POTA is addicting....

Over the last few weeks as the weather has warmed up I have been trying to get outdoors more and operate Parks on the Air (POTA).

Besides the VHF/UHF operations during Simplex Saturdays (now over) I began doing HF POTA as well. Recently I went to Mt. Roosevelt WMA in Roane Co near the Time Zone line between Eastern and Central time, on the Cumberland Plateau. 

This was also on a Simplex Saturday (14 March 2026). I was going to go nearby to Ozone Falls to attempt an operation but because it was the first Saturday after the move to Daylight Savings Time, and also a beautiful and warm day, it was extremely crowded at the waterfall, so we opted to go back to Mt. Roosevelt.

I ended up with about 15 contacts on HF in about 20 minutes of operating. It was shortened due to Simplex Saturday getting started at 5pm and I had to move to a higher point on the hill to operate VHF/UHF. It was a good test of my equipment, and a good lesson on what to bring and what NOT to bring.

10 days later I went to Big Ridge State Park and operated during the late afternoon. It was a beautiful day and I made a spur-of-the-moment choice to go as I was going to be in the area for a radio club meeting.

I got to the park, set up, and began operating on 20m, then switched to 40m when trying to reach a friend of mine back in Knoxville. We made contact and then things exploded...in part because he spotted me on the DXClusters and I became the center of attention!

Because 40m was such a success, I was late to the radio club meeting! But I was HYPED! I wanted to go back to that park to operate afterwards, but they are closed after dark, so I decided to check out Norris Dam State Park. I parked at the Dam and attempted to operate for a little bit but received reports my signal was distorted. It just so happened I was parked underneath a high-power line and most likely that caused some of the issues. I was able to get the 10 contacts needed before packing up. I spent the entire trip home thinking about where to operate next!

I began looking at other parks in the region I have not visited or operated from (either POTA or otherwise) and saw Oak Ridge had two parks within "relative" close proximity. More on that momentarily...

The first was the Manhattan Project National Historical Park on the outskirts of town. I trekked up there last Friday (3 April 2026) and found it to be a small space relatively speaking. There was a city park next to it and I thought I could set up there but I do believe it was NOT within the boundaries and also, someone was in the only picnic area they had. So I went into the parking area of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park and decided to go in and ask if I was allowed to operate from there, if there was any restrictions, no-no's, etc. To my surprise, they have a Radio Club Station in the building! Apparently the Oak Ridge ARC operates from the building at least once/month for demonstrations. 

The attendant initially thought I wanted to operate that radio station, which I corrected and said I had my own equipment and would be in the parking lot, to which they readily allowed. So I set up in the furthest end of the parking area and began operating!

It was a fast and active operation, and in just a little over 30 minutes I had 52 contacts made! I decided it was enough and tore down the operation to head to the next location, the Oak Ridge Wildlife Management Area.

For whatever reason, I was not clear on the exact location, as the name listed ("Oak Ridge Wildlife Management Area") does NOT appear on Google Maps or Waze. The POTA web site gave me the URL for the official page for the WMA which had the coordinates at: 35.96777 N  -84.24952 W.

In typical government fashion, when I put these coordinates in, not paying that much attention, these SPECIFIC coordinates are for some desert area in China! 

HOWEVER...

When you plug in the coordinates without the negative in the longitude, you get a road just outside the gates of ORNL. 

HOWEVER...

When I put this into the Waze app on my phone, it took me here. WHY...I have no idea. But since it has been 10 years since I worked in Oak Ridge on a regular basis, I trusted too much in technology. So it cost me 30 minutes ONE WAY to find out it was an oopsie...

I ended up going back into Oak Ridge (another 30 minutes...) and went to Clark Center Park. I messaged some people on Facebook's TN POTA group if I was good in the city park, and was told it's within the Wildlife Management Area so...yes! 

Mental note: RESEARCH YOUR DESTINATIONS BEFORE YOU EMBARK ON YOUR JOURNEY!

After a few minutes of setup I was once again on the air. I began calling CQ and within 10 minutes all hell broke loose as many stations came flooding in at once, as if I was a rare DX entity. For 60 minutes straight I was cranking out contacts and the adrenaline was pumping!

