RARC POTA Writeup 20211023

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Rockwall Club (K5RKW) POTA Sheet – Saturday, Oct 23, 2021

Bonham State Park – K-2991 Lat 33.54475’ N, Long -96.14580 W

  1. Bonham State Park is a small park/lake right outside of Bonham Texas about 1.25 hours NE of Rockwall. The place we will setup is right next to the lake on some covered picnic tables. The Rest Rooms are just up a hill from the tables and are the nicest ones I have ever seen in a public park (they even have showers).

  2. There is an entrance/usage fee - $4 per person over 13. If you have a current State Pass fee waived.

  3. We will schedule Activation on POTA site ahead of time to help maximize the number of contacts we make.

  4. We will be using the Club call K5RKW which does have it's own POTA account. POTA operators will also get credit for the contacts they make under the club call.

  5. We will spot our Activation once on the air & continually during the event (we will have wifi via my portable hot spot).

  6. Planned bands (we may do additional bands if we can or if conditions not good on these) - 15 Meters CW, FT8, SSB - 20Meters CW, FT8, SSB – 40Meters CW, FT8, SSB

  7. Start 8:30am Central Time till sometime in the afternoon (no fixed time to leave just whenever we get ready to come home)

  8. Use Paper and hamrs logger

  9. POTA uses RS type Signal Report – 45, 49, 55, 57, 59, etc

a. Readability

1 – Unreadable

2 – Barely readable, occasional words distinguishable.

3 – Readable with considerable difficulty.

4 – Readable with practically no difficulty.

5 – Perfectly readable.


b. Signal Strength

1- Faint signals, barely perceptible.

2- Very weak signals.

3- Weak signals.

4- Fair signals.

5- Fairly good signals.

6- Good signals.

7- Moderately strong signals.

8- Strong signals.

9- Extremely strong signals.

10. List of Items to bring:

a. Three of us will have antennas and Radios, others can bring whatever they would like to use for the event or just use what the three of us bring.

b. Fishing poles (make sure you have you license also) we will be setup right next to the shore and a dock).

c. HT & external antenna (Just because every good ham should always have one with them – plus we might need it to make simplex contacts).

d. Notepad with pens and pencil (you never know what you might need to right down).

e. Phone (in case you what to talk to someone other than a ham).

f. Comfortable Chair – the picnic table/benches tend to be hard.

g. Cooler with water & snacks (we will have some but you might want to bring your favorite beverage and snacks)

h. Hat

i. Bug Spray

If you have any questions contact:: Gary Pritchard – W5RTX (W5RTX@ARRL.Net) or Ron Van Winkle – N5YDX (N5YDX@ARRL.Net)