Signed up for a POTA Account.

[TNFrank]

Got another 2. Here's the Parks I've Hunted so far. I think I've found the thing I like to do on HF. POTA Hunter. 

[Northcutt114]

21 hours ago, TNFrank said:

6 hours of calling CQ with 1 hour worth of contacts can be edited to look like a contact every few minutes when it might have been 20 or 30 minutes between contacts.

No way I'm going to sit and call CQ for six hours. Did you? Or did you just pull that number out of a hat? I would like to see an unedited video. Not that I would watch the whole thing, mind you, but it would give perspective.

[Northcutt114]

1 hour ago, TNFrank said:

Got another 2. Here's the Parks I've Hunted so far. I think I've found the thing I like to do on HF. POTA Hunter. 

That's awesome, man. I've only managed to hunt four...but I only hunt when I'm activating, so...

[TNFrank]

I know I'm on Hunting POTA for 4 or 5 hours a day and get maybe 5 or 6 hits. 

It all depends on how busy 10M is. Sometimes I hear someone calling POTA and no one is giving a return so it's easy to get a QSO, other times it's a pile up and I either have to wait or move on. Sometimes they'll come in 5/9 but won't answer my call. It's always a crap shoot but it's a log of fun too Hunting POTA QSO's.

[WSJL698]

On 1/4/2026 at 2:28 PM, TNFrank said:

There's just no Parks near by and local State Parks don't count from what I've been told. Too bad because we've got a couple small Parks close by.

I just looked at the map on the pota website (POTA.APP) and there are a few parks fairly close to Avondale.  Base & Meridian State Wildlife Area, Robbins Butte Wildlife Area State Wildlife Area, Arlington State Wildlife Area, Painted Rock Petroglyph Site National Historical Site.    

[TNFrank]

The one over by the race track isn't very far at all. There's also one near Buckeye which would be further but my daughter and grandson live out that way so it's also doable. 

[WSJL698]

2 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

The one over by the race track isn't very far at all. There's also one near Buckeye which would be further but my daughter and grandson live out that way so it's also doable. 

A lot of people activate from Lost Dutchman.  That's on the other side of the valley from you.  Best bet is to look at the POTA site for each of those parks and find the callsigns of the guys that are the activation "leaders" at that park.  Go to QRZ and see if they have an email.  Send them an email and see if you can tag along with them the next time they go activate.  That would be a good learning experience.  It's really not that hard to activate honestly.  It's like jumping off the high dive board at the pool.  It seems scary the first time and then when you do it you realize it wasn't that big of a deal.   

[TNFrank]

Activation doesn't sound all that hard on my end, it's getting enough Hunters to get the 10 QSO's you need to activate.  I'm sure I could find someone to help carry in the table and chairs we'd use to set up the radio and power station. I just didn't know we had any qualifying Parks nearby to activate. Now that I do it'll be on my "to do" list. 

I'm also only 3 more Parks away from getting my 20 park hunting award on the POTA site. HF is way more fun for me than VHF/UHF.

 

P.S.

Here's 2 I could try.

 

[WRYS709]

7 hours ago, Northcutt114 said:

No way I'm going to sit and call CQ for six hours. Did you? Or did you just pull that number out of a hat? I would like to see an unedited video. Not that I would watch the whole thing, mind you, but it would give perspective.

If you are posting your Spot on the POTA website and not getting responses, something is wrong...

Have you tried my suggestion to listen to yourself on a WebSDR that is a few hundred miles away from you?

I just did that tonight: 80 and 40 meters were dead, but I could hear myself clearly on the Northern Utah WebSDR and after calling CQ on 75 for about 20 minutes I got a nice reply.  Not too far away but far enough that I knew my equipment was working.

[Northcutt114]

5 hours ago, WRYS709 said:

If you are posting your Spot on the POTA website and not getting responses, something is wrong...

Have you tried my suggestion to listen to yourself on a WebSDR that is a few hundred miles away from you?

I just did that tonight: 80 and 40 meters were dead, but I could hear myself clearly on the Northern Utah WebSDR and after calling CQ on 75 for about 20 minutes I got a nice reply.  Not too far away but far enough that I knew my equipment was working.

I have tried listening to myself on the WebSDR. I heard myself once, the other time I did not.

I am spotting myself on the POTA app and other people are spotting me, too. So I know I'm getting out. I'm chalking it up to bad timing and poor conditions.

 

[WRYS709]

1 hour ago, Northcutt114 said:

I have tried listening to myself on the WebSDR. I heard myself once, the other time I did not.

