015 - Portable Go Bag Complete After POTA Equipment Failure

Interactive Transcript

spk_0 Well, hello and welcome back to another episode of Cliff's Notes on Amateur Radio.

spk_0 In this episode, I'm going to share with you a bit of a funny picture of what I looked

spk_0 like when I was operating a recent parks on the air activation and ran into a significant

spk_0 technical challenge in the middle of one of my first pile-ups in the longest time.

spk_0 I'll also share with you some of my theory on why it's been so long since I've worked

spk_0 a pile-up. I will also share with you in this episode since I had a technical challenge

spk_0 in a piece of equipment failure. I'll share with you what piece of equipment failed, what

spk_0 I did to replace that piece of equipment and how it inspired the purchase of some additional

spk_0 equipment. Then I will also share with you some other minor updates about some other gear

spk_0 that has had issues. Then also, I will share with you a few new purchases I made to finally

spk_0 complete a portable backpack go bag that will allow me to, in one backpack, carry everything I need

spk_0 to go and do an activation out in the middle of the wilderness, whether that's parks on the

spk_0 air or if I ever even do summits on the air. Anyway, I'll share all of that and who knows what

spk_0 else might also get included in here. Lots of comments along the way. But before I begin

spk_0 sharing all of those things, I want to say that this episode is inspired by my QSO with W2ELS,

spk_0 that would be Ron Roe, Whiskey2, Echo, Lima, Sierra. He and I had a QSO during the middle of a pile-up

spk_0 during one of my recent activations. He heard my message in episode 14, the episode right before

spk_0 this. I said, hey, if you are somebody that catches me out there in the middle of an operation,

spk_0 and you mention this podcast or that you love the podcast or that you're eager for the next

spk_0 episode of the podcast, that will be enough to motivate me to make sure that within the next several

spk_0 days I record another episode of the show. It's a reminder, it's like, oh yeah, I do have that

spk_0 podcast. And yeah, people out there do enjoy this show. They are enjoying my notes on amateur

spk_0 radio. And the two things that I'll say, actually one thing that I'll say, one of two things, either

spk_0 during the QSO, please request that I do an episode based upon our QSO right there on the spot.

spk_0 And I will do my best to in my logging software, put a little note and things in there that

spk_0 will recall. But if you were to actually email me, then you could actually follow it up and I will

spk_0 read your email in the next podcast episode. Hopefully it won't be too long, but you get the you

spk_0 get the gist. And Ron did just that. So let me read to you Ron's email. He says, hey Cliff, it was

spk_0 great to connect with you on the area yesterday. I had to be the one to mention your podcast. So

spk_0 he's obviously referring to episode 14 where I said, if you mentioned the podcast, it will inspire

spk_0 me to do another episode within the next couple of days. So he said, we've both been hamps for

spk_0 about the same amount of time. We've both dived deep into the hobby headfirst. He says that he earned

spk_0 his tech in July of 2024, his general in September 2024. And he went all the way into extra in November

spk_0 2024. He says that he has a doctorate doctorate, but the toughest text I've ever studied for,

spk_0 he says, was the amateur extra exam. I've definitely heard that from a lot of people. Anyway,

spk_0 he says I started my journey with CW about nine months ago. It's truly humbling, but I really

spk_0 enjoy the challenge and the thrill of being on the air sending dots and dashes. I'm a big fan of

spk_0 your and he and this is how I know he listened to the most recent episode. He put in quotes, ham podcast.

spk_0 And I it actually inspired me to start my own. It's called the 599 signal report podcast. And

spk_0 it's all about CW and Morse code. My goal isn't to make money, but rather to provide helpful

spk_0 information to those who use CW into inspire others to give it a try. Hope we can connect again,

spk_0 maybe park to park next time. 7 3 Ron whiskey to echo Lima, Sierra. All right. So if you want to go

spk_0 check out Ron's podcast, just in your favorite podcast, directory of choice, search for 599

spk_0 signal report podcast. All right. Thank you, Ron, for that. And of course, if you haven't done

spk_0 so already, you can go over to hamalert.org and set up a trigger so that anytime I am spotted

spk_0 on parks on the air, you can get notified. And that's how you can hunt me down in a park and

spk_0 request a new episode over at hamalert.org. All right. Moving on to my next topic here,

spk_0 I finally took over first place in the number of QSOS for my local park here,

spk_0 Decter Wildlife Management Area. And what I'm going to do real quick is I'm going to share with you

spk_0 some of my recent activations. I was about 400 QSOS away or somewhere close to 400 QSOS away

spk_0 from first place. And I was about almost 280 near 300 QSOS away from second place. So I was

spk_0 seated in third place for a number of QSOS. Now I've had first place for a number of activations

spk_0 for Decker Wildlife Management Area for quite some time. So let's go over here to my,

spk_0 let's see, my activations. I will click on Decker Wildlife. Yeah. So the number two position

spk_0 for park leaders for Decker Wildlife for a number of activations is 24. And as of today, Monday,

spk_0 September 8th, 2025, I am now at 50 activations. So I'm more than double the second position. So that

spk_0 I feel pretty confident. I've got that. And if I would see somebody coming after me, if we were

spk_0 looking at this as a real challenge, right? And this is just for fun. I get it. Here's the thing

spk_0 to know about me. I am 52 years old and throughout most of my life, I have had zero interest in sports.

spk_0 I've had zero interest in anything when it comes to competing with others. Now Decker Wildlife

spk_0 Life Management Area happens to be a local park that is one of the closest parks in proximity

spk_0 to where I live and also several other members of the Northern Kentucky Amateur Radio Club.

spk_0 And so we all kind of love to go to this park because it's so close. I don't know if any of these

spk_0 other gentlemen actually care about leaderboards. I didn't until all of a sudden, I'm like, I think I

spk_0 could, but I found myself just really like I wanted to get into the number one activator spot

spk_0 because that was the first thing that I thought I could do. And of course, last year with as much as

spk_0 I was obsessed with everything Amateur Radio, I didn't it didn't take me very long to get that

spk_0 that first place on the leaderboard. The fact that they call it park leaders and they keep,

spk_0 they give you the top five positions, that to me indicates that there's a little bit of competition

spk_0 that is kind of inspired or motivated or encouraged if you will. So if we look at the the leaderboard

spk_0 for QSOs, when it there are three different leaderboards for park leaders, there's the number

spk_0 of activations from the park. I've got more than double second position. There is activator QSO.

