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POTA Activation Report: Turbary Common

Written on Thursday 19 Dec 2024

When I realised I was leaving home with only two hours to go until sunset, should I have taken the hint? When I realised I’d forgotten the camp chair, and my activation spot would be a bramble-covered tree stump, should I have taken the hint? When the rain started blowing...

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Billy Bass Basket Case (Alt. Ver.)

Written on Wednesday 18 Dec 2024

Earlier this year, Green Day announced a number of special releases to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their album Dookie. My first reaction was, of course, “oh god what no, it’s not thirty… of fuck, please stop reminding me that I am middle-aged!” Once I got over the shock, I...

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POTA Activation Report: Talbot Heath

Written on Tuesday 17 Dec 2024

It’s another one of those limbo days, where I’m not at work but the rest of the household are out doing their normal weekday things. After so many years of family and working life, I have to remind myself that it’s actually possible to just go out and do something—no...

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POTA Activation Report: Holton Heath

Written on Saturday 16 Nov 2024

Ever since our first Brownsea Island activation I’ve been thinking of ticking off other nearby parks that are still sat unactivated. A recent update added pretty much every scrap of green space in Christchurch, but all of those were quickly snapped up. A weird outlier nearby, though, is GB-0093 Dorset...

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POTA Activation Report: River Hamble Country Park

Written on Tuesday 12 Nov 2024

My work off-site finished at lunchtime, leaving me with little to do besides drive most of the M27 and sit around at home. A better idea: do some radio nerd stuff in a field instead. The BBQ field at River Hamble Country Park GB-2465, River Hamble Country Park is sited...

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POTA Activation Report: Poor Common

Written on Thursday 31 Oct 2024

There are dozens, if not hundreds of places in the UK called “Poor Common”; land granted many centuries ago by the local Lord to ordinary people so that they had somewhere to graze their livestock. But this one, GB-1723 Poor Common Nature Reserve is the only one in the POTA...

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POTA Activation Report: Canford Cliffs

Written on Monday 28 Oct 2024

It’s a week of leave from work, I have nothing urgent to do, and so: my second POTA activation in two days! This one had a very different feel to Saturday’s sunny afternoon activation. The day dawned damp and windy, but at least not actively raining—sadly, that was to change...

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POTA Activation Report: Hengistbury Head

Written on Saturday 26 Oct 2024

After JOTA, where my daughter casually snagged her first transatlantic SSB contact, I decided to set myself a goal: by the end of the year, I was going to have my first transatlantic POTA park-to-park. Jim, N4JAW told me he thought it’d be easy, but I wasn’t entirely sure—he is...

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Jamboree on the Air 2024

Written on Saturday 19 Oct 2024

It’s been a year since my daughter, a young leader at the local Scout troop, helped with JOTA/JOTI and remarked that they were only really doing the “on the internet” side of it, not the “on the air” side. And that we should fix that. I didn’t have the Full...

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POTA Activation Report: Upton Heath

Written on Sunday 13 Oct 2024

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by,It basically looped back on itself and it was quite muddy.Probably should have stuck with the road all those other folks took."—Robert Frost, POTA Activator (probably) It’s October, out on the heath. The days start cold now,...

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