April POTA 4/4/26

The weather has cleared and it’s time for our SCCARC/SLV club Pota,  this Saturday the 4th..   Randal McCune and Paul Karz will be opening the Castro Adobe SP for our club.  Both are aspiring ham operators.  Potas are a nice way to get out of the house and practice radio in the field.

   As with any club outing, we may have multiple stations running.  We should exercise good communications with each other to achieve band sharing . This will avoid interference. Fortunately, 10, 15, 17 and 20 have been working recently.  If you have a problem, talk with your fellow operators.  You will usually find a band that is not being used.  Change up your antenna,  check your frequency, spot yourself and jump on that unused band.  Operators who both want to run on 20 meters, may operate and the top and bottom of the bands, then pray their radios will be selective.  Bottom line “TALK TO ONE ANOTHER”.
Club Pota’s are training events to share ideas on equipment, operating, band sharing and logging.  Newer ops will have assistance of senior operators. The goal is to iron out problem areas and become better operators.  This training has helped us build stronger Field operators.  I’m sure Summer Field Day will benefit.

I’ve packed my field kitchen and will make an effort to make tacos at lunch.

  
Previously, the newer ops have struggled with their antennas,  logging and the pota exchange.  Study your antenna analyzer, your logging program, coax, antennas etc prior to the event.     With each Pota, our club members are getting better.

Pota is not a contest, though, having 5 stations trying to reach you at the same time makes if feel like a contest.  Activators need to voice a quick, smooth exchange, a pleasant “Thanks for hunting”, then moving on to the next 4 operators.