«!– taxonomy: tag: - ‘HAM Radio’ - FT8 - POTA - ‘POTA Activation’ - 20M - ‘sBitx V3’ - ‘2024’ media_order: ‘pota-antenna.png,pota-setup.png,pota-setup2.png,pota-ft8-activation.png,pota-ft8-reach.png,pota-sunset.png’ date ‘12/19/2024 12:53 pm’ publish_date: ‘12/19/2024 12:53 pm’ –>

Today was a day in history for me… Mark this day down as my first:

• POTA Activation with my own gear.
• POTA Activation using the new sBITx Radio.
• First TX from the new sBITx Radio.
• POTA Activation covering the FT8 Digital mode.
• Use of my home built end fed 1/2 wave 10M/15M/20M antenna.

Also, it was a test to see if my battery system would do the job. Today proved that I could run a couple hours RX/TX Radio + Rasberry Pi + Antenna Tuner on my 6AH LiFePO4 “Frankenstein” battery box. More than I expected it would run. At the end of the day it was still at 12.9v which indicates about 25% energy left. Also, the battery was able to power TX during the heavier FT8 duty cycle.

It was a great afternoon at the park with KQ4GEV and N0OZZ also working POTA on their rigs.

Here was my setup:

20M End-Fed antenna up to the fishing pole:

The office:

Map of my FT8 POTA Activation:

Just for curosity, here are the stations that could hear the new sBITX radio call CQ on FT8:

Top it off with a beautiful sunset at the park! Blessed with life!