I am spotting myself on the POTA app and other people are spotting me, too. So I know I'm getting out. I'm chalking it up to bad timing and poor conditions.

 

Sounds like my original Novice license: took me weeks of calling CQ in CW before I got my first QSO!

[TNFrank]

2 hours ago, Northcutt114 said:

I have tried listening to myself on the WebSDR. I heard myself once, the other time I did not.

I am spotting myself on the POTA app and other people are spotting me, too. So I know I'm getting out. I'm chalking it up to bad timing and poor conditions.

 

What frequency are you going to be on and what times and call sign? I'll look for you to see if we can make a QSO.

[Davichko5650]

18 hours ago, TNFrank said:

Got another 2. Here's the Parks I've Hunted so far. I think I've found the thing I like to do on HF. POTA Hunter. 

 

Don't forget to check on your POTA log page for those fabulous, and printable should you care to, award certificates!

[TNFrank]

I already printed out the first 2 that I'be gotten.

[Northcutt114]

Ok, observations from today's one hour session before the sun went down:

• I was able to work two stations and almost a third. Two QSO's, one in Brasil, the other a POTA activation in Pennsylvania. Both stations made the comment that my signal was strong but audio was bad. I am beginning to suspect that the compressor function being on is distorting my voice, along with having the mic gain too high. So I'm going to try running without the compressor and dialing back the gain to see if that helps in the future. I was also able to talk to a station in Argentina, but he couldn't make out my full call sign, so I didn't log it.
• The last station I talked to, the Pennsylvania POTA, made the comment that maybe my radio was "starving for power" which would explain why the audio was bad. As I decreased the gain to as low as 8, he said the sound was improving. See my point above. But as to the radio "starving for power," the meter in the case said I was pushing 12.2v. Xiegu says the G90 is rated down to 10.8v and I have made contacts as low as 11.1v. Thoughts?
• I hunted four different other POTA activators, one in SC, one in LA, one in TN, and the final in CA. I never heard any of the first three. I could hear the guy in CA, but he couldn't hear me. Interesting.
• I also tuned into the SDR station from PA on the web. I was never able to hear myself, but I was able to hear other stations that I tuned into that I could hear on my radio. So I know I was using the SDR sight correctly. I was able to successfully hunt a guy in PA, but the website station couldn't hear me. Interesting.
• Lastly, I listened to a POTA activation on 14.XXX. It was an absolute pile up. The guy would say QRZ and 10-12 people would pile in on him. I checked out his call sign and googled him. He's not a Youtuber. Zero digital footprint other than his QRZ page. Conclusion? I think POTA activators are far, far more active on other bands than 10m. I think POTA might be the realm of the General Operator...more incentive to study.

@TNFrank if you'd prefer I not carry on this conversation in this thread, I'll gladly oblige, just seems this is where the guys are that will want to talk about this kind of stuff.

[Northcutt114]

8 hours ago, WRYS709 said:

Sounds like my original Novice license: took me weeks of calling CQ in CW before I got my first QSO!

Believe it or not, I got on the air and made a coast to coast QSO the second time I turned on my radio. It was not, however in CW. I did, however, today, listen in on CW QSO. I turned on the CW decoder and honestly, still couldn't make heads or tails of it. I caught the call signs but the rest of it was numbers and letters that I assume were shorthand from something that I don't know.

 

[TNFrank]

I think a log of the POTA guys are running 20M since it's more reliable than 10M. Even after I get my General I'll still be limited to 10M and 12M because of my radio. 

I got the new tripod and it's really tall. Should get my signal up and out better and I'm going to Gibraltar a EFHW cut for 10M a try as well. 

[WRYZ926]

@Northcutt114. What do you have the AGC set at?

I run with compression ON and the AGC set to Auto. My mic gain is at 10. I have had people compliment me on how the G90 sounds on SSB with those settings. Another thing I do is hold the mic about 2 inches from my mouth and at an angle.

The power input from the battery should not affect how you sound. The only thing that a lower power input should do is decrease the power output during transmission.

Yes most people are going to be on 20m when working POTA since it is going to be the most reliable band. While I have not tried doing a POTA activation on 10m, I have used 15m, 17m, and 20m. I have the best success on 20m.

POTA is fun when you can make contacts but very discouraging when you don't. Being restricted to 10m SSB is going to make things harder but don't give up.

