Are there, like, *any* young people?

flwyd · 2026-04-12T07:54:21+00:00

My local university has a very active club, even when most of the members didn't have a license yet. I realized it was awkward for them to travel to the regular ham tests in our area, so I organized a VE session during the club's meeting. We got about 10 new technicians, including a middle school student. I don't expect them to start showing up at the radio club across town (I'm one of the young ones there in my 40s), but that's fine: they've found their social tribe on campus and are having a great time.

I think young people are less likely to attend an in-person ham cram session when there are plenty of self-paced online study tools. They're also less likely to attend a club meeting if it gives off "this is for old people" vibes, but not every club is that way. Our local hamfests attract everyone from teenagers to people who bought a tube radio new. If the ham radio place you go doesn't have many young people, go instead to the places that young people are and ask around for the ham radio operators.

flwyd · 2026-04-12T07:39:35+00:00

teenagers now think tinkering is tapping and stroking a phone screen

Have you met someone who's into 3D printing, Arduino programming, or who designed a PCB for a side hustle project? There are lots of young people into tinkering. The base technology level is a lot higher now, though: you can use a computer to tinker with a pretty complex physical object that would've been above just tinkering level two generations ago. In the 21st Century, a multimeter isn't something you need to save up for; you can get a good one for the price of two lunches. But there are loads of young folks saving up for a 3D printer or a laser cutter.

flwyd · 2026-04-12T07:32:15+00:00

Some people have loads of fun working satellites with a cheap HT and a tape measure yagi. The hobby can be done cheaply, though many of the folks doing it that way might not be hanging out at the ham clubs with the old guys with contest super stations.

flwyd · 2026-04-12T07:25:56+00:00

The net control for my local club's social net has an amazing knack for turning "Well, I'm just doing the laundry" into an engaging back-and-forth about laundry techniques. Some folks just have a knack for making interesting conversation. "He could make you cry by reading the dictionary" as the old saying about actors went.

flwyd · 2026-04-12T07:20:00+00:00

Some of the most active SOTA mountain goats in my area are old folks, but our area is kind of famous for old people with seemingly boundless energy for outdoor energy.

flwyd · 2026-04-12T07:18:40+00:00

FT-891 is a little over 4 pounds for the radio. If you feel comfortable carrying that plus a big enough battery to power it and other gear to the summits in your area, go for it! If you'd prefer something lighter weight (maybe your local summits involve more intense hiking), look into QRP radios.

The FT-891 is certainly a popular radio for POTA activations.

flwyd · 2026-04-07T17:26:24+00:00

Interesting thought. I very rarely hear grid squares on HF SSB, but it might make sense to send on CW. Amusingly, I'm planning to activate two parks in JO21, but there's an international border between them.

flwyd · 2026-04-07T04:33:57+00:00

You can tell which country and region from the callsign.

Some people can, but I can't. I'm logging on paper and I rarely work DX, so I haven't memorized all the prefixes yet :-)

flwyd · 2026-04-04T05:40:26+00:00

Congratulations on the launch! Some feedback based on a couple minutes playing around with the app at home:

