Like many people, my Parks on the Air (POTA) journey started during the Covid pandemic. I was still working in those days and would spend the occasional lunch break on my backyard deck playing radio. I would haul my IC-7300 upstairs and plug it into my backyard antennas and try and make some contacts.

Several months prior to the pandemic changing our lives, I had started learning Morse code, so a CW key would be part of the kit making the trip upstairs. After a few trips up and down the stairs with the 7300, I bought an FT-891, and my POTA kit was born. I had already acquired the requisite Bioenno 20-AH battery. Prior to my first activation, I bought another 20 meter dipole, a 40-ft Spiderbeam telescoping mast and took to setting it all up in the backyard to make sure it would work at a park.

Satisfied that I had accounted for everything, we headed out for our first activation. The date was November 28, 2020, a Saturday. I put the dipole up in an inverted V configuration at about twenty-five feet, spotted myself on the POTA website and started calling CQ. Thirty-one SSB contacts later, we packed it up and headed home. I remember having modest expectations that day, but worked a HAM in North Pole Alaska, and I was hooked. Over one-hundred activations later I’m still hooked, though my setup has changed a few times.

The Spiderbeam mast rarely comes out anymore, though supporting one end of a half-wave end fed will bring it out on occasion. The dipole, while still a favorite, is supported by a thirteen-foot tripod used by photographers to hold up studio lights.

Now that we’re retired and traveling a bit, I’ve been experimenting with some QRP gear. The radio is the QRP-Labs QMX. While I enjoy building their kits I ordered this one built and am actually enjoying using it. For a power source I’m using a small 12v power brick, though brick is probably an exaggeration. The antenna I’ve been favoring for the QMX is a Chameleon brand stainless steel whip that I tune using a Rig Expert Stick analyzer. 

In August of 2022, I started working some CW during my activations, and by January of 2024 I was leaving my microphone at home. My POTA CW activations were initially done using a CW Morse paddle, but I’ve been using a BAMA-Key TP II for a year or so now. We’re now in 2026 and I’m still not packing a microphone for my activations.

Portable operating is the type of operation that I imagined myself doing most frequently when I decided to get in to Amateur Radio in the first place. I live in an HOA neighborhood and didn’t think I’d be able to put a decent antenna up at my house. While I have worked around the HOA restrictions with great success I enjoy operating portable immensely and look forward to our occasional road trips with great anticipation for this reason.

My POTA stats: