HAM Radio

20241219 - My first FT8 POTA activation

KB9V

— 2 min read
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Today was a day in history for me... Mark this day down as my first:

  • POTA Activation with my own gear.
  • POTA Activation using the new sBITx Radio.
  • First TX from the new sBITx Radio.
  • POTA Activation covering the FT8 Digital mode.
  • Use of my home built end fed 1/2 wave 10M/15M/20M antenna.

Also, it was a test to see if my battery system would do the job. Today proved that I could run a couple hours RX/TX Radio + Rasberry Pi + Antenna Tuner on my 6AH LiFePO4 "Frankenstein" battery box. More than I expected it would run. At the end of the day it was still at 12.9v which indicates about 25% energy left. Also, the battery was able to power TX during the heavier FT8 duty cycle.

It was a great afternoon at the park with KQ4GEV and N0OZZ also working POTA on their rigs.

Here was my setup:

20M End-Fed antenna up to the fishing pole:

pota-antenna

The office:

pota-setup

pota-setup2

Map of my FT8 POTA Activation:

pota-ft8-activation

Just for curosity, here are the stations that could hear the new sBITX radio call CQ on FT8:

pota-ft8-reach

Top it off with a beautiful sunset at the park! Blessed with life!
pota-sunset

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