Hey all, since getting licensed last month Ive been itching to put it to use. Had a free morning and attempted a POTA activation at a park in my large city at 1400UTC on 2m HT at 5w.
Called lengthy CQ on 52 on and off for about 30 mins and had zero contacts. I spotted myself about 30 mins before and again when i started.
My setup was FT5D on high/5w with an N9TAX about 15” in a tree at top of a hill. There was some weak tropo in my area
I was hoping for at least ONE contact, but is 2m really this dead in the US? Or should I totally have expected this result?
Would love to hear thoughts, suggestions, corrections, etc. Thanks!
2m depends a lot on your location since it’s almost entirely line-of-sight. People who do SOTA up on mountains use it sometimes, since they can get rally long line-of-sight, and it can be successful if you’re in or very close to a very populated area. Otherwise, it’s unlikely you’re going to be able to hit very much of anything without the help of a repeater, which rules out POTA activating.
Great points, yeah. I do wonder if my activation time worked hard against me (9am local on a work day), stacking on top of the other challenges you pointed out. I do have plans to work in some SOTA on 2m FM and may take a GMRS radio up to try to rustle up some listeners/contacts on 52 and 58. My plan is to keep hammering away while waiting on a “proper” HF, and still logging any contacts even if less than needed for activation. I’d certainly love for 2m simplex to become more active.
For me it feels like a fun challenge, even if an exercise in futility (which it likely is). If you have any suggestions at all for maxing my chances, do please share them; I’d love to use this as a learning exercise. Thanks for the reply!
2M is a big band, and unless someone within maybe 10 - 15 miles is hunting POTA on 2m, I wouldn’t be surprised. I don’t think a lot of people are sitting on 146.520, most are probably on local repeaters. If you were on a peak, maybe you could pull it off, but most POTA hunters are probably on HF. 20m is a great band for POTA, another reason to start studying for that general!! Good luck, and have fun.
Two meter fm is not a spur of the moment type activation. And while it can be done, it takes some extra planning to be successful. If you belong to a club, go to a meeting and get the word out about when and where you plan to activate. Also, hit up a net on your local repeater with your schedule. Try to get your plan on an email list so lots of people know about it. The more people that know, the better your chances are at being heard and getting you contacts. If you are restricted to just an ht, you’re range will probably be about 10-15 miles, even with a gained antenna, depending on the normal variables, of course. Choosing a park near a large populated area will be important as well. There wont be that many people to talk to if there aren’t many hams around. Bring a buddy for at least your first time out. At the worse, you’ll have someone to share the boredom with. ; ) Good luck with your future activations.
While 2M for POTA is a challenge to be sure, it’s not impossible and might be a really rare and cool goal to be honest. Here are some of my suggestions to actually make it happen. First, let’s talk about antenna. For best result’s, get directional. A 3 element beam is a fun, cheap, and easy project. There are likely 25 youtube video’s on how to make one out of a tape measure. Club’s used to do this all the time as a club meeting project. A beam like that will give you the gain you need to reach out and use your 5 watts to the best of it’s ability. You likely could reach into St Louis metro pretty easy with that. Just make sure to hold it up vertically so you match what 99% of those you are trying to talk to. Turning it horizontal may FEEL right but you literally attenuate your own signal to everyone on vertical’s, which is most everyone on FM 2M. After that, the previous person that mentioned letting club member now is on the right track. I would actually go further and say when you get there, hit a few repeaters in each direction that you think or know are popular and let everyone know you are setting up at the park and activating on .52. I would also ask around and find out if there is local popular frequencies. Where I was raised in Michigan, nobody was ever on .52, but there was a ton of people that hung out on .46. Don’t give up! You have learned the challenge, now go beat it.
Some will think it is silly and futile, but this is the sorta thing that will teach you dozens of things about radio that will come in handy for years to come.
This is a Enormously huge goal. I have a few suggestions. In the picture that I uploaded shows. You can Schedule a POTA activation. April 18-19th is also a Support your Parks weekend, which might have more activators on 146.520 The UHF / VHF contest is a great chance to make more contacts. The N9TAX antenna works well but you must remember that Height is MIGHT. I have used that very antenna up on a 20 ft. mast while using 50w and struggled. 2m FM is line of sight, so trees and buildings will reduce you distance. As others have mentioned, get on your local repeaters, make some contacts and let everyone know that you will be activating on X-day at X-time. If you put the word out enough I’m sure you will eventually hear a few people calling you. The problem will be them hearing you. I would strongly suggest that you try to join another local ham on an activation to see how they flow. We hams let other local hams borrow better antennas and equipment that we don’t use often. Encourage hams to join you, make it a party in the park. You can also, all work each other. Most 5w HT’s usually only put out 3-4 watts. Set yourself up for success and get some wins under you belt before such a goal. I have seen Hams struggle activating because of antennas, power, equipment and knowledge. See if someone has a 10w HT or higher power 2m mobile radio, or Xiegu G90 that you can borrow. I have over 300 activations and I would call trying to activate a park with only a 5w HT about a 9 out of 10 difficulty. If I can help you with any, feel free to email me.
Awesome response. As you said, the challenge will teach. Funny you mentioned yagis; I’ve been reading about plans and kits all week for the very reason you mentioned. I’ll definitely keep your suggestions as notes in my book. Thanks for the encouragement and advice!
As you pointed out there is so much I either didn’t do/try or maybe even did wrong. I certainly don’t pretend I know what I’m doing. Personally I think that’s fun since I have a long, long list of things to try/change next attempt. It would obv be much more doable on an HF and the G90 tops my list of radios to consider. Great suggestions about getting the word out; I will confess that I fear being a bother to anyone or so pre-cooking an activation that it’s less-than-organic. Thankfully my local club has several POTA-active members who could show me how they run their activations. I’ve been impressed so far with just how helpful hams have been, including the community here. It’s been a really fun learning exercise/experience; there’s something invigorating about realizing I know so little. Thanks for the reply and great info and help!
Basically, you are counting on someone within 5-10 miles listening on .52. While it is designated the national calling frequency, my experience is most people are listening on a local repeater. .52 is active in some areas, but I have had 3 Q’s on it in the last 18 months. One was a guy trying a pota activation, but the only reason I was there was he hit a local repeater to let folks know he was on .52. If you look at the spots, most POTA activations are on HF, with 20m being the most popular.If I had a good peak in a park, I might try a 2m activation using a rollup j-pole for an antenna suspended from a tree with an ht. It seems most people of VHF just let the local repeater frequency run rather than spinning the dial like they do on HF.
Youre absolutely correct and appreciate the reply for sure. Good point about repeaters. I did have luck activating a SOTA summit on 2m FM with a j pole in a tree and used repeaters (and height) to call guys over to 52. Doing that in a park, though, yeah—far more difficult. I did pick up a used G90 so Im excited to have that for 20m in the future, but it sure it fun logging VHF simplex QSOs! Thanks again for the reply!!
Personally I think that’s fun since I have a long, long list of things to try/change next attempt. It would obv be much more doable on an HF and the G90 tops my list of radios to consider. Great suggestions about getting the word out; I will confess that I fear being a bother to anyone or so pre-cooking an activation that it’s less-than-organic. Thankfully my local club has several POTA-active members who could show me how they run their activations. I’ve been impressed so far with just how helpful hams have been, including the community here. It’s been a really fun learning exercise/experience; there’s something invigorating about realizing I know so little. Thanks for the reply and great info and help!