My Gear for POTA
Preparing gear for POTA activation can be a challenge. Why am I saying this? Because you are not always ready for any situation that puts you in difficulty when you arrive at the park to activate it. I prefer to have everything I can carry with me. If I have to climb a hill or a mountain peak or if I have to walk from the parking lot to the optimal place for activation, I prepare the necessary setup in the trunk and try not to have more than one backpack and one tool bag.
I use an Icom 7300 transceiver to which I added side rails made with a 3D printer. In addition to Icom, I have a 12v / 18Ah LiFePo battery and 2 more homemade batteries with Lion 18650 batteries. In addition to these batteries, I always have an inverter in the car so that I can charge the battery when moving between parks. Below I present the LiFePo inverter and charger (it also charges Lion). Besides these, where it allows me to activate it, I occasionally use the 12V 75Ah car battery. This is only possible if the park has a parking lot within its limits (according to POTA regulations).
I always carry the analyzer from RigExpert “AA-230 Zoom” and the HS5 headphones from Kenwood. I also have crimping pliers and spare PL plugs, 12V socket, patents, screwdrivers of different sizes, hammer, in the tool kit. I also carry 2 portables from Anytone for me and my wife, and a charger for it and a spare battery.
As for antennas, I currently work in portables only with Ground Plane antennas. I also tried ENDFED and FANDIPOLE, but it is quite difficult to find optimal conditions for their installation. I carry them in the car after me but I don’t use them anymore.
The GP antennas I use are: The first is a stainless steel telescopic multiband antenna with 10 radials that works in bands 20,17,15,12,10. Second one is a fishing rod on which I made an insulated PL plug adapter with 4 radials of 5.8 meters. With this adapter, I can change the radiant wire in the band I want (in the same bands 20,17,15,12,10). I built and adjusted central wires for each lane separately.
Also I built 2 more antennas, each on its own fishing rod, but shortened with a coil at the lower end. One of it is for the 20m band and the other for the 15m band. I have fitted them with a PL plug so that I can use them with a car base magnet. To the respective base, in order to adjust the impedance, I added 6 wires with a section of 1.5 with a length of 1 meter each. I tested these antennas with a magnetic base including on the sand on the beach and including on tin barrels.
In my backpack I can fit: the transceiver, the microphone, the RigExpert analyzer, headphones, the stainless steel telescopic antenna, the antenna power cable, the transceiver power cable and the 2 portable Anytones.
In the tool box I can fit the 2 Lion batteries and the LiFePo one. I also put the charger with the inverter in this box, but I use them in the car during the entire trip.
Some time ago I purchased a car antenna for the 20m band from Diamond with a 170mm magnetic base (HF-20CL Diamond and Storm Magnet 170PL). It is the first antenna that I buy after a year of making a multitude of home-made antennas.
This is what I currently use on POTA trips. More things will probably appear along the way, but that’s enough for now. 73! and let’s hear only good things! – YO3BEE – Bogdan