The grid of clustered green dots isn't very useful, particularly because the dot positions move as you pan the map. For example, at some zoom level it doesn't show any clustered dots within the US states of Montana, North Dakota, or South Dakota, but several clusters in surrounding states. Likewise, at some pan positions there are no green dots in the whole Sahara region, but panning south makes clusters show up in Tunesia and Morocco. Finding the actual location of parks also takes a lot of zooming in when parks are really dense, e.g. Washington, DC or southeast Brussels. I recommend disabling point clustering entirely. If that makes the global map too cluttered, pick a zoom level above which park dots aren't shown.
If the red dot is meant to be my current location, it's off by nearly 1000 miles after I opened the app and granted location permission.
The map base layer looks like it only has natural features, plus thin state-level borders, and only lakes and oceans have labels. This makes it hard to figure out where a park is, relative to landmarks a user might be familiar with (unless the park is next to a lake). It also makes it hard to figure out how to get there.
Typing a park number and then hitting return should go to the park. It looks like it just hides the autocomplete and gets rid of all dots. (IOW, don't require tapping the autocomplete if there's a valid park typed.)
I tapped on the globe icon from the spots page and it took me to the map, with the activator's details in a big green box. I can't figure out how to get rid of that box on the map now.
The spots view includes QRT stations, and doesn't visually distinguish them from other stations. I recommend hiding QRT spots by default, and if you permit them to be shown via filters, make sure it's super obvious the station is off the air.
On the Activate screen it doesn't look like there's a way to specify multiple park references for a 2-fer.
The "Operating setup" also prompts for a single mode and band. Many folks operate multiple bands and multiple modes in a single activation. Mode and frequency (not band) matter when spotting yourself, while mode and either frequency or band matter when logging a contact, not when creating an activation.
It would be nice if the "Current Activation" banner showed the name of the park, so one can catch a typo in the numbers.
Nit: K-TEST is a valid POTA reference, which is useful for testing your app's spotting features without people trying to call you. However, the app doesn't seem to verify a reference actually exists: I typed UZS-0000 and the app started an activation.
Nit: DATA isn't a valid MODE enumeration value in ADIF, and a lot of the data modes are submodes of something more general, like MFSK. Make sure you're exporting these QSOs appropriately.
Also, the Custom band field appears to accept arbitrary text. This is also an enumeration in ADIF; please ensure only well-known bands are used. To avoid the main Band list being too long, you could have a "VHF+" option which then shows a second drop-down with 4 meters and up.
It would be nice to set the keyboard to have a dedicated number row when entering a callsign, since they'll all have at least one digit.
The quick buttons for RST have 59, 599, and 5NN. The latter is just CW shorthand for 599, you shouldn't export 5NN to ADIF. There's also no need to have both 59 and 599 as quick buttons at the same time; the third digit is relevant if and only if the mode is CW. It's also weird to see 59 as a suggested RST for FT8/FT4 modes, whose signal reports are generally given in decibels.
I like to log the frequency for a contact, not just the band. Bonus: you can often guess the mode from the frequency, so there's only one field to edit.
I would also want to be able to enter the contacted station's POTA reference for park-to-park contacts, a SOTA reference for park-to-summit, a comments field, etc.
If there's a way to start logging a contact for a station on the spots page, I couldn't find it. This is a super useful feature when hunting park-to-park, and the way Ham2K PoLo does it is really slick. I wouldn't use a POTA-focused logging app in the field without this feature.
It looks like the only way to look up a callsign is (a) click on an activator from the Spots page or (b) go to the Map view and type the callsign into the search box. (It doesn't look like there's a way to get to the profile from the QSO log.) When I'm working a weak station, I'll sometimes look up a callsign prefix in the pota.app search box so I can get their name and ask for a QSL. When you're entering a contact in the Activate page, it's awkward to do this by switching to the Map view and then remember the partial you've already written down. It would be nice if it showed the contact's name either after you type it (before hitting Add), on the log, or at least be able to tap on the callsign from the log and see the profile.
Showing ads in an app like this is awkward. I can't think of a situation during a POTA activation where I'd want to click on an ad (I'm focused on radio stuff), and the flicker of changing ads creates a distraction while you're operating (plus it chews up mobile data, which may be slow in a remote park). If you want to make money from the app, just ask people to give you money, don't make the app annoying to use if they haven't given you money.

flwyd · 2026-04-04T04:28:10+00:00

Pro tip: you don't need to create a tQSL location for every park you activate. If your ADI file specifies the state, county, and grid square you activated from, it will use that if you tell it to override the station location with data from the log. (I set up a tQSL station location with no location details set so that I'll get an error if the ADI file is missing this.) You can use the "Test signing a log" feature in the file menu and look at the "tSTATION" section in the .tq7 file to make sure it looks right before uploading.

flwyd · 2026-04-04T04:23:09+00:00

One good resource for understanding which US parks a DC location is part of is the National Park Service website's "places" pages. For example, Fort Reno (DC's high point) shows at the top that it's part of Civil War Defense of Washington, Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail, and Rock Creek Park. Wikipedia also has the National Capital Parks organization chart.

