Tag: pota
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Operating POTA on a Family Vacation Without Making It a Whole Thing
A 20-minute activation squeezed into a family trip beats a full setup that eats the whole afternoon.
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My POTA Radio History: Five Radios, One Lesson About Carrying Less
From an AnyTone 578 in an Armoloq cage, through a G90, an FT-891, and an FT-857D, to landing on the FTX-1 Optima. Here’s the actual radio history behind my current POTA setup, and why I kept swapping until it matched my shack.
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Field Day vs POTA vs SOTA: What’s the Difference and Which to Try First
Part of our Getting On The Air guide. These three activities all get lumped together as portable operating, but they have genuinely different formats, goals, and time commitments, and knowing the differences helps you pick the right starting point. ARRL Field Day: One Big Annual Event Field Day happens once a year, the fourth full…
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FT-891 vs FTX-1 Field vs G90: Which Portable HF Radio Wins for POTA
Part of our Getting On The Air: Modes, Operations, and Making Contacts guide. I get some version of this question constantly: which of my three portable-friendly HF radios should someone actually buy for POTA. I own all three, I use all three in the field, and the honest answer is that they’re not really competing…
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Pairing the FTX-1 with the Spooltenna Ultra for Portable HF
Why the Spooltenna Ultra is my default antenna for the FTX-1 in the field, and how I actually deploy and tune the pairing.
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Setting Up the FTX-1 for POTA: A Portable Field Kit Walkthrough
What actually goes into my FTX-1 POTA kit, from the radio and antenna down to the small stuff that saves an activation.
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Running the FTX-1 QRP vs Full Power in the Field: When to Choose Which
How I actually decide between QRP and full power on the FTX-1 in the field, based on band conditions, kit weight, and what I’m trying to accomplish.
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My First POTA Activation: What I Wish I Knew Beforehand
I had the gear, I had the callsign, and I still made almost every rookie mistake possible on my first Parks on the Air activation. Here is what I would tell myself beforehand.
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Field Safety: Weather, Wildlife, and Working Alone on POTA and SOTA Activations
Most POTA and SOTA activations go fine. The ones that do not usually involve weather, terrain, or being alone somewhere nobody knows to look for you. Here is how to actually plan around that.
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Getting On The Air: Modes, Operations, and Making Contacts
The full roadmap for operating on QSO Journey, covering HF bands, propagation, digital voice and data modes, contesting, and portable operating.
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Building the Ultimate POTA Go-Bag
A good POTA go-bag is the difference between setting up in ten minutes and fumbling around a picnic table for forty five. Here is what actually lives in mine.
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G90 POTA Field Kit Walkthrough
Part of our The Xiegu G90: The Complete Guide. People ask me why I still reach for the G90 for POTA when I own an FTX-1 and an FT-891. The honest answer is size. The G90 is genuinely small, and once you’ve hiked a mile in with a radio on your back, you stop thinking…
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