spk_0 So when you're in the park, how many total QSOs, how many contacts have you made in that particular

spk_0 park? There is a third leaderboard and it's for people who hunt people into that park or that are

spk_0 activating in that park. And my friend Jack AB4WS has 257, he's actually got 257 QSOs,

spk_0 where as a hunter for somebody that's activated that park, my friend Tom, NV4H, 93 and then KG8Y,

spk_0 Tom 65. And so these folks, all three members of the local amateur radio club and they set up their

spk_0 ham alert to trigger anytime somebody activates the park. So that's something you can do with ham alert.org

spk_0 as well. You can go in and give it a park number and say anytime somebody is activating from this park,

spk_0 send me a push notification and they may have other sorts of notifications like email or whatever

spk_0 as well. I'm not sure, but I have the ham alert app on my phone and I get push notifications when

spk_0 some trigger is met. Anyway, so that's how somebody could find out that somebody's hunting or

spk_0 somebody's activating in park. And if you wanted to work your way up on that, you would,

spk_0 you every time you get a notification, somebody's activating that park, you'd want to go and try

spk_0 to make contact on many as many of the bands that they're operating on. And that's what Jack and Tom

spk_0 certainly have done. I don't know if they're doing it for any sort of competition. In fact, I'm

spk_0 about 99.9% certain that it has nothing to do with competition for that leaderboard. And it has

spk_0 everything. I'm about 99.9% certain that they're hunting people down in that park specifically

spk_0 is that and also they also will set triggers not just for the park, but they'll also set triggers

spk_0 for individual people. So I know that both Tom and Jack have ham alert set up for my call sign,

spk_0 because no matter what park I'm activating anywhere, both Jack and Tom seem to almost always

spk_0 hunt me down in a park. And I think that what I was about ready to say is 99% sure that they do that

spk_0 to be of encouragement and motivation in the hobby. They're like, listen, you know, we're going

spk_0 to show our support. You're out there operating. And you know, I think there's just something about,

spk_0 hey, you know, Cliff, we haven't chatted in a while, haven't seen here. But you know what, I got the

spk_0 alert that you're here. And I've tuned the antenna to this band and pointed it your way. And here we

spk_0 are on the air. And I just want to say thanks for activating. It's good to see you out there.

spk_0 You know, and it's just those words of encouragement. It's just it does for some, it does inspire

spk_0 more activity, more, more commitment to the hobby. And I that's one of my favorite things is just

spk_0 how much people are into this for the pure enjoyment of the hobby and to encourage one another,

spk_0 to motivate one another to inspire one another. It's one of the things reasons why I created this

spk_0 podcast is to introduce other people to amateur radio and the various aspects and the things that I'm

spk_0 enjoying about it. I want to inspire other people to either get licensed and or go back and

spk_0 and get re-licensed again if you let it lapse or if you've been licensed, but you haven't been

spk_0 operating in a while to by all means get get out there and get active again. There's so much fun

spk_0 that could be had. And also, you know, in the day, if anything happens, there's an opportunity

spk_0 for emergency communications and being able to know that your radio equipment is able to be

spk_0 used in an emergency situation. Parks on the air is just such a valuable resource, I think.

spk_0 But there is this element of active these park leaderboards. And so I was in third place with like

spk_0 2,600 QSOs. And second place at the time had 2,832 QSOs and first place had 3,099.

spk_0 Now, I was again right around 2,600 QSOs and I'm like, I mean, I'm fairly close to taking first

spk_0 place, but I would need another 400 some odd QSOs. And as I before those numbers, I was slowly

spk_0 edging up there and I noticed that the two people above me were heading out to Decker Wildlife

spk_0 Management area more frequently. It's clear that they saw, well, okay, it's not clear. I'm totally

spk_0 making assumptions here. I'm totally making assumptions. But my assumption was that these guys see

spk_0 that, huh, they're position, they're ranking on the board is in jeopardy. So AI4BJ, that would be

spk_0 Alpha India 4 Bravo Juliet. That's Mark Vostat. He's the person who helped me do my very first

spk_0 ever parks on the air activation once I was licensed. And so he had that number one position.

spk_0 Notice the past tense version of that had the number one position. I think you get an idea of

spk_0 what's going on here. Anyway, he had the number one position and then KC1E and KC1E,

spk_0 Kilo Charlie 1 Nancy Edward, Craig had the number two position. And I think both of them saw me

spk_0 coming up the leaderboard for the park leader for Decker Wildlife Management area. US 9756 is the

spk_0 park number. Anyway, so one of the things that I noticed is that these guys are getting out the

spk_0 park more frequently. Now that they may have been doing this just for fun because the weather is

spk_0 nice or whatever. But I noticed them not only going out to the park, going out to the park,

spk_0 but doing it fairly frequent. And also while they're racking up a significant number of QSOs,

spk_0 which brought them into a position where like I said, 300 to 400 QSOs ahead of me between

spk_0 the two of them is getting the gap for me to close in on them was widening. And so I decided to do a

spk_0 thing. I got a little bit of a goal that happened. And I want to share with you the QSOs that I've

spk_0 made just in the past, let's say week or so. So on August 20th, I'm going to share with you,

spk_0 I think these are my last 10 QSOs or 10 activations. August 27th, 52 QSOs, the 28th, I stayed until UTC

spk_0 00 and got a next day for 14. Once I got 14, I called it a day. So technically I did 66 QSOs in

spk_0 that activation. I went out on August 31st and just simply logged 60 QSOs. And I did that during

spk_0 the daytime. So I did not stay until UTC 00, that was August 31st, 60 QSOs. Then September 2nd,

spk_0 I went out to the park probably right around 6 p.m., which is like 20, probably about 530 actually,

spk_0 about 2230. And I got 37 QSOs before UTC 0. And then I went ahead and logged 100 QSOs

spk_0 next day. So September 2nd and 3rd total of 137 QSOs racked up. I think if I'm not mistaken,

spk_0 that got me into second position. All right, I'm pretty sure that got me into second position.

spk_0 I'm not completely positive. It actually might have been when I went out again and did another

spk_0 activation that I did it. But anyway, September 4th, 123 QSOs, September 5th, let's see here, 89 QSOs,

spk_0 September 6th, 138 QSOs. So September 5th and 6th, by the way, that was all one operation.

