My wife had a busy evening yesterday, so I took the opportunity to head out to my home park, Potato Creek State Park (US-2265), intending to activate the park twice since the UTC rollover would happen at 8pm my time. We are so far west in the eastern time zone that the sun stays out a good 45 minutes to an hour longer than our friends on the east coast. This makes for excellent evenings in the park. On top of that, the weather has finally cooled down and it was in the low 70s when I headed out for the evening.

I decided to run my POTA Performer for the evening. I use the whip from my MC 750, a light stand, a common mode choke from Palomar Engineers, and the elevated radials that I cut and joined together using Wago connectors. I prefer these to spade connectors because they come apart easily and hold very tight.

It was another night for the KX2, though I paired it with the Modern Morse Nameless key. My friend Paul (KE9BHN) gave me this key this past spring in a Shinto-inspired Marie Kondo, “this does not spark joy” move. I think of him every time I use it and this evening was no different.

I began the evening calling CQ on 17m, but got no takers, so I adjusted the whip and the radials for 20m and had much more luck. I sometimes think of the POTA Performer as a very involved antenna, as though it’s arduous to adjust the radials and the whip, but once I am actually out in the field I remember just how easy it is. For such an effective antenna, it is also very easy to set up and adjust. My RBN reports were good and I was getting out coast-to-coast, which is one of the joys of living in the middle of the country. I did have more hunters from the west, which is rare for me. Perhaps it was the time of day or the orientation of my antenna. I activated the park on CW and made QSOs with some regulars, including the park’s #1 hunter, AA5HH. If you know CW, you know what fun that call sign is. I also got KM6QFJ, who was activating Birch Bay State Park (US-3160), which is basically the western corner of the pacific northwest. We didn’t give each other great signal reports, but we successfully got each other in the log.

Before I walked out the door, I had grabbed the microphone for the KX2. Since I had my 10 QSOs in the log and because I was waiting for the UTC rollover to start calling CQ on CW again, I figured there was no better time to test out the mic. I called CQ on SSB and immediately got KC1VIO, Michael up in Massachusetts. Not bad! I called CQ a few more times and heard a call sign that began with “D.” My brain did not quite understand what I was hearing since running 9 watts in a park in NW Indiana means I typically do not hear European call signs. But sure enough, I hear, “DG4DW.” Another Michael, though considerably farther away in Germany. With that call in my log, I figure I can do no better and I close up the SSB shop.

I plugged my key into my Quansheng K1, modded to do CW and running the NR7Y firmware, and called CQ on 2m. All of my west coast friends have great luck with it, but it’s much harder to find takers here in the midwest.

I made 3 hard-won QSOs on 20m and realized that I should probably move down to 40m. I know that the POTA Performer can get on 40m, but I forgot what you have to do and didn’t feel like researching it in the field. So, I hooked up my QMX + iPhone running iFTX (aka my Free QSO Machine^TM) and started calling CQ on FT8, then grabbed my arborist throwline to put my Spooltenna EFHW up into a tree.

I placed my line perfectly through the fork in the tree, about 35-40 or so feet up on the first try. I swear. I almost wish I had been filming because for once I nailed the technique with the throwline.

I moved over to 40m and it was very noisy. There were storms coming through the area and they were showing up on the bands. I tried to hunt my buddy Justin (N8JMS) in Ohio, but I could barely hear him. We have had two QSOs on 20m in the last couple of weeks, which is bizarre, but I could not hear him well enough on 40m. I found a clear frequency and started calling CQ. I was getting QSOs at a rate of about one per minute and had no pileups. I was excited to get WP3Y, a great CW op who lives in Puerto Rico. I activated the park for a second time and then turned on my Free QSO Machine once more while I broke down the POTA Performer.

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At a glance

Park: US-2265
When: July 21-22 2026, 22:51-00:57
QSOs: 27
Bands: 20, 40

Station

Transceiver: Elecraft KX2, QMX Midband with N6ARA SWR Meter, Quansheng K1 running NR7Y Firmware
Antenna: POTA Performer, Spooltenna EFHW
Key: Modern Morse Nameless
Power: 9w
Logging: Carrier Wave (my preferred app for logging on an iPhone)