Toward the end of last year I made a decision to get away from the TV and do other stuff with my life. I still watch about an hour of TV a day (via You Tube) and I follow my teams. However, I don’t watch “Sushi Train TV” – I take in little to no content from Netflix, Prime, et al. I didn’t want written on my tombstone – “A great TV watcher”.
I made the decision to get back into amateur or ham radio – something I sort of did in my teens. It’s one of the best decisions I ever made. I am having so much fun, I am learning so much, I am nerding and geeking out, I am meeting great people and I get a buzz which I haven’t had for decades. My only regret is that I didn’t rediscover it years ago.
One of my ham radio pursuits is POTA – Parks on the Air. Very simply, you take your radio gear to a park (national park, state forest, designated beach and others) post on dedicated websites your details and others hams globally try to make contact and log the exchange. It’s like Pokemon for the grey and white haired brigades. The aim is to collect as many parks as possible for your log.
Today I traipsed up to the Dorrigo Plateau, set up the radio, hooked up the power and erected by masts and hung between them 20 metres of copper wire. I posted where I was and the calls came in, including an operator from France. When I say calls, I mean radio calls on, today, 7 MHz or 40 metres. I also had some great chats with folks face-to-face curious about what I was up to.
What I love about POTA is that it combines my loves of tech, radio and nature. It’s a great way to spend the day. Here are posts from me three activations to date;
21 June 2025