spk_0 So let's do the math on that one here. I'm going to just pull up my calculator. This is the most

spk_0 QSOs I've ever done in a park. And let's see here, we're going to do what was that? 138 plus

spk_0 89, 227 QSOs in one visit to the park or park. You get the idea, parks on the air, wildlife

spk_0 management area. Anyway, 227 QSOs. And that put me in first place on the leaderboard for Decker

spk_0 Wildlife Management Area with 10 above the second place position. So Mark Wohlstad, I've got first

spk_0 place. All right. And then just to kind of make sure I get myself a little buffer there. I went out

spk_0 to the park again yesterday, September 7th. And before UTC 000, I got 62 more QSOs in the log. And then

spk_0 I stayed until next day. And once I got to 14 confirmed that activation, I called it a day. So I

spk_0 got another 76 QSOs. So with that, I'm over here. I've got now 3,185 QSOs in Mark Wohlstad, AI4BJ.

spk_0 He has 3,099. And that means that I am 86 QSOs ahead, which is pretty good. The thing is though,

spk_0 I know he could easily go out and get 100 plus QSOs in a single activation. The one thing I have

spk_0 going for me is that he's currently out of town hiking, doing parks on the air with a friend.

spk_0 And the thing that I have going against me, he's going to see this. And I don't know that he

spk_0 cares. But he's probably going to see this. And he's also now retired. He just retired about two or

spk_0 three months ago. Maybe it's been three months already. But he's fully retired. He's into amateur

spk_0 radio like nobody's business. And he lives much closer to this park than I do. So we'll see. We'll

spk_0 Craig, KC1 and E. I noticed that I'm fairly certain that Craig is aware of my desire to take

spk_0 over the leaderboard for Decor Wildlife Management area. I don't know that he cares. I'm not sure

spk_0 that he's into any of this for the competition. And one thing I do know is there's no way on earth

spk_0 that Craig isn't aware that I overtook his second place position earlier this past week.

spk_0 And on Sunday, I got a ham alert that he was activating. And of course, I looked it up to see if

spk_0 he was at Decor trying to, you know, you know, take, retake his position. And he was not a Decor.

spk_0 He was over at the Boone. What is that called? Gosh, why can't I think Daniel Boone?

spk_0 What is the, gosh, a big bone, big bone park. So it's a big bone state park down in whatever

spk_0 that part of Kentucky is. But it's just a little bit further down the road. He also has approximately

spk_0 the same number of QSOs in that park. So again, he's out there doing lots of parks on the air. He

spk_0 roams around quite a bit. I don't know that anybody, I really don't know of anybody who's

spk_0 as focused on these leaderboards. But I gotta tell you, it's just been fun. It doesn't mean

spk_0 anything really. And I want to share with you just how I felt like the day after. So I went and

spk_0 did that 227 QSOs. And I'm like, yes, I am in number one position. And I was, I uploaded the

spk_0 logs. I confirmed that they were uploaded. I confirmed the number of QSOs that were accepted

spk_0 and all this other stuff. And I'm just refreshing the park page and waiting for it to update. And when

spk_0 I saw that first position for both activator and activator QSOs for the park leaders leadership,

spk_0 the leaderboard, I'm like, yes. And then I woke up the next day and I'm like, huh. Well,

spk_0 okay, now what? Because there was so much fun in the pursuit of that goal. And I, and the

spk_0 pursuit of the goal was really the thrill. And now that I'm in that first position, there's a

spk_0 part of me that's hoping maybe that one of these two gentlemen will get serious about potentially,

spk_0 you know, getting a little competitive there. And there's a part of me that hopes, no, that

spk_0 doesn't happen because I'd like to not sit there at Decker Wildlife Management area every time I

spk_0 go out and play radio. I'd like to go explore some more parks and activate some new parks or get

spk_0 back towards my goals of goal of activating every park in the state of Kentucky, for example. And

spk_0 move on to Indiana and Ohio in Tennessee. So, you know, there's still plenty of other things

spk_0 for me to do out there, but it was fun to set a goal. I was not sure I could pull it off in one

spk_0 week. It's been, it had been a long time since I worked some pileups, but I will say I have been

spk_0 working some pileups again lately. Now, there are some theories that I have about pileups.

spk_0 You know, number one, is there anything that is in my operation that has caused this to happen?

spk_0 Or is it that band conditions are better? I think it's probably a mixture of both and probably more

spk_0 leaned towards the bands opening up than operation, you know, situation, operational situation.

spk_0 Now, I will say that a lot of my activations until the last two months or so had been pretty much

spk_0 reliant on my Yezu FT891 and its Atos antenna, which I think I shared in the previous episode

spk_0 that there's an issue with my Atos antenna setup on my car. I have what's called a swinging SWR.

spk_0 That's what I call it anyway. So, I don't know what the official term is, but it will tune perfectly,

spk_0 one to one or one to five tune to perfectly in the radio. And then I go to key up and the SWR

spk_0 stays right to where it was tuned for a second. And then as I'm continuing to talk, it then

spk_0 kind of just slips way up into like a SWR of five to one. And occasionally it goes all the way

spk_0 up to infinity and it just gives me this signal, it says SWR is too high and it won't transmit.

spk_0 So, I was having that issue on a number of activations and I was able to still make contacts,

spk_0 even though my SWR is swinging somewhere between let's just say 1.7 to three to five

spk_0 occasionally bouncing up there. I'm still able to make a few contacts, but the signal reports I

spk_0 was getting were terrible and the number of people who could hear me, I just wasn't getting a lot.

spk_0 So, eventually I kind of just gave up on my Atos antenna for a while and I just took it off the

spk_0 car and put the little plastic cap on my UHF was that PL239 if it's the female. And the Atos

spk_0 has just been put away. So, when I decided to go out and start activating again at Decker,

spk_0 I started using my JPC 12 and I also started using my Icom 7300. And, and well,

spk_0 also I did a one act before I started setting up the JPC 12 again, I was you I did do an activation

spk_0 just off of hamsticks and hamsticks work pretty decently. I will say, but I wasn't I still was

spk_0 at experiencing pile ups, but then again, most of that operation was on 20 meters. And I don't know

spk_0 that I've ever worked significant pile ups on 20 meters, but maybe I have I could probably go

spk_0 back into some old logs and find out I certainly have access to all of those logs. But,

spk_0 something did happen recently and that was I was using my JPC 12, I had my Icom 7300 and I went

spk_0 down to 40 meters of the 7 megahertz band. And I operated on 40 meters and there's a lot less

spk_0 pota activators that are typically self spotted or spotted on 40 meters. I don't know why,

spk_0 but it just happens to be that most people are up there on 20 meters. So, I went down and all of

spk_0 a sudden I'm working my first pile up in the longest time and all my gosh was it amazing.