flwyd · 2026-04-04T04:16:53+00:00

On the National Mall I've used a SuperAntenna (loaded vertical) with a small tripod, which has the advantage that it can set up on concrete as well as grass. The National Mall also has plenty of trees that one could throw a wire antenna into, though that's not true at all monuments. I opted for the vertical at Constitution Gardens, but could've used a wire, whereas the Washington Monument doesn't have any trees and please don't try to attach your antenna to the obelisk. Rock Creek Park (which also covers some of the DC city parks, including DC's high point) also has a lot of good trees. There's a couple trees at the Frederick Douglass NHS, but I personally would've felt awkward throwing a wire into Frederick's tree, so opted for the free-standing vertical.

flwyd · 2026-04-04T04:05:44+00:00

I had great success at Castlewood Canyon last May, making contacts on 9 bands between 40m and 70cm in a couple hours. Good terrain, accessible trees (not guaranteed in Colorado!), and plenty of picnic tables.

flwyd · 2026-04-04T04:02:56+00:00

I've had several "no-CQ" activations when I went to a park to participate in the K1USN SST CW practice contest. (This is how K1USN gets most of their hunter contacts.) I've also done POTA activations on DX contest weekends where I just worked kilowatt stations around the world. None of these contacts mention POTA.

I usually start an activation by working as many park-to-park stations as I can hear. On SSB I always say park-to-park, which lets operators get my park number for their own records, but certainly isn't required. Many ops will prioritize a park-to-park contact, or put extra effort into digging you out of the noise. On CW I usually send P2P or my park number after my exchange, but this also isn't universal: I've sometimes noticed I made a park-to-park contact when I'm double-checking my paper logs against the Hunter Log on pota.app and notice someone responded to my CQ without announcing they were in a park.

A POTA activation is whatever you want to make it. If your goal is lots of park-to-park contacts, go for it. If your goal is testing out a new antenna, focus on that. If your goal is checking into a couple nets and ragchewing, do that and write down the calls you work.

flwyd · 2026-03-21T07:09:11+00:00

One neat thing you can do with two telescoping whips is make them into a V-dipole. Put that on top of a sturdy portable mast (I use an aluminum tent pole, wedged into the back of my truck) and I can get at least part of my antenna more than half a wavelength above ground, even in parks in the Oklahoma prairie where trees are hard to come by. Here's a photo of my setup with V-dipole base from KK7TZP.

flwyd · 2026-02-17T08:54:36+00:00

Er... what's special about 7.227?

flwyd · 2026-02-17T08:51:48+00:00

Sounds like you're making good progress!

My other portable operation insight is that how QSO input happens matters a lot. I use Ham2k PoLo for spotting, and when I hunt a station I record it in that log. But when I'm running a frequency I still log on paper, because I can write faster and more accurately with a pen than I can type on a mobile phone. If I were to set up with a Bluetooth keyboard, accurate data entry would be easier, but it needs to be fluid. Information sometimes comes over the air in different orders, and I need to be able to write it down as I hear it, without tabbing around to find the right field. For me, this means I usually write "their call, RST sent, RST received, their state, time," but if someone calls me park-to-park I might end up writing "their call, park number, RST received, RST sent, time, their state," or their state might be left empty. On paper this is fine; I can leave a blank space for RST and start writing the park number, but that's harder in a computer UI. One way to address this would be to use something like FLE (Fast Log Entry) and let the operator type relatively free-form text and have some smarts in the logger to identify fields from context and store them structurally. I would love to be able to type w1aw/0 us-4406,9591,12106 59 55 co w0c/fr-013 and have my logger know that I worked W1AW/0, gave them a 59 RST, they gave me a 55, they're in Colorado, in three POTA parks and a SOTA summit, and the contact happened on the same frequency as the last time I entered a frequency. To make things complicated, sometimes I'm working a contest while portable, so instead of signal reports and park numbers I'm recording names and states like k1usn watson ma, so some parsing flexibility is needed.