[hxpx]

On 1/5/2026 at 8:14 AM, WRYZ926 said:

@TNFrank the activators do appreciate the hunters, especially on slow days and/or poor propagation. It can be hard to get 10 contacts for a successful activation.

And yes people search out the YouTubers so that they can try and get in the videos.

I've seen KB9VBR and K8MRD pop up a couple of times but I haven't been able to hear them. I haven't been able to pick up any Michigan stations (too close?), not sure why I couldn't hear K8MRD given how well I hear other Texas stations. I heard the pileups, though. Yikes.

@TNFrank You might be out of range for my current antennas - I haven't had much luck picking up 10m stations at all and I have yet to reliably work a station farther west than Texas (i did make one 20m UT QSO but he was deep in the noise). I'll keep an eye (ear?) out, though!

[WRYZ926]

3 minutes ago, hxpx said:

I've seen KB9VBR and K8MRD pop up a couple of times but I haven't been able to hear them. I haven't been able to pick up any Michigan stations (too close?), not sure why I couldn't hear K8MRD given how well I hear other Texas stations. I heard the pileups, though. Yikes.

 

I have heard KB9VBR a few times but have not been able to work him. I have worked K8MRD once or twice on FT8 and he confirmed. I've worked KM9G but he never confirmed.

10m was a lot better last year, but we are on the downward slide of the solar cycle now. Another option for technicians is to run FT8 on 10m.

[Northcutt114]

3 hours ago, WRYZ926 said:

@Northcutt114. What do you have the AGC set at?

I run with compression ON and the AGC set to Auto. My mic gain is at 10. I have had people compliment me on how the G90 sounds on SSB with those settings. Another thing I do is hold the mic about 2 inches from my mouth and at an angle.

The power input from the battery should not affect how you sound. The only thing that a lower power input should do is decrease the power output during transmission.

Yes most people are going to be on 20m when working POTA since it is going to be the most reliable band. While I have not tried doing a POTA activation on 10m, I have used 15m, 17m, and 20m. I have the best success on 20m.

POTA is fun when you can make contacts but very discouraging when you don't. Being restricted to 10m SSB is going to make things harder but don't give up.

I appreciate the data points. I run with AGC off. When I do turn it on, I run it on Auto.

I didn't think power would affect how I sounded either. I appreciate the confirmation.

I see a lot of activations on FT8. I guess I need to figure out what that is. I assume it's some kind of digital interface. Bleh. I don't want to text somebody on a radio.

 

[TNFrank]

8 minutes ago, Northcutt114 said:

I see a lot of activations on FT8. I guess I need to figure out what that is. I assume it's some kind of digital interface. Bleh. I don't want to text somebody on a radio.

 

That's the way I understand it. You're running your radio into a digital interface and a computer so you can text someone.  That's not what I'm looking for with radio.I want to TALK to people. I guess I'm just too Old School/Simple for all this FT8 stuff. LOL

[SteveShannon]

 

 

 

10 minutes ago, Northcutt114 said:

I see a lot of activations on FT8. I guess I need to figure out what that is. I assume it's some kind of digital interface. Bleh. I don't want to text somebody on a radio.

 

It’s not even texting (although that can be done with JS8).  It’s simply exchanging contact information digitally.  You see a list of stations who are calling CQ and click on one to make contact and the computer handles the entire transaction.  Or you have your computer send CQ and hope that someone sees your call and clicks on it.  It can happen pretty quickly sometimes and you’ll make contacts in Australia, Japan, Montana, etc.  it can also be pretty slow sometimes.  All of the logging is automatically done for you. You can see your contacts on a map.

 

[Northcutt114]

10 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

It’s not even texting (although that can be done with JS8).  It’s simply exchanging contact information digitally.  You see a list of stations who are calling CQ and click on one to make contact and the computer handles the entire transaction.  Or you have your computer send CQ and hope that someone sees your call and clicks on it.  It can happen pretty quickly sometimes and you’ll make contacts in Australia, Japan, Montana, etc.  it can also be pretty slow sometimes.  All of the logging is automatically done for you. You can see your contacts on a map.

I'm familiar with JS8. I assumed FT8 was the same. So you use the radio and don't even talk to people? Bleh..... 

Besides, I don't have one of those weird pentagon looking circuit boardy things that I'd need.

[TNFrank]

9 minutes ago, Northcutt114 said:

I'm familiar with JS8. I assumed FT8 was the same. So you use the radio and don't even talk to people? Bleh..... 

Besides, I don't have one of those weird pentagon looking circuit boardy things that I'd need.

Ditto.