spk_0 It felt so good to work a pile up again. One of my favorite apps for parks in the air is called

spk_0 portable logger P O L O for short. So, we call it the polo app and it's made by a developer called

spk_0 Ham2K I think. But anyway, the polo app by far in my opinion, the best parks on the air logging

spk_0 app on this planet. One of my favorite things is I actually have it on an iPad Pro 11 inch.

spk_0 I happen to have the magic keyboard. And in the section where you enter in call signs,

spk_0 if you hear multiples, you can actually put a partial of a call sign and then put slash slash

spk_0 and the next partial of a call sign and do slash slash and then next partial of a call sign and do

spk_0 slash slash and then another partial of a call sign. And or by the way, when I say partial,

spk_0 any of those could even be full call signs. But if I hear multiple people spread out and I hear

spk_0 all of these, I just put slash slash in between whatever I've got. Then what it does is the software

spk_0 automatically start working all the way from the right, you know, from the very last one, you

spk_0 started entering from the slash slashes. And so what's all the way to the right of the furthest

spk_0 right slash slash in the box, you actually go and call for that person, get that full call sign

spk_0 and signal report. And of course, if they're parked to park, you would enter in the park number.

spk_0 But as soon as that full call sign is in there and you got your sick, you just hit enter and it

spk_0 only takes the full call sign to the furthest right slash slash and it puts that into the log. And so

spk_0 now it removes that slash slash at the end. And now you've got the next partial with all the other

spk_0 partials before it with slash slash is in between. And so it's basically, I think they call this stacked

spk_0 logging. I don't know what exactly what the feature is called, but man, does this was amazing.

spk_0 So in my very first ever parks on the air, I was logging on paper. And so I was already doing this

spk_0 just naturally. I would, it's like, I would just write down little bits and pieces of different

spk_0 call signs that I would heard. And I would call each of them. And wow, I'm like, I don't know that

spk_0 I could ever work a pile up as efficiently with software compared to this. But with this slash slash,

spk_0 it is absolutely amazing, just as good as paper logging. And in many ways, better because if I've

spk_0 got a cell connection and the polo app and my QRZ database subscription, I'm able to see and confirm

spk_0 who these people are, call them by name, all this other stuff. So yeah, I was working pile ups again.

spk_0 Now I happen to think that the fact that I'm camping out on 40 meters has a lot to do with it.

spk_0 I think 40 meter, especially most of the time when I'm operating, I'm operating at night. And I

spk_0 think 40 meters is somewhat better at night than 20 meters is just by, you know, propagation overall.

spk_0 But also I've also found that if I camp out as close to the top as the of the bandage,

spk_0 rather than the bottom of the bandage. And when I say top, I mean, starting at the lowest frequency.

spk_0 So for me, that would be what is that 7.128 megahertz. And when I operate there,

spk_0 most people who are also using the polo app or other apps, when they are actually

spk_0 searched, when they actually have park spots or spot spots in the app listed, they may have it

spk_0 set by frequency. And this puts me at the top. And so soon as somebody switches over and say,

spk_0 hey, I wonder if I can hunt some parks down in 40 meters. Well, if I'm listed right there at the top,

spk_0 then it's all good to go. Another thing that I notice is that as soon as I'm spotted there,

spk_0 within the first three minutes, I get a whole new round of QSOS. And if it's been five or six

spk_0 or seven minutes since I've been spotted, I notice that it starts to slow down the polo app,

spk_0 along with a bunch of other apps, have the ability for you to spot yourself and to re-spot yourself.

spk_0 So I just hit re-spot once I've been hitting about five to seven minutes. And as soon as I do that,

spk_0 again, another small little pile up and sometimes a rather large pile up will happen. And so

spk_0 there's some of me that wonders if I wouldn't have been able to continue to have good pile-ups

spk_0 if I had actually a decent antenna. And I wasn't dealing with my A-toss, but also know that

spk_0 the summer heat and all those solar flares, I heard a lot of other people complaining about

spk_0 band conditions and having challenges activating parks. And so I think it's a combination of

spk_0 all of the above. But I am thrilled with the cooler weather that we're experiencing here in the

spk_0 Greater Ohio Valley, I think is what they call it. And it's much welcomed and the conditions

spk_0 are perfect for parks on the air. And I've just been crushing it. I love it. It's so much fun.

spk_0 All right, so the situation that I had that happened during the middle of a QSO. And also,

spk_0 this is the one where I'm literally fighting for first position. This is the night I had 227

spk_0 contacts within one visit to the park. It was spread across two different days, but you get the idea.

spk_0 So that time right around my 190th QSO, I get somebody that is a 5-9 from Alabama,

spk_0 and I call his call and tell him he's 5-9, and I don't hear anything back. And so I transmit again. I

spk_0 said to give him a call and said 5-9 here in the park. I hear nothing back. And then I'm about

spk_0 ready to key again. And he calls me solid 5-9 signal. He said, KQ4, you are, are you still there?

spk_0 And I call back, yeah, this is KQ4, you are. And then I said his call sign. I said, you're 5-9 in my

spk_0 park. And he's like, KQ4, you are, are you still there? And I'm like, transmit and he's like, come on.

spk_0 And then I look over to my radio. And this is where it's really nice to make sure that you have

spk_0 a radio that actually shows your signal going out. Like, and I was using the Icom 7300. And so I

spk_0 could see that when I was pressing the push to talk button on my microphone and speaking into it,

spk_0 my voice was not showing a signal going out. Now I was able to press one of the voice recordings

spk_0 and hit that. And I could see that that was actually still sending out audio. But my microphone

spk_0 wasn't. So I started to wiggle the cable right underneath the microphone. And I noticed that

spk_0 sometimes it would, sometimes it wouldn't, sometimes it would. And people were saying, Cliff, I hear

spk_0 you, but you're broken up and all this other stuff. And the at one point, just the push to talk

spk_0 button, what wouldn't work at all. And sometimes it kind of would work. And it was just really weird.

