2 Meter POTA Activation
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- Опубліковано 8 тра 2023
- On May 2, 2023 (Five-Two) I did a 2 Meter Parks on the Air (POTA) activation at the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor (K-6532) on 146.52MHz FM. I used the Ed Fong roll-up J-pole antenna with the ICOM 880H mobile dual-band transceiver.
Learn more about the Ed Fong antennas and where to buy them at edsantennas.weebly.com/. (I am not an affiliate.)
POTA on!!!
Heck yeah! When I had someone calling me P2P on 2m, from a 3fer of all places, I was blown away. Whatever band, whatever mode, get out there and have FUN!
Awesome, I found you searching for information on doing POTA over 2m. This is inspiring and I’m going to get started doing this in my area.
Awesome! It can be done. I've done it a few times. Location helps, whether it's elevation and/or ham density. Good luck and let me know how it goes!!
Great idea! What a wonderful way to get Technicians hooked making contacts and perhaps inspiring them to upgrade for even more opportunities. 73!
You bet! That was one of the goals for this. Thanks for watching, Anthony.
Mike thanks for the reply Sir. Kc2lnb
Fun to see a 2m activation. You're lucky to have so much activity on that band 👍🏻
Thanks for watching! I’m hoping to generate more interest in 2m.
Looks like a lot of fun. As a VHF rover in contests and the VHF op at field day, I appreciate the effort to setup and operate from remote locations. You may want to consider that location for the June contest (1 month from now) if you can add horizontal antennas for 6m and 2m SSB. It seems very central to our area and you can easily get everyone from the VHF group from there. We should have at least 4 rovers out in June with everything from 6m to 10GHz, and another 15 fixed stations. It would be great to coordinate with you. 73.
Thanks, Jarred. I’ve done Bare Hill near Canandaigua Lake for the VHF contests in January this year and September last year. It qualifies for POTA and SOTA. I found another one too-Sugar Hill, which is higher but might be farther away. I’ve got simple speaker wire dipoles I use with my 705 for 2m & 6m SSB too. I’ve got a j-pole for 1.25m that I’ve used during the contests with a triband HT and it can get a few contacts as well. I’ll keep you and others posted on the plans for June. 73
Great job. POTA isn't just for HF.
I agree! There's so many bands and modes to try.
Good video thanks Mike. Yes, I have done my only 2 SOTA activations on 2 meters with an 8 watt Baofeng handheld. In both instances they were on hills - 600 m and 1200 m AMSL - with line of sight to a reasonable sized city some 70 km away on the coast.....but it does show it can be done. In the right location with favourable conditions your gear doesn't have to be fancy. Good on you for encouraging 2 meter activations. Cheers ZL2VTH
You are right-height does help. I have had good success using VHF when I do SOTA or if I’m at a park that is high up. Thanks for watching!
Great job, Mike, looks like you had a blast! Tim K9VB
Thanks, Tim! It was fun.
👍👍👍
Great video, really makes a change to see POTA on 2m FM. I'm not sure how well it would work at my local POTA as the take-off is pretty poor and there's little activity on VHF and up in this corner of SE England. Quite a lot of UK SOTA activators use 2m/70cm FM to good effect, though more often with low power on HTs. I'm sure your 50W helps and glad to hear you have an active VHF scene where you are. 73, Simon G0CIQ
Thanks for watching! I'm glad you liked it. I did make some SOTA contacts on 2m FM with an HT this past weekend. It amazing the difference height makes.
Quite a few POTA entities here have peaks and high points in them, which make doing a VHF/UHF activation much easier.
There's a SOTA/POTA site not far from me and boy does the height make a difference when I operate there!
@@MikeN2MAK Technically Mt. Rainer is in a POTA entity :). N7KOM has some cool videos of activations from our local volcanoes.
Im from Cayuga County myself. Ive scoped out a couple SOTA spots near me. Im only a tech right now so 2m activation is right up my alley. Curious if you ever get on the Bristol repeater 145.110?
Thanks for watching, Sean! You’ll have a good time with SOTA. Even with an HT, you can get out surprisingly far. I’m on the Bristol repeater occasionally, so maybe we’ll catch each other there sometime. 73
Mike where did you get the push up pole thanks for your time Kc2lnb Ron
It's an MFJ 1910 33-foot mast. I've had it for about 3 years and so far, so good. I ordered it from Gigaparts, but I'm sure it's available elsewhere too, so check around for a deal.
Henrietta and Lock 32 tells me we are almost neighbors I'm just up the road from you in newkirk
I guess I should have watched the hole video before I made this comment Henrietta is a town in Oklahoma close to Tulsa and we have a bunch of locks and damn for barges on the Arkansas river I assumed you was here in Oklahoma 😂😂😂
That's too funny! I know that town in OK because of Freddie Mac, the Ham Radio Crusader, LOL. Thanks for watching!!
@@MikeN2MAK I haven't heard of him is he a UA-cam guy or maybe where could I run into him I'm still new to all of this
@@seandrake7534 if you're new to the hobby, congrats! I've been doing ham radio for just over 3 years and love it. Freddie Mac has a UA-cam channel called Ham Radio Crusader www.youtube.com/@HamRadioCrusader.
@@MikeN2MAK yep taking my test tonight
Congratulations....well done. I don't think this would work in my area due to low traffic on vhf, uhf.
Yeah, this definitely won’t work for everyone. But hopefully the video encourages some others to give it a try and generates some interest in VHF/UHF. Thanks for checking it out!
its dead around here, i can scan 2 meter for days and might hear 1 or 2 people. maybe. :( no contacts on 2 meter for pota yet
That's too bad. I'm sure it's different for everyone, based on location. There's a very active VHF group in Western NY and Southern Ontario, so we're fortunate to have activity on 50MHz and up, FM and weak signal. I hoped by doing this it would encourage others to at least give it a try. Thanks for watching!
Okay now I want to do this. Here is my question, since 146.52 FM is a calling frequency should I use another frequency? Thoughts? Anyone?
Awesome! I think it’s fine to use 146.52, if it’s not in use. But it’s possible that might be frowned on in some areas. Give it a shot and see. Just take some breaks to see if there’s any priority traffic. Good luck!!
2m activation? I need to get out more...
It’s always a good time when you get out to play radio. Thanks for watching!
Nice job on the POTA on 2m and 70cm. Don’t hear that by me usually just HF.👍
Thanks for watching! It's nice to try something different everyone once and a while.
great thanks been thinking along same path hope to do the same soon hope to contact you KC2MJB BALDWINSVILLE NY
That's awesome, Doug! Let me know how it goes. Thanks for watching!