Island Operations talk at PART

On Tuesday evening, October 20, 2026, I gave a talk at the monthly meeting of PART of Westford, my local radio club. The meeting had an island activation theme. I went first with “Island Operations: Activating Peddocks Island in Boston Harbor,” and Adam (AA1N) and James (NV1U) followed with their Cross Island, Maine expedition.

The talk ran about 20 minutes, and members in the room and on Zoom saw the slides. Adam took this photo of me presenting the first slide.

A short trip feels like a small expedition.

My talk

I covered operating from an island and how you can do it too.

• Boston Harbor Islands as a POTA site and how few people activate Peddocks Island (US-2421)
• How my troop gets to the island by private charter, plus the passenger ferry and paddling alternatives
• Camping on Peddocks Island
• The US Islands Awards Program and how my Scouts and I qualified Peddocks for it
• Four years of trips: 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026
• The gear I bring, and why I recommend staying person-portable: everything fits in a backpack
• The challenges and rewards of island operating, which go beyond normal field operations

The slides

Here are the slides as a PDF. I built the deck with Slidev.

Thanks

Thank you to Adam and the members of PART for inviting me to speak. It was a fun evening.