qrp: low-power communications
Recently, I did something a little bit different from the usual — I took part in a 48-hour adventure that provided me more excitement than any other activity in amateur radio. It was more exhilarating than Field Day, more exciting than CQ’s World Wide DX Contest, and more thrilling than the time I worked RI1ANC (Vostok Research Station in Antarctica) with 3 watts SSB, well, maybe almost as thrilling as that moment – hi. I know this is quite a claim, but it was an adventure I will never forget, and one I am already looking forward to for next year.
On July 16 and 17, I took part in the Parks on the Air (POTA) summer Support Your Parks Event which also doubles as POTA’s annual Plaque Event. For those who are not familiar with the POTA program, it was started by Jason Johnston, W3AAX, shortly after ARRL’s National Parks on the Air program ended in 2016. The purpose of POTA is to encourage hams to further develop their operating skills and demonstrate the hobby to the public by activating from one of more than 30,000 designated parks or entities worldwide. Four times per year (winter, spring, summer, and fall) POTA does a Support Your Parks Event during which hams promote POTA by stirring up activity on the airwaves from designated entities across the world. The