spk_0 And then it occurred to me, you know what the Icom actually has a transmit button. The Icom 7300

spk_0 has a little button that hits that says transmit. So if you press it, it opens up the transmission.

spk_0 And you have to press it again to turn it off. And so I pressed the transmission button. And now I've

spk_0 taken the PTT button on the mic out of the equation. And I noticed that if I wiggle the microphone

spk_0 back and forth, sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not, sometimes it's sending the audio, sometimes

spk_0 it's not. Obviously, it seems obvious to me that there is some sort of short that's happening in

spk_0 the cables inside the microphone between, you know, the right with the stress relief part of the mic.

spk_0 And so one of the things that I was able to do is confirm that if I held the microphone by the cable

spk_0 dangling in the air in front of, in just dangling in the air in front of my mouth. And I just hold

spk_0 the microphone there. And then I press the transmit button. I could get it to where I twist my wrist

spk_0 a certain way that causes that to actually allow me to be heard full signal, full quality of the

spk_0 Hi-Oh microphone. It's a HM219, I believe, that comes stock with the I-Com 7300. And so I discovered

spk_0 that I could do this. So I want you to imagine in my left hand, I am holding the spiral corded

spk_0 cord of the microphone. The microphone is hanging dangling down. I've got my wrist twisted to the left

spk_0 as much as I can to kind of keep this cable from shorting out. And the microphone is dangling in

spk_0 front of my mouth. And then I click the transmit button on the I-Com 7300, say KQ4 U-U-R,

spk_0 calling CQ Parks on the air. I'm sorry about the delay here. I've had a technical difficulty

spk_0 with my cable and my microphone. I'm here at this park number. Just bear with me as I operate one

spk_0 handed. And then I have to press the transmit button again to kill the transmission so I can receive.

spk_0 And then I get a whole pile up. And so I'm literally typing in parcels, slash-lash-partial, slash-lash-partial.

spk_0 And then I got that. And finally, you know, people stop calling. And then again with my right hand,

spk_0 left hand is stuck. I have to hold this microphone. Cannot move it. And then I press the transmit button.

spk_0 And I say, okay, station ending with Bravo. Come in. And then I have to hit the transmit button again.

spk_0 And then I get my right hand back over to the keyboard and type this in. But I also have to actually

spk_0 use the backspace or the arrow key to go to the beginning of the call sign and then hit enter. And then

spk_0 oh my gosh, I did this for the next 40 minutes until I ended up getting all those, like I said,

spk_0 227 QSOs, which I knew would put me 10 QSOs ahead of the first position. But holding that microphone

spk_0 in my left hand like that, operating one handed, having to press the transmit button and then

spk_0 transmit button again to receive, man, it was actually invigorating. It was fun. It was exciting.

spk_0 But it also was very exhausting. And to do it during a pile up, it was just something about the

spk_0 challenge of it that just woke up something fun and exciting inside of me. And so I enjoyed all of it.

spk_0 Wow, it was an amazing. So the next morning, I woke up, drove out to R&L Electronics Store.

spk_0 And I recognized that they had the HM219 stock mic from Icom available for, I think it was like

spk_0 46 something. So 47 bucks. On Amazon, it was 65 and it was about 65 dollars on a bunch of other

spk_0 places, but they had it for 46 something. And I'm like, well, I'd rather have it the next day,

spk_0 because again, I might go out and do some more amateur radio. And I actually know what,

spk_0 that was actually taking second place. That wasn't the time that I was doing it because the next

spk_0 one is what gave me the 227 came as a result of another purchase I made. So I just totally messed

spk_0 up that that night was the one that allowed me to get into second place, not first place.

spk_0 But anyway, I digress. So I go up to R&L Electronics Store. The first thing that I do is I bring

spk_0 my microphone into the store. And I said, Hey, you've got an Icom 7300 on display. Can I test

spk_0 something? And he's like, sure, absolutely. So I take his Icom 7300 there in the store. I use

spk_0 its HM 219 microphone and I queue up and say, KQ4, you are test, test, test. And it's perfectly fine.

spk_0 You can see the signal. And then I unscrewed the XLR jack and plug my microphone in. And I do

spk_0 the same thing. And sure enough, it's not, it's not transmitting. So this has confirmed that my

spk_0 microphone is the issue. And I purchased another microphone. And I immediately went out to my car

spk_0 and once I made all of my purchases, because I purchased more equipment that day, as one does when

spk_0 you go for an hour long drive to the ham amateur radio, amateur radio electronics store, right?

spk_0 So anyway, I went out tested it on my Icom. Everything's perfectly fine. It's it's working great.

spk_0 So I have my replacement. I put a label on my old microphone and I just put this mic is not working.

spk_0 And it is something that probably could be taken apart. I could probably rewire the whole microphone.

spk_0 Of course, the microphone itself is still amazing. And of course, the high-oh microphone in the HM 219

spk_0 is awesome. It's an amazing microphone. So many people get so many awesome reports from it.

spk_0 So it's still a good microphone. It's just got a short and the wiring wiring. And it's somewhere

spk_0 between one of the mic wires and the PTT. And it's just shorted out inside of there.

spk_0 So yeah, I have no doubt that that could be fixed. And who knows, it may be something of interest to

spk_0 me to fix it down the road. Anyway, while the night before going to R&L and doing some research,

spk_0 it occurred to me, hmm, what if I was to do hands-free operation? Now, I just proved to myself I could

spk_0 do one handed operation. But I wonder what it would be like to do hands-free. And I thought

spk_0 and about getting a headset for quite some time. And I think if I really wanted to, I would have

spk_0 gotten the yellow, high-oh headsets. And I think they're a bit less expensive. And it's what I

spk_0 would have preferred to buy just because, you know, if anything happens to it, the cost of replacing

spk_0 it would be so much less. However, high-oh is getting ready to release new versions of those headsets

spk_0 in October. And everybody's out of stock on the older ones. And so I went ahead and bought a high-oh

spk_0 ProSound 6 IC, which is the Icon version of this. And it's got the electric condenser

spk_0 element inside of it, which works with the Icon. And the real bummer here is that that microphone

spk_0 won't work with Yezu because Yezu will only work with dynamic microphones. So this big

spk_0 ProSound 6 headset that I got will only work with my Icon 7. Well, I, Icom radios and any other

spk_0 radio that has this, the power to the XLR to power that electric condenser microphone.

