Richard N1RBD's ham radio journey began when I joined a wilderness Search and Rescue (SAR) team which uses HTs for communications during call-outs. He does a lot of hiking and backpacking in the North Georgia Mountains and on the Appalachian Trail, so he felt his knowledge of the area could be helpful.  

He activated a few SOTA summits with VHF, and was amazed at how far he could get from the summit of a 3000ft mountain running 5 watts. He then discovered Parks on the Air (POTA). Living 7 minutes from a POTA park, he tried some VHF activations with no success. Apparently, there is a huge difference between getting 4 QSOs from a summit vs 10 QSOs from a low-lying park when running VHF!  

He started his CW journey in January of 2020 using online resources and apps. His first CW QSO was on March 3, 2020 using a CW Morse Nano straight key to chase a POTA operator for a park to park contact. A few months later, he finally worked up the nerve to attempt a CW SOTA activation. On July 4, I garnered 15 CW QSOs, including my Elmer! At this point, I was officially hooked on CW.  

Join us as we talk about how YOU can improve how you do portable radio and CW in this episode of the All Portable Discussion Zone “AP/DZ”. Every aspect of Portable Ops is explored in this biweekly live stream as we discuss news, gear, achievements, the workbench, contests, awards and more - find all Portable Ops related topics here.  

Twitter: Charlie NJ7V @NJ7V_

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