[ADXA] 100th POTA activation, with help from K5UR

[Dennis Schaefer]

I have two main ham radio interests - DX’ing and portable operation.   I’ve
done a lot of portable stuff in ARES/RACES, etc, and wouldn’t miss Field
Day.   POTA (Parks on the Air) is perfect for me when I want to get out of
the chair but still do some radio.   I talk about and promote POTA a lot
and set up a POTA booth at our hamfest in 2023.  People think I’m really
active, but my stats are dismal.  I decided I would try to get up to 100
total park activations by the end of 2023.   This is still very modest,
because some people have thousands.

I finished my 100th activation today at Lake Dardanelle State Park.  Almost
all of my activations are 100% CW.   It can be slow, because there are many
POTA operators who are learning CW.  It’s the same at Field Day - lots of
people who don’t really do CW but aspire to be proficient.   It’s hard to
work more than one every minute - I worked 35 in about 25 minutes today.
The main thing I keep telling myself is that it is wonderful that all those
people are actually doing it!  They take a deep breath and plunge right
in.  It does not matter if they are proficient yet.  If we encourage them,
they have a chance.

Of course, many of the POTA callers are very proficient.  Today, I heard a
weak signal and finally pulled our K5UR!   I was running 40 watts to a
Hustler mobile antenna on the banks of Lake Dardanelle, but we completed
the 20M CW contact.  Thanks, Rick!

This just proves what we have known - nothing gets by Rick.  He’s always
listening.

I think POTA is good for ham radio in many ways, so I’ll continue to do
it.  I am glad to get to a nice round number of activations, though.  Now,
bring on the next round of DXpeditions.   The goal for the DeSoto Challenge
has been updated - 1500 by the end of 2024.

73,
Dennis/RZ
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