spk_0 Anyway, well, I went ahead and purchased that. I'm like, okay, well, most of the time when I'm going

spk_0 to operate in that way, I'm going to be operating on my Icon 7300. As far as I'm concerned, it's my

spk_0 preferred field out parks on the air radio unless I'm going hiking to some location that's really

spk_0 far from my car. But if it's right there next to the car, you better believe I'm going to use my

spk_0 Icom 7300. So anyway, I went ahead and purchased the high-oh ProSound version of the headset

spk_0 for the Icom radio. And I also purchased the high-oh PTT foot switch. And of course, you need the

spk_0 adapter to plug into the XLR so that that you can actually plug your push to talk button or switch

spk_0 and foot switch in my case and your headset into the mic jack of the XLR input of the Icom 7300.

spk_0 So I got the adapter for that. And even though I know that my high-oh ProSound 6 IC will not work with

spk_0 my Yezu 891 or at least I've been told it won't I haven't tried and confirmed that it won't but

spk_0 I have been told that it won't. But I went ahead and bought the accessory cable for the Yezu 891

spk_0 just in case I want to do headset effort operation with it. Now my push to talk switch the foot switch

spk_0 from high-oh will work with that. It's just that I would need a different headset. Supposedly,

spk_0 I need a headset with a dynamic microphone. However, I recently heard somebody say that they've

spk_0 used the CAUSS headset that's available for like $38 with their Yezu 891. And if that is working,

spk_0 that has an electric unless there's multiple versions of this CAUSS headset. But anyway,

spk_0 I went ahead and purchased the accessory for hands-free operation because boy, give me both hands on my keyboard

spk_0 and I'm just all hands-on keyboard. I could work a pile-up like nobody's business. And that's how I

spk_0 actually ended up being able to do that 227 things. So it wasn't the 190th QSO. But it was right around

spk_0 the final 30 QSOs of when I took second place that I was, that I had the mic issue. But then the very

spk_0 next night I had my headset ProSound 6 hooked up to my icon with my foot pedal down there sitting in

spk_0 the front seat of my car. And that's how I easily, easily logged 227 QSOs. And almost, I would say at

spk_0 least 70 or 80% of those were down on 70, down on 7 megahertz, 40 meters. All right. Another thing

spk_0 that happened to me when I was pulling out my radio at night, dark in the dark, I accidentally had my

spk_0 foot stepped on one of the ground radials. And I pulled the antenna out of the ground. And of course,

spk_0 the radials are all connected via a ring terminal, a terminal ring to the ground stake on the JPC 12.

spk_0 And by Gully, I just ripped it right out of the ground. And I ripped the radio I was standing on out

spk_0 of the crimp of the ring terminal, which is was a super easy fix. I just came home and I had another ring

spk_0 terminal that fits right over the whatever the quarter 20, whatever that size of thing is for these

spk_0 JPC 12, I a quarter inch 20, I don't know what it's called, but you know what it is. You know what

spk_0 I'm referring to probably. And so I already had another ring terminal that would work. And

spk_0 in a crimper and it even had hink's hink on it. So I went and took my wire cutters and snipped

spk_0 all of them off of the thing. And then I happened to love the fact that I purchased a very high

spk_0 end wire crimper that one of those ones where it just like you don't have to size it. You don't

spk_0 have to do anything. You just you just put it in however long you want to and just squeeze and boom,

spk_0 magically pulls off this thing. It's just the most amazing thing. I think it's made by

spk_0 Klein or something like that. Anyway, I just stripped it back, wired them, you know, squeezed them

spk_0 all together, threaded them all together, put them in side the little thing, crimped it down,

spk_0 confirmed it was super, super tight. I purchased a heat gun a long time ago. So I was able to heat

spk_0 shrink that heat shrink around it. And I was able to fix my radials in record time. That was

spk_0 that was a super easy fix. As far as my A-toss 120 antenna, I've talked with a number of people

spk_0 in my local amateur radio club. And a number of people have offered to help me. The first thing

spk_0 that I want to do is potentially meet up with somebody who has an A-toss antenna that's not doing

spk_0 what I have experienced with my swinging SWR. And just throw their antenna on my mount on the back

spk_0 of my car. And if mine is doing it and theirs is not, then that tells me that the issue I'm having

spk_0 is with my antenna. If it's my antenna, I was talking with Tom KG8Y KiloGolf 8 Yankee who happens to

spk_0 be local here in Burlington, Kentucky. He happens to have tons of experience with A-toss antennas.

spk_0 He's had multiple of them and he's never purchased an A-toss 120 antenna. He's only purchased

spk_0 many different ones that were all broken and he will Frankenstein his own together. So that's

spk_0 how familiar he is with the A-toss 120 antennas. And he's suggested that if it is the antenna,

spk_0 it's likely corrosion on the bearings inside. And that would make a lot of sense. Given the fact,

spk_0 this all started back in the winter and there was lots of ice and snow and sleet and everything

spk_0 back then. And I kept my antenna on the car the entire time throughout all of that. And so

spk_0 that seems to be a very likely thing. And he said, Cliff, it's not too hard for you to go in and

spk_0 fix this. If you want to fix it, there's used to videos. If you can wait a couple of weeks,

spk_0 maybe I can find some time and you can come over and I can help you solve that issue if that's

spk_0 indeed what it is. So anyway, so that is likely a potential issue. If all of a sudden I borrow,

spk_0 you know, have somebody else's A-toss that is known to be working and it does the same thing as

spk_0 my A-toss antenna, then we know it's not the A-toss. Then it would either be one of two things

spk_0 likely. I don't think it's the radio. I could obviously confirm that it's not the radio by simply

spk_0 hooking up my antenna during my next one of my operations that I know is working on my I-com

spk_0 or my other Yezu 891. And just put it on there and confirm that it's not the radio.

spk_0 More than likely, it's either the coax between the lip mount and the radio has some issue or

spk_0 it could be the actual bonding of the metal between the trunk lid and the car. So those are all

spk_0 possible things. Still haven't found a conclusion to that in the resolution, but it is forthcoming

spk_0 within the next several weeks if not months. I have no doubt my mind that before winter weather comes,

spk_0 it will be solved and I will be able to operate without getting out of the car if I happen to go

spk_0 on some more multi-park activations and want to use my A-toss antenna. And also I would like to be

spk_0 able to do my A-toss antenna for me to just hunt some people down. Like I said, I like to support

spk_0 other people who are activating parks out there as well, especially those that I know personally.

