Since its inception in early 2017, Parks On The Air (POTA) has become a hugely popular programme where activators set up their portable station in a POTA designated park and make contacts with hunters at home, mobile or in other parks. Every QSO is worth 1 point and there are many awards for the number of QSOs made, parks activated and bands used etc.
The POTA Plaque weekend is an annual event in the Parks On The Air schedule, that started in 2018 when two plaques were awarded, one for the top activator and the other for the top hunter. This year there were 19 plaques awarded – sadly none to the OVMRC Club activators, but we still had fun, made lots of QSOs and gained some great experience with portable operations!
The POTA Plaque event was held over the weekend of 3rd – 4th June 2023 and nine activators operated from POTA parks within the Ottawa area using the OVMRC Club callsign, VE3JW. The parks chosen ranged from Rockcliffe Park to Fitzroy Provincial Park to Foley Mountain near Perth and many in between for a total of 12 unique POTA parks.
The team that took part this year consisted of:
A few of the group met at Bate Island, VE-1349, on the Friday evening just on the UTC date change to get things kicked off, while others activated at their choice of park.
VA3DXP, Eric, and VA3BJO, Jim, operated mainly from Fitzroy Provincial Park where Jim has stationed his RV. Jim worked SSB on 40, 20 and 15 metres while Eric tapped out code on 80, 40, 20 and 15 metres.
During their operation, VE3LAF, Fred, and VE3JYK, John, paid them a visit to see how a successful portable operation can be run.
Also of particular note were the 26 satellite QSOs achieved by Richard, VA3VGR, no mean feat when holding the mic and pointing the antenna to track the satellite with one hand, while simultaneously tuning two radios for Doppler shift with the other!
Richard, VA3VGR, activated from three separate parks over the weekend, including VE-4882 the Rideau Canal.
VA3WBR, Bill had great success activating Black Rapids Creek, VE-1319 and Rockcliffe Park, VE-1597, on 20 and 40m SSB. Sandwiches made an important addition to everyone’s portable operations!
Rob, VE3RXH, had a great 6m band opening on the Friday evening, making 20 FT8 QSOs with just 5W from Bate Island using a roll up Slim Jim, modelled on the OVMRC 2m band roll-up Slim Jim kit put together by VE3NA, Barry, a couple of years ago. VA3EGY, Roger, had a great setup with his Yaesu FT-818, LDG 817 tuner and Signalink for digital operations, powered by a Bioenno LiFePO battery. Every QSO was valuable and Kathleen, VA3WEX, added nearly 60 SSB QSOs using the 40 and 20 metre bands, while Fred, VE3LAF and John, VE3JYK added more using the 80, 40 and 20m bands.
Overall it was a very successful weekend of portable radio operations, making some 577 QSOs which was more than twice the number made the previous year. All modes were used with phone being the predominant mode and thanks to Eric, VA3DXP, we counted nearly 50 CW QSOs in our total.
Bands used were 80, 40, 20 and 15 metres, with one 6m opening. Satellite QSOs were cross band using the 2m and 70cm bands and there were a couple of 2m band FM QSOs with local operators, thanks for those!
Many of the group got together for a breakfast at Sonny’s Bar and Grill behind the Ikea store a couple of weeks after the event where the discussion centred around our successes and failures, band conditions, portable power options and many more portable radio topics.
Full results are not yet available for the event, however we do know that the first place Club, K4YTZ, York County Amateur Radio Society, achieved 6664 QSOs over the weekend, so we have some work to do to catch them! We are all looking forward to next year’s event and welcome any other operators to join us.
73, Rob Haddow, VE3RXH