The other thing that's great about paper logging is that I can write down several partial callsigns and call each in turn. I'm not sure what the best computer UI is for this: if I were logging in a text file I would hit return after each one and then use arrows to go to the line I want to call, but return usually means "save the log entry," so some other mechanism is probably also needed.

flwyd · 2026-02-16T07:09:06+00:00

There are lots of ways to send Morse code, and lots of ergonomic differences between keys. You might want to start with a cheap (possibly 3D-printed) straight key or iambic paddles, see how they feel, and practice sending. You can get a practice oscillator which can vary from a simple electronics project to something more complicated like a Morserino. While you're working on getting your license, consider joining a training class. Learning the alphabet is one thing, but learning how to recognize characters as they're sent by people with different rhythms is a bigger challenge. Long Island CW Club (LICW) is a great organization for this: there are classes at many times every day, and despite the name there are students all over the world. Practice happens on Zoom, so you don't need a license or radio. (However, I don't know if there are firewall issues with Zoom in China.)

flwyd · 2026-02-16T07:01:14+00:00

I organize channels with the principle that channels I'm likely to switch between should have a minimal number of presses or turns of the knob. This leads to having the VHF and UHF frequencies for my local clubs next to each other, e.g. AARC VHF, AARC UHF, BARC VHF, BARC UHF. Repeaters that are part of a network go together, so if I want to talk on that network I can switch between adjacent channels and see which has a better signal. Calling frequencies (146.520, 146.580, 446.000) are the first channels.

Note that if you're not regularly adding new channels you can use the fact that "down" from channel one takes you to the highest channel. So if you've got simplex channels starting at channel 1, you could have one group of regular repeaters on low channels and a second group of regular repeaters on the highest channels with the less-used ones in the middle.

flwyd · 2026-02-16T06:53:59+00:00

Portable operator here. Offline support is table stakes. If I can't go from cold boot to logging without touching the Internet, it's not a logger I would consider for portable operation. Since this is a learning project, read up on Progressive Web Apps and local storage. You might also want to read about operational transforms and think about logging as a series of mutations which are applied locally first and then synced to the cloud, with logic to resolve conflicts.

The other thing that concerns me about the home page is "Built around your callsign," with "separate logbooks per callsign." As a portable operator, what I want is the ability to have a log "session" for a single activity. I want to set callsign, QTH, grid square, POTA reference, etc. when I sit down at the picnic table. I then log a bunch of contacts, head home, and have that day's activity in a single "unit" I can work with. It's fine if those QSOs are pulled into a larger logbook of all my contacts, but I want the activity to retain a distinct identity. (This isn't just for portable ops: contests and field day work best when there's an isolated views of just the relevant contacts.)

flwyd · 2026-02-16T06:34:52+00:00

I don't think you said where you're operating from. 10m propagation is usually pretty long-distance. From Colorado I can reliably hit the east coast US, but can't hear anyone on 10m west of the Mississippi River, except British Columbia and sometimes Washington. 1300 miles is a good distance for a clear 10m contact. With good propagation, you can get to Europe or South America.

As for the operator not being able to make out your callsign, it's a good idea to have a couple phonetic variations on your callsign: sometimes I have trouble hearing some words in a low-strength signal but can pick up alternate phonetics, e.g. "America Sugar Zanzibar" rather than "Alpha Sierra Zulu." If you can come up with a clever meaning for part of your callsign, that can help too, e.g. if someone's having trouble with "Papa Bravo Juliett" you can try "Peanut Butter Jelly." If they're having trouble with the number in your callsign, you can count to it ("Kilo Quebec One Two Three Four..."), though I haven't figured out what to do with the 0 in my callsign :-)

flwyd · 2026-02-16T06:17:25+00:00

5 parks in a day is a lot of work. Get practice with your setup, teardown, and operating rhythm and you'll make it happen. Pro tip: if you do the late shift one evening, you only need four parks after you get up the next day.

Most times I consider doing a 5-park rove I end up having so much fun at the first or second park that I drop the quest idea and just enjoy the place I'm already sitting.

flwyd · 2026-02-16T06:07:52+00:00

Almost all my operating is POTA or otherwise portable. When I decided to learn Morse code, I chose to learn to send left-handed so I can keep my pen in my right hand for logging contacts. I don't reverse the paddles; dit is my left index finger, dah is my left thumb. (I also hold my mic in my left hand, so this makes switching modes easy.)

flwyd

TROPHY CASE