The art of activating in the rain

I live in the Pacific Northwest US (also known as the Specific Northwet).

Last winter, the WA state wildlife areas had not been listed at POTA entities, and on rainy days I’d just pick a state park with a picnic shelter, set up in the shelter, and happily POTA away.

This fall, I’m busy activating three wildlife areas near my home. In these wildlife areas, there are no picnic tables, no picnic shelters, no bathrooms. Essentially, no amenities except those offered by nature red in tooth and claw. That’s fine by me except when it’s raining (and for the next few months, the odds that it will rain in the next hour approach 100%).

Yesterday I activated from the back seat of my car. That’s fine but somewhat cramped. I’ve got