Entrance to Silver Spring US-10547
Yesterday I shook off my long-lasting winter blues and headed out for my first activation of 2026. This was a shakedown trip to make sure I wouldn’t completely mess things up while testing a few new things. I drove all of 3 miles to a near-by park, Silver Spring State Recreational Area, US-10547.
For gear, I decided to use my Elecraft KX3, which hadn’t been on an activation in recent memory, a small external battery so I could measure the total power consumed, my 20 meter Hamstick with MagMount, and a Begali Magnetic Traveler Light, with leg strap (which worked very well and eliminated the entire issue of “where will I put the paddle?”).
Elecraft KX3 running 5 watts CW. I used an external battery so I could measure total power consumption
The Begali Paddle was strapped to my leg
A MFJ 20m Hamstick (no longer available, but there are a few clones like the Moonraker 12-062)
With the power set to 5 watts, I started the activation by searching for other stations to bump up my Park-to-Park count. That actually took the most amount of time, about 25 minutes, to work 6 other stations in parks. I then started calling CQ POTA and it took 9 minutes for 8 stations to answer my call. With 14 stations in the log I decided to call it quits.
Spots shown on the Reverse Beacon Network for my station. Propagation wasn’t great into the US, but was cracking into Europe.
When I recharged the battery, it took 0.76 amp-hours to refill. While I was in transmit for about 35 minutes (0.45 AH), the rig was actually powered on receiving for almost 2 hours (0.3 AH).
Incidentally, it happened to be opening day for fishing, and there were lots of happy kids (and adults) catching trout. I sat in the park for a couple of hours enjoying the nice weather and the happy fishermen.
The six stations I hunted initially bumped my Park to Park total up to 100
