Desert POTA Activation - US-12111 - Tortugas Mountain NM
New Mexico is a different place. Having grown up on the east coast all of my life, I find it fascinating and different being out west.
This activation I tried something a bit different and probably to my detriment. Being a frequent traveler, I am flying quite a bit, and I’ve been trying to reduce as much as I can in terms of bulk to carry.
Unfortunately there are work things I just can’t get away from carrying, so ham radio, or tech in particular, has been the target of this crusade.
The Antenna
A poor choice I know, but space was a huge concern. This trip I decided to give my EFHW a go. My original plan was to throw a line in a tree, but, it’s the desert… as my friend and mentor Chris, said, you’re gonna be hard pressed to find any trees.
Fortunately, I did bring my DX Commander Expedition pole and was able to prop it between a few rocks to sort of hold it straight up.
The EFHW was fashion in sort of a sloper configuration.
For this activation I used a QRP EFHW kit I’d purchased but believe I might’ve made a mistake when building it.
For what it’s worth it was a bit chaotic but I think the majority of my issues were antenna deployment. I was on the side of a mountain, probably the wrong side, and this EFHW was quite low at points due to terrain.
Lesson learned for me here is that I’ll need to 1: check my gear, 2: have a better deployment.
I haven’t abandoned the mast and EFHW idea just yet though.
My trusty TX-500
I quite honestly love this radio. It’s a compact radio that I can pack into a backpack easily and includes just the features I need want, minus an internal tuner.
I’ve taken to packing this into a nintendo switch? bag like everyone else. I’ll probably detail some of how I pack that here eventually.
QSOs
The QSO map looks a little weak here and in all honestly, the reports were not great either.
Operating
I really probably need to bring a seat pad or something. Those rocks got quite hard sitting on. My phone was burning up though, learned not to leave that sit in the sun.
Conclusion
My POTA pack needs some work. Truthfully, I’m writing this a few months after this activation, and I’ve made some changes. I really need to keep up with this a little better.
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