When I got home and uploaded the log, 117 contacts in 1 hour! I was gobsmacked at the numbers! I then kicked myself thinking if I hadn't wasted over an hour of driving to the middle of literally NOWHERE, what I could have done...

I was blown away by the amount of activity POTA generates whenever I'm activating a park. It's been giving me a revitalization in HF activity after literal years of using VHF/UHF only for communication.

The beauty of these last few activations has been my JPC-12 antenna. I am absolutely a believer that this antenna is one of the best out there for portability, reliability, and affordability. 

NOTE: I am not paid to say this, this is my honest opinion. I was gifted this antenna from a close friend who liked this antenna when he used it. 

I can say that when I purchased the JPC-12 radial plate and some 18awg speaker wire to better complement the ground radials, the difference has been night and day! The radial wire that comes with the antenna is just ribbon cable that can be separated into smaller strands, and I felt this was not a good option. So I purchased the plate and speaker wire and crafted 8 strands at ~18.5" each. I then tested with 4 of the 8 radials at Big Ridge, which is where 40m was incredible.

When I put out all 8 radials, 20m has been unreal. I was able to bust pileups for contacts with POTA activations when I was hunting, and a majority of my contacts were "5/9" on high and low power. I haven't had time to try 40m much, and I have been getting some success on 10m. 

Hopefully I will be going back out for more POTA in the days and weeks ahead, and POTAPalooza is coming up in a couple of weeks. Look for me there!

Harsh lesson about wind load, magnets, and "metal" surfaces

Over the last few months, I've been participating in Parks on the Air (POTA) and Simplex Saturdays (sponsored by TARA) and the antenna I've used is the Comet UHV-4, a quad-band antenna that works with my FT-8900 radio (10m, 6m, 2m, and 70cm).

It's a great antenna, and it's nice to have one antenna to rule them all, but one disadvantage is that its profile is not the most conducive for magnet-mounting. It's heavy, even somewhat top-heavy, and has a high profile for windy conditions. Most of the time I've owned it, I kept it indoors, or stored in my shed, taking it out to operate on Saturdays.

Admittedly I can be lazy, and thus was the case three weeks ago (as of this writing) when I last operated Simplex Saturday/POTA. I came home and simply left it on my Dodge Durango in anticipation of operating the next weekend. Unfortunately I was unable to do that, so I left it on the roof of the Durango as the weather was fairly pleasant, if not a bit chilly, but little precipitation occurred.

Last Wednesday (25 February) I went to Morristown for a SKYWARN Board meeting and simply left the antenna atop the roof. I didn't bring my radio (although I considered it) and it turned into a blustery day and I didn't think much of it as the temps were in the 50s. and it was relatively nice.

On the way home I took the interstate and was traveling westbound into an eastern wind. At one point a stiff gust hit and I heard the noise I never expected...*THUD* *THUMP*, and looking in the rear-view mirror I saw a flailing coaxial cable trailing. 

Other cars around me must have seen the hilarity ensuing and allowed me to move over to the shoulder. And when I got out, my worst fears had come to pass. The only thing remaining was the shell of my tri-magnet mount, with the coax adapter where the antenna once stood sheared right off. Whatever remained of the antenna was now about a half-mile back and destroyed. 

I had purchased the antenna at the Dalton Hamfest the year prior. And what a coincidence...guess what  event was the following Saturday!

I now had a mission for the Dalton Hamfest: To get a replacement UHV-4 and magnet mount.

So why not get a more "permanent" mount for my UHV-4? It's complicated, but in short, I have the quad-band radio mounted to my battery box, and so it's portable, and sometimes I take my vehicle to participate, and other times, I use my wife's car. So I need to be able to remove and attach to either car.

So I went to Dalton last Saturday and picked up the UHV-4 (thanks to ChattRadio for holding one back for me!) and a larger and (hopefully) stronger magnet mount for continuing to do POTA and Simplex Saturdays. Tower Electronics had the mount and connector for the UHV-4.

Unfortunately I was not able to get up on a mountain for Simplex Saturday that day but was able to get up on the Parkway a couple of weeks afterwards.