3PP (3 Park POTA) for JSCARC- a 2nd try

There’s not too much to say here except we’re going to attempt our 2nd 3PP (3 Park POTA) roving adventure on Saturday November 2, 2024. The linked Power Point presentation provides the detailed information of our route plan and times.  (Note CW operators must use WARC bands after 1000CT.) If you’ve never tried a POTA … Read more…

Belton Hamfest Oct 2024

Belton Hamfest hails as the largest hamfest in Texas held twice a year- Spring and Fall.  This venue is a conveniently located equi-distance from the surrounding big, populated cities of Houston, San Antonio, Dallas/FW, and a bit closer for Austin-ites. It’s still a boring 3.5-hour drive from Houston/Clear-Lake, assuming traffic is clear.  Sympathies to Keith … Read more…

Dave’s 5th VHF Rover Adventure

The September ARRL VHF Contest, Sept 14-16, 2024 In hopes this post inspires others… This was my 5th outing as a VHF/UHF Rover.  A Rover is a mobile station that run a route throughout Maidenhead Grid Squares (A grid is approx. 70×100 miles or 1 deg latitude x 2 deg longitude).  Scores in the VHF … Read more…

W5RRR Attempted POTA Activation at Glacier National Park

<Submitted by Dan Nagla KG5PVP> It was a beautiful Montana morning at Apgar Village on the shore of Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park (POTA US-0028). Dan Nagala (KG5PVP) and Jayant Ramakrishnan (KG5JLZ) attempted an activation starting around 15:50 UTC on 25 August 2024. From the beginning we experienced very poor reception with background QRN … Read more…

Congrats Jeff, 1st POTA activation

Saturday Aug 31, 2024 @ Sheldon Lake, Texas US-3056 Following right behind the heels of Jayant KG5LJZ’s recent 1st CW POTA activation, Jeff AB4ME did it today with over 30 SSB QSOs on 20m.     Setup: TS-480SAT transceiver + new PAC 12 vertical antenna + LiFeO4 battery (repurposed from his motorhome).   Overall the … Read more…

JSCARC 3PP (3 Park POTA) 08/31/24

With no hurricanes in sight (as of today), it’s safe to plan another 3PP (3 Park POTA).   We’ll be tackling Galveston Island State Park first, and continue our route to Justin Hurst Wildlife Area and end at Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge.  Our planned operating times will be restricted to about 2 hours per park, … Read more…

A Hot August JSCARC POTA @ San Jacinto. #21

San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site remains the most convenient and popular POTA site for our JSCARC members. Today’s visit was another good POTA outing with a smacking reminder this is Texas in August… Mosquitos, Heat, and Humidity.  Perhaps spoiled with the recent cooler and wetter weather patterns in past weeks, it was yet again … Read more…

DIY Tape Measure Yagi Build @ W5RRR

July 30-31, 2024.  This was the club’s first attempt to host a DIY build of a 2m Yagi antenna.  The popular 3 element tape measure beam was successfully built using NT1K’s online drawings.  To keep costs low, we used cheapo Harbor Freight 1″ tape measures, 1/2″ PVC plastic pipe, and cable ties.     http://nt1k.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/3L-Tape-Measure-Yagi-Assy.pdf Our … Read more…

CQ Bzz Bzz

The Flight Of the Bumble Bee (FOBB) Contest was buzzing on Sunday July 28 It’s a 4 hour event hosted by the Adventure Radio Society and held annually on the last Sunday of July. Bumblebees operating less than 10W go out into the field to make contacts with other operators. Dan, KG5PVP, first alerted me about … Read more…