Operating in the field at Harold Parker State Forest

This past Friday I set up a field radio station at Harold Parker State Forest in Andover, Massachusetts USA. Every year on Father’s Day weekend, we go camping. For the past few years we’ve invited several other families to join us for the fun.

Because we were there for fun with friends and family I did not make this a POTA activity. Doing a POTA activation would have required focus and I would not have been able to spend time cooking and visiting. I treated this as a show & tell activity. I set out to have a little radio fun myself and share the hobby of amateur radio with my friends and the kids who were there.

I set out to have a little radio fun and share the hobby of amateur radio with my friends

As you can see, I was using my Xeigu G90 with a battery connected to a 58 foot randome length end-fed antenna that was sloped into a tree using an arbor line. Because I’m pretty new to high-frequency operation and built my first rig with field operations in mind, my field setup is basically the same as my at home setup.

Most of my time was spent listening and demonstrating the radio. I did make two contacts to Europe on the 20 meter band.

Operating in the field is great because there’s a lot less interference from nearby power lines, vehicles, and appliances.

Radio operations was a small part of our time at the campsite. We cooked, fished and enjoyed great company.