POTA Nov 1

Most Pota operators work Solo.   The Santa Cruz ARC does a “club” Parks on the air (POTA) event on the first Saturday of the month.  This allows hams to share the experience and help each other out when equipment or antennas are troublesome.   For the most part, we’ve had some pretty nice outings.   The newer operators have had chances to share stations.  This is a great learning experience.

Our club POTA events have been at Seacliff, New Brighton, Sunset, Wilder and Twin Lakes parks.   We’ve always looked for parks that had open space where we could spread out our stations.  Sunset, Seacliff and Wilder have worked out well..

This past month, I explored the Soquel Demonstration forrest Park and found that it was in a narrow, deep canyon.  The trail head was and valley was unsuitable for a parks operation. There was no cell service.  I evaluated the Castro Adobe in Watsonville.  It showed promise with a large parking lot.  It is in a remote location and few people were present.  The following picture shows the fenced front area and the back.  The last picture shows the parking lot.

Castro Adobe is located about 1/2 mile up Old Castro Rd. by the corner of Buena Vista and Larkin Valley Rd.