Lake Livingstone State Park US-3028
Sheldon Lake State Park US-3056
Brazos Bend State Park US-2992
San Jacinto State Park US-3511
by Jayant KG5LJZ
This web page is about a fascinating two weekends that we had in November 2025 where we decided to activate a series of parks on the air using digital modes and some new modes that I’ve been learning.
This is KG5LJZ, and I started the activations by joining the Houston POTA Club on a Saturday after a bike ride in Lake Livingston State Park. HoustonPOTA had set up all the radios and antennas, and I tried getting on FT8, but that did not quite go well with the activation (RIG error no matter what we did). So I quickly switched to SSB and was able to activate the park and also got a CW QSO. Thanks to my friends at the HoustonPOTA I now had activated a new park with their help.
The next day was Sunday, and I was able to get with John AB5SS, and we both drove to Sheldon Lake State Park (US-3056) to figure out what is going on FT8 and whether we could get an activation with a new antenna that AB5SS had purchased (little modification to the JPC-12).
The new antenna is the same as the JPC-12 vertical antenna, with a difference that instead of the coil, he had an 18.4 feet whip, which he was able to adjust to 20 meters wavelength, 14.074 MHz frequency.
We were able to get on the air and immediately the screen turned completely red, which basically meant that we were getting a lot of hits from other FT8 stations. AB5SS and KG5LJZ, activated the Sheldon Lakes park and then we were also able to get on CW and get a whole bunch of CW contacts.
We were there for about three and a half hours, and it was a very nice outing. Every time we go to the same park, we generally try to choose a different location to see how the propagation is and how the experience is different from the previous time that we have been there. So, this basically activated two parks: the first part being US- 3028 and the second one being the Sheldon Lakes US-3056.
This weekend, I was able to go to the Brazos Bend State Park (US-2992) and again I wanted to activate using FT8. I did this solo this weekend. i scouted and found a location near Hale Lake, and while my wife was doing her own thing, I basically set up the antenna and got a quick activation at Hale Lake. I was also able to play a little bit with CW and a few SSB contacts.
The location was different from what I had used last time, and I was trying to time and see how long it took to set up the antenna, to get everything connected, to check all the SWRs, and get going on the activation. To be honest, I didn’t check the SWR; we’d already configured it nicely with the coil, and I just went straight on to the activation. I pretty much got the activation in about 35-40 minutes.
Today, November 24th, I decided to take the day off (my pre-birthday day off). I basically decided to go do something different. This time, I went to the San Jacinto Monument which is US-3511 to activate. This time, I scouted the area and found several areas where we could activate, including the Reflecting Pool and the San Jacinto Monument itself. Unfortunately, as I was getting out of the car to set up the radio, I heard some thunder, it started raining, and I didn’t want to get messed up in the great outdoors and decided to quickly go back to the shelter that we generally use at one far end of the park.
This is a place where W5RRR, the club, has activated many many times, and I went there at least with that expectation that at least now I have a shelter and I was going to watch out for the weather and see what transpired. It was very windy, a beautiful day. I was able to again activate on FT8. Other than the wind, the antenna was pretty stable, and we were able to get the required 10 contacts or so (13+ contacts in about 40 minutes).
Then I decided to go CW and I switched modes and I started hunting other parks which were on the air. This way I was also going to be able to get a park-to-park credit, and I didn’t have to worry too much about deciphering the call signs, which I’m still not very good at figuring out. Generally, I am helped at this task by W5OC or AB5SS. At the end of the activation, I got some courage and I said, “Let me try activating and sending out CQ POTA.” I basically said, “CQ POTA KG5LJZ” and sent it out. And I started getting a pileup.
They were very patient with me, and many of them I could get the first three letters of their call sign, but I was struggling with the last three. They helped me by slowing down, and I did get a few CW QSOs with me being the true activator, rather than cheating and looking at the webpage and finding out who else was activating in which park. I wrapped up around 4 o’clock when it was beginning to thunder and rains were beginning to again move in. Overall, it was great to have 4 park activations these two weekends.
I learned a lot in the process about antennas, to be very precise on FT8, and also made some progress on deciphering incoming QSOs in the continuous wave format. Looking forward to more POTAs and looking forward to more activations. This THANKSGIVING I thank the W5RRR, HoustonPOTA, and LICW club mentors for all the effort they put into my education. Till next time, keep going on POTAs.
de KG5LJZ with AB5SS.
Addendum…
I made my FT8 QSO’s using the iFTx application on an iPad instead of my laptop. A USB-C to USB-C cable connected the iPad to the DigiRig interface. The app was easy to figure out and generated an ADIF log file ready for importing into my logging app and uploading to the POTA.app website. The app is also available for the iPhone.
73 de John, AB5SS
It was great fun – Thank you for the mentorship.