spk_0 So yeah, there's all of that. That's the update there. It'll eventually get worked out.

spk_0 And then finally, I will share with you some recent purchases that since I was shopping around,

spk_0 all of a sudden I'm like, ah, well, there's something I've been thinking about. There's something

spk_0 I've been thinking about. So I did actually finally make just, I think it was two or three tiny

spk_0 purchases that finally allowed me to complete a backpack go bag for doing park activations or

spk_0 park activations or just operating amateur radio HF out in the field, even if it's not parks on the

spk_0 air related. And so I've been wanting to have everything I would need to do HF operations in a

spk_0 single backpack ever since I was first licensed. I've saw a lot of people talking about their

spk_0 go bags and all this other stuff. And I'm like, I'd like to have one of those. Now for me, what was

spk_0 missing was a battery that would be small enough, but yet powerful enough that would last long enough.

spk_0 And then a coax feed line that would be light enough and small enough to fit in the bag

spk_0 and still get me far enough from the antenna so that I'm not technically a part of the antenna.

spk_0 And then also just a obvious connection from the battery terminals to Anderson Powerpool.

spk_0 So I actually ended up, I had been looking at a bio and O battery for the longest time. Either

spk_0 their 20 amp hour or I think they might have had a 25 amp hour. I'm not sure. But I just never

spk_0 could seem to pull the trigger on that. I have no idea why, but for whatever reason I just never

spk_0 did pull the trigger on it. However, I did find this E-R-Y-Y. E-R-Y-Y, lifepo 4 battery,

spk_0 lithium iron phosphate battery. And let me just go here to orders and I will tell you why I ended

spk_0 up purchasing this thing. It was only $68.47. $68.47 and it is a 25 amp hour battery. And it actually

spk_0 even says on there, it says it's actually rated for 25 amp hours, but you'll definitely be able to

spk_0 get 30 amp hours out of this is what it says in the description. The other thing I love about this,

spk_0 it actually has an LCD display that lights up on the top of the battery that will show you both

spk_0 the percentage left in the battery and it also shows you the voltage of the battery.

spk_0 So that is amazing. And I also like this one because it actually has terminals on it with

spk_0 screws rather than those little slide on clip on clip things. I don't know what those are called,

spk_0 but anyway, I wanted to be able to bolt this thing down and to know that that's got a nice secure

spk_0 connection there. And then I looked at the size of this thing and I'm like, I think that will fit

spk_0 in my backpack rather easily and we'll give it a shot. And so let me see if I can find the

spk_0 specifications on how large this battery is. Does it show it here? Okay, here it is. It's 7 inches

spk_0 deep, 2.8 inches wide and 6.8 inches high. So basically, it's not more than 7 inches in any direction

spk_0 and it's less than 3 inches wide. And sure enough, I purchased this, got it delivered.

spk_0 And it, oh, by the way, and I also purchased the ring terminals to Anderson Powerpool cable.

spk_0 So that's permanently installed on the battery. And this thing sits right in the front pocket of

spk_0 the backpack that I, the hiking backpack that I have and it zips up perfectly. Like absolute dream come

spk_0 true zips up perfectly. I was just blown away. The cool thing is is that the battery that it was,

spk_0 the box that it was packed in came with this styrofoam that was formed to fit the bottom of this

spk_0 in the box and the top of this in the box. And I took what was the bottom portion of what was

spk_0 holding the battery in the place of the box without jiggling jiggling around. I put that at the bottom

spk_0 of my backpack giving the backpack even more kind of sturdy protection from whatever I'll put in there.

spk_0 And then I have my second Yezu 891 radio with metal rails on them. I accidentally purchased rails

spk_0 off of Etsy and they were 3D printed. I did not want that. So I ended up getting some metal rails.

spk_0 But anyway, I put my Yezu 891 into the go bag and sure enough, it, you know, it fits right down

spk_0 in the same dimensions of where that battery was. So now my batteries got protection at the bottom

spk_0 and then what was on the top of the battery I can actually put on the top of the rails of the

spk_0 radio as well. So you're talking about very good protection of my radio inside of my backpack.

spk_0 Then my JPC 12 antenna in its carrying case also fits right inside of my backpack perfectly.

spk_0 And then now what I will tell you is I did make one more purchase and that was a 25-foot run of

spk_0 COACS made of RG316 which is really, really thin. I did a bunch of research on it. Turns out that I

spk_0 should have no problem at all running 100 watts through it on single sideband voice.

spk_0 And the fact that I have 25-foot run as my feed line for portable operations, there will be some

spk_0 signal loss. And so if I happen to be running 100 watts on my Yezu 891, I think it might have,

spk_0 I think it said it might bring me down to where I'm effectively radiating about 80 some odd watts.

spk_0 So you know, sure it loses some efficiency. Some of the heat and power gets lost in that 25

spk_0 run of that RG316 cable but still plenty, plenty of watts going out. And so here's what's in my

spk_0 backpack. Again, I want you to think about this. There's nothing more than a, and this is not a

spk_0 large backpack. This is a small backpack. It's heavy because this battery, you know, it's 25

spk_0 amp hours. This isn't one of those 9 amp hour batteries. This is a 25 amp hour battery.

spk_0 So here's what my go bag, my backpack has. It has the 25 amp hour battery. It has my Yezu 891

spk_0 radio with its hand held microphone. It has a JPC 12 antenna in the antenna bag with its

spk_0 ground radials included inside of it. I also inside that same antenna bag, I keep a three-foot

spk_0 coax and my rig expert stick 500 antenna analyzer. All of that goes inside of the JPC 12 antenna

spk_0 carrying bag and all of that can fit in my backpack right up next to my Yezu 891.

spk_0 So then also when I go on operations, I will carry with me a hand held HT which will go in one of the

spk_0 water carriers on my backpack. And that allow me to operate two meters and 70 centimeters from

spk_0 high up locations. Then I will almost certainly bring a, what do you call that, a laminated band

spk_0 allocation chart just to remind myself, just in case I forget where those band edges are on my

spk_0 891. I will likely carry my iPad Pro for logging, but I will also carry a small notebook in pen

spk_0 for backup logging. I wrote this down, it's totally optional, but I could carry a Starlink Mini with me.

