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!