It came as no surprise to me that any list of my five favorite antennas would be heavy weighted towards verticals. As much as I love the satisfaction of throwing a line and getting it high up in a tree, I also don’t like to mess around and the quicker I can set up and get on the air, the better.
Which leads to this week’s video: My Top Pick for Portable Antennas May Surprise You! Watch here: https://youtu.be/Nz10os_lkCQ
In coming up with the concept for this week’s video, I didn’t want to make an arbitrary list of antennas, but instead look at my last year’s worth of Parks on the Air activations and tabulate what I put on the air. Fortunately I keep pretty good notes, and I was able to refer to my activation journal, photographs I take in the field, and even video content to itemize every antenna for each of the over 150 activations I did in the last year. The results were a little surprising to me, I figured I would have more activations featuring wire antennas than I did, and I thought that KJ6ER’s PERformer antenna would be the runaway smash hit.
Still, this was a good exercise and I glad I did it. Maybe next I’ll revisit this list for any changes.
Keeping track of Activations
How many of you keep a journal or notebook of your activations? I’ve found this to be an indispensable tool. When I visit a new park entity, I make sure to take pictures of the location and my setup. I also record the weather, solar conditions, and overall feelings of the activation. When I then come back to that place, I have a record of the good and the not so good, so my next activation can be even more successful.
Record keeping is also important because it answers questions: What did I do to make this activation a success and what could be done to make this activation more successful?
Hams famously live on data. They want specs and performance comparisons. Hard number to quantify that they made the right decision. Data points drive decisions, don’t they?
I’m a bit more loosey-goosey. After years of portable operations and testing antennas in the field, I’ve found that the biggest contributors to success isn’t the hard number, but the soft things that can be hard to quantify: band conditions, location, time of day, even the weather. Because I keep records of the park and my activations, I can take those soft items into account for the activation’s success.
I think more importantly, committing those events to paper, or digital for that matter, cements the activity in your mind. That’s why I journal my activations.
So how do I do it?
Everyone has their favorite method. I’ve tried many and settled on a hard cover 5×8.25 inch Moleskine journal. Computer journals don’t have the same feeling for me and I really enjoy putting down thoughts with a nice writing implement onto high quality paper. Do what works best for you.
The information I collect is date and optionally time, location (park number, Grid Square, Lat & Long, address, etc). If I set up in a particular spot, I may describe the spot and its surroundings. Antennas, transceiver, power levels, mode, bands, number of contacts. Individual contacts will be logged in their own system, I use smartlogger.app on my Windows notebook computer, but if a contact was memorable, I may jot a note about it. If I’m testing an antenna, I’ll record my impressions. Whatever is important to you, goes in your journal.
Finally, I take pictures of the activation. Some will get shared on social media, but most of them are for my reference. Location, antenna setup, even a picture of the transceiver, all can jog my memory weeks, months, or years into the future.
Years ago, we were cleaning out some of our local club’s archives, and I stumbled upon a logbook a member kept in the 1960’s. All handwritten, but the detail was amazing. This was back in the day when amateurs were required to keep accurate logs of their contacts. Beside that, for me, decades later, this record was a captivating insight on how ham radio was. By keeping a journal, maybe I’m creating a legacy for someone else to cherish.
Finishing up
The Huntsville Hamfest is this weekend. One of the top tier hamfests in the US, I’ve fielded a few inquiries wondering if I will be going. Unfortunately I won’t be attending this weekend. Hunstville is a bit of a haul for me, about 900 miles, so it is something that takes a fair amount of thought and planning. I do want to make my way down there, but like I plan for Hamvention, in Xenia, OH, I need to make the commitment six months in advance.
Which means, incidentally, I need to decide now if Hamcation will be be on the horizon for me. That’s a 1400 mile trip. Ouch.
Whatever I decide, you can still expect to see me at Hamvention 2026.
I hope to get you in the log soon.
Michael
KB9VBR
Recent Comments