POTA with Friends (2025 Edition)
This past Sunday (September 28, 2025) I was able to get out with friends and enjoy a Parks on the Air activation at Delaney Wildlife Management Area (US-11589) with local amateur radio friends. Delaney abutts several towns in the area - we set up near the boat landing at Delaney Pond. As you can see we had a beautiful Fall day activation. Radio conditions were excellent.
POTA with Michelle (KC1UML), Adam (AA1N) and Mike (AB1HV) was a lot of fun
20 meters in the shade
When I arrived, Michelle was setting up her IC-7300. We were chatting beforehand about how sunny the field can get so I brought my pop-up tent to provide some shade. Here’s Michelle’s at her field station (sorry about the shadows but that was the point).
Michelle’s station was built using:
- 20 meter dipole with a Palomar balun
- IC-7300
- Vibroplex Champion key
Michelle is an instructor for the Long Island CW Club. Here she is sending on her Vibroplex. She made over 70 contacts that day.
Later, I got on her station to activate the park myself. Here is my contact map for the day. Notable contacts for me were Alaska and Ukraine!
Here’s the Ukraine contact I made. Michelle set up a great station. Her 20 meter dipole antenna was working very well that day.
5 watts and a Rybakov contact Japan
Later, when Adam showed up, we decided to set up another station using my Rybakov antenna. The plan was to use my Xeigu G90, but I cleaned out my field kit the night before and left my power cable at home! Luckily I had my KH1 with me and that has a tuner appropriate for the Rybakov, a non-resonant antenna.
We set up a vertical antenna (with a vertical polarity) to reduce interference with and Michelle’s nearby horizontal dipole antenna.
Adam took this photo of me operating the station shortly after connecting my KH1.
I made a few contacts then Adam took over the station to activate the park himself. Adam’s 10th contact was with Japan!
A QSO between Massachusetts and Japan with a 5 watt transceiver is insane!
Mike showed up and connected his FT-891 to the Rybakov for some SSB operation.
POTA is better with friends
I’m lucky to belong to a radio club (PART of Westford, MA) with frequent POTA operators. We have an active group chat where announce our local POTA activations for club members to join in or make contacts with activators.
Yesterday’s session was fun and worth sharing here. I wrote about POTA with friends last year. I enjoy POTA alone - especially in the morning with coffee - but POTA with friends can be a lot of fun.
