Another quick, mobile POTA activation from March 23rd, 2023. I was driving from my house in Clermont to Tallahassee for a FIRST Robotics Competition event (congrats to my team FRC5816 GraV for winning the FIRST Impact Award and advancing to Championship in Houston, Texas!) and decided to make a quick stop on the way up.
I used to live in Gainesville. In fact, I earned my license while a graduate student at the University of Florida. So Paynes Prairie was a familiar park. When I first got an HF rig, I spent a couple Saturdays operating portable from this park (if only I would have kept the logs separated to label them a POTA).
With my new organization strategy mentioned in my last POTA Report, it was super easy and convenient to grab the case and go. I brought my FT-857 and operated from my car, a familiar setup. I knew I only had a little time to active the park and got to work with some FT8 and some SSB contacts. I quickly made about 40 contacts (11 digital and 29 voice) before getting back on the road.
I have things pretty efficient with my FT-857D sitting on my center arm rest and then a logging laptop/digital modes on my lap. I’m setup and ready to go in under 5 minutes and it’s just as quick to pack up. With evening stored in the pelican case, it makes it easy to pick up and take to my hotel room.
I was finishing my last QSO just as the sun was setting. I had a pileup on both SSB and FT8 while I was on the air. Paynes Prairie Preserve is not a super common park to see on the air and there aren’t usually a lot of parks on a week night (I was traveling on a Thursday), so it was quite popular. As it got dark bugs were starting to get bad and I had to pack up and get back on the road to Tallahassee.
It might be hard to see in the photo, but I was also running APRS for my drive. I like to beacon APRS with my mobile digipeater on longer drives.
Overall the setup worked like a dream. I’ve really streamlined the setup. I still prefer being able to setup at a picnic bench or something out in nature a bit more, but these quick activations are still fun. This coming weekend is Florida State Parks on the Air so we will see what I get on the air to activate.