spk_0 And I'm not kidding, but it is optional. I do have Starlink Mini and I do have an Anderson Power

spk_0 Pull multi-idopter so it will splitter, splitter out. And with a 25 amp hour live-po battery,

spk_0 that would be no problem at all to still operate for four to six hours and do 100 watts

spk_0 from the radio all while having the Starlink Mini going. And I would still probably have,

spk_0 I would still only use maybe 50 or 60 percent of that battery. Anyway,

spk_0 now this is optional, this would not fit in the bag with everything else, but I could if I ever

spk_0 needed to, I could bring a tuner with me that would require me to carry something extra. I could

spk_0 probably carry some extra antennas in the bag, especially little dipoles or something like that.

spk_0 And I do think I want to end up getting one of these Gable GRA ULT01 Mach 3,

spk_0 or Mach 3, make three, whatever you call that, of the Mini TriPad. TriPad. TriPod. So it's a

spk_0 Gable TriPod, Mach 3. It is amazing looking and I definitely would like to get one of those. And I've

spk_0 of course got all sorts of other things that I'd like to purchase out there. But now one of the

spk_0 things that I did is yesterday I went out to the park, not because I needed more QSOS at Decker,

spk_0 but I literally wanted to operate 100 watts into the JPC 12 antenna using nothing more than what was

spk_0 in my backpack. And so no Starlink Mini, no tuner, no backup antennas, and I did not have a

spk_0 tripod. The only reason I'd like to have a tripod is because I'd like to be able to do operations

spk_0 in locations where I might not be able to put a stake in the ground. And there's this very

spk_0 specific activation I'm thinking of, and that is Natural Bridge State Park. And I'd like to

spk_0 operate off the top of a big huge rock formation up there. So anyway, we'll see. It's going to be

spk_0 a blast. But yeah, so I went out to the park and I operated off the battery that was in my backpack.

spk_0 The A's, Yezoo 891 JPC 12 antenna. I did use the three-foot jumper cable, put the choke in at the

spk_0 antenna side. And then I used the 25-foot cable of RG316 all the way to the car where my Yezoo was

spk_0 sitting. And I used my Rig Expert 500 to confirm my tuning of the JPC antenna and operated multiple

spk_0 different bands. And I'm like, oh, this is perfect. And I operated for about three hours on that.

spk_0 And when the battery arrived, it was at 95% and I left, it was 84%. So it is confirmed my go-back

spk_0 is set up for portable operations. Super excited. That's what I had for you in this episode. I hope you

spk_0 enjoyed all of this rambling about my notes on amateur radio, the fun that I'm having. And

spk_0 you know, it just reminds me not, you know, I think that if you really enjoy troubleshooting and

spk_0 challenges, you get a piece of equipment that goes bad. You know, it can, it can cause a little bit

spk_0 of a headache at times. And the good news is that I had other options available to me. Let's just

spk_0 say, for example, I was still wanting to hit a certain number of QSOS or whatever at a park and

spk_0 conditions are great. And my mic goes bad and I couldn't actually fix it with just holding the wire

spk_0 a certain way and using the transmit button on the front panel. I mean, I was operating for my

spk_0 car and I could have put my JPC antenna onto my UIZU 891 that's inside of the car. And I also have

spk_0 a ZIGUG90 if I need to do backup. And so there's other options and I'm just having fun. That's it.

spk_0 Just having fun. This is my most recent update of Cliff's Notes on amateur radio. And until next

spk_0 time, I encourage you to enjoy this hobby to the Hilt. And if you haven't got your license yet,

spk_0 go out and just the technician is not hard at all. The general, quite frankly, is not hard at all.

spk_0 And I will tell you, there's just so much joy to be had in this hobby. If you are listening to this

spk_0 podcast and you've gotten licensed because you were inspired by this podcast, by all means, email me,

spk_0 let me know. You know, I was reaching out to Tom KG8Y and I had to go to QRZ.com log in so I could

spk_0 see his email address and I noticed that on his QRZ, his email was, I think it's Tom at KG8Y.com.

spk_0 And I'm like, huh. And so of course, I'm like, let me just pull up KG8Y.com. And there's nothing

spk_0 there. He doesn't have a website, but he did actually go ahead and purchase the domain just so

spk_0 people can email him there. So if I go to QRZ.com and type in KG8Y. And there it is. And then if I,

spk_0 yeah, his email is actually his email is KG8Y at KG8Y.com. And I just like, huh, that's pretty

spk_0 cool. So that's how I emailed him up, you know, to ask him about my Atoff Centeno. And then that got

spk_0 me to thinking. It's like, why haven't I done that? So now you can email me cliff at KQ4UUR.com.

spk_0 Cliff at KQ4UUR.com. And the thing that's different here, go ahead and type in in your web browser

spk_0 sometime KQ4UUR.com and see where that takes you. Because it will take you somewhere.

spk_0 All right. Until next time, or until I see you on the air or see, do I see you until I hear you

spk_0 on the air, follow me. Instead of trigger KQ4UUR in your ham alert over at ham alert.org. Don't

spk_0 forget to request a new episode of the podcast and dimension this podcast if you make a QSO with me.

spk_0 It will probably motivate me and inspire me to get out here within the next few days and share

spk_0 some more of my notes on my experiences in amateur radio. And that's it. And oh, don't forget to

spk_0 check out Ron, his new podcast, the 599 Signal Report podcast. Oh, and one last note. Congratulations

spk_0 to my friend Jack Prandell AB4WS 2025 Kentucky amateur of the year. And this is so deserving.

spk_0 Jack Prandell AB4WS for me personally, he has always been out there, gave me so much advice.

spk_0 Let me an Icom 7300, which I'm so thrilled that he did because I love my Icom 7300. Boy,

spk_0 boy, do I want one of those Icom 7300 mocked to's that would be my station at home.

spk_0 And I would find a way to get a good antenna up in the air back here for that.

spk_0 Alrighty, I'm done. Jack Prandell, congratulations. Absolutely. You deserve it, my friend.

spk_0 2025 Kentucky amateur of the year, AB4WS. All right, many blessings KQ4UUR. I'm clear of this

spk_0 frequency 7300.

015 - Portable Go Bag Complete After POTA Equipment Failure

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