POTA PIT

The exploration of Kansas City’s Fusion continues.

Tonight at 8pm eastern John, AB0O, came up on the Kansas City Wide room (28054) announcing a net called POTA PIT. A pretty interesting net. There were several check-ins. Discussion ranged from equipment, recent operations, as well possible plans for Field Day activations.

POTA is indeed a phenomenon. Jumping on the coattails of the National Park Service’s 100 year anniversary, POTA developed beyond just activating National Parks to activating a whole host of parks.

While I do not think we need necessarily need a formalized structure to inspire ham communications between portable sites and others… I can’t see how it hurts. POTA CW operations make for good practice although their exchanges tend to be wam-bam-thank-you. Seems like it would interesting to at least hear about the park they were at. I always enjoyed activating lighthouses when I was back in Virginia. The Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society (ARLHS) didn’t advocate for rapid exchanges but supported more casual QSOs.

I’ve been practicing using my mobile setup to make CW contacts using my leg key (J-45). These contacts have been while parked and I think that’s the way they’ll stay. The J-45 leg key is a tricky beast, but like anything, it will come along with practice.