physics).

And lastly, I realized my TalentCell 12v battery was pretty noisy. When I connected it to my ICOM, the noise floor shot straight up. At QRP I was already challenged, so I elected not to run 10 watts to improve my chances at QSOs. I wish there was a way to bypass the BMS circuitry in this pack of LiFePO4 batteries so that I would have a lower noise floor. Sounds like an experiment with 16550 batteries is in my future.

73,

AE0RS

Monthly POTA (Parks On The Air) Activation Starting 3/20

Monthly POTA (Parks On The Air) Activation Starting 3/20

Come join us!

LARC will be holding a monthly POTA event to help current and prospective members get comfortable and proficient with using ham radio equipment. We will use this time to also train and certify club members on the Club’s Go-Box and antenna system. It is encouraged to bring your own gear if you have it, but the club will provide an HF and VHF/UHF radios (the Go-Box) for use during these events.

Times will be assigned for the go-box usage in 1hr time slots that you will need to sign up for. Dates and time are subject to change. Feel free to come early or stay late depending on your comfort level. 

All events will start at 9am MST.

To sign up and register in advance please submit this form so that we kow you are coming and can inform you of any changes.

For specific info on Parks On The Air go to: https://parksontheair.com/

This is an outdoor event please plan accordingly knowing that Colorado weather can change quickly and often.

For more information please email w0kki@w0eno.org

Some of the locations that we will be visiting are:

  • Boyd Lake State Park
  • Rocky Flats Nation Wildlife Refuge
  • Barr Lake State Park
  • Eldorado Canyon State PArk
  • Cherry Creek State Park
  • Golden Gate State Park
  • Pawnee National Grassland
  • Rocky Mtn National Park

Download the current flyer with planned outings subject to change.