So I may not be new to radio but I'm new to ham radio, so some of the lads thought I should do a POTA and meet up in person. We looked at a map and saw the centre of gravity for OARC hams in Ireland was somewhere near Athlone. So Ben (EI9IUB) and Vic (EI5IYB) organised a POTA activation in the Portlick Millenium Forest (EI-0150) which is indeed somewhere near Athlone.
My initial thought was that I have nothing suitable: my radios are a Baofeng 2m/70cm handheld off Amazon and a scruffy but very serviceable Kenwood TS-570D which I picked up at a rally. I had no portable HF radio and my antenna situation (the rubber duck that came with the Baofeng) is woeful. So I spent a couple of lunchtimes in the week before cutting wire, soldering and shrink-wrapping, picked up a 6.5m extendible GRP pole from Wildhunter in Athlone, and made a portable 40m/30m/20m fan dipole. The only thing I couldn't figure out in time was power – why won't couriers ship lithium batteries to Ireland – but Ben offered to bring batteries. So we had a plan!
The drive up was uneventful although finding the park was tricky as the signs just say “Portlick” and have a logo on them that is supposed to represent trees, but is far to small to understand when driving by. But, after a bit of driving around and a detour to a scout camp I found the place, with Ben and Vic camped out in the carpark. We walked around a bit to find a suitable spot, took the gear out and rigged everything. Then it was time to switch on the radios and get started.
The first thing we discovered was something called “Churches on the Air.” 40M was absolutely thick with them! Vic started working SSB and I started working FT8 using a Raspberry Pi. Daniel (EI8ICB) arrived and started working 2M with local Athlone hams.
Conditions proved difficult – it was hard for us to get heard – but the contacts slowly trickled into the log. We started around 2PM local time and by half past we were wondering if we would ever make it: Vic calling CQ over and over, and me giving up on calling CQ and chasing others for contacts. But we persisted, and my final contact came in at about ten past three, just as Vic got his contact to take us over the ten. Victory!
And, as if it knew, my Kenwood decided that pumping out 70W when sitting in the direct sunlight was too much and started sulking. So we disconnected it and left it to cool off in the shade.
After this, the afternoon became much more relaxed. We played around with a bit more radio, then all went to the Wineport Lodge for the post-activation debriefing, which involved good food and good company.
So that was my first POTA activation, and it was very much a success. We made our activation, I got to meet some of the other OARC hams in Ireland and put faces to the people online, and spend an afternoon in gorgeous weather in the park and an enjoyable evening meal afterwards.
And the Kenwood? Restored to it's place on the shelf in my shack, it's working just fine again. I can't promise it won't go on another outing though.
If this is POTA, I can't wait to do it all again.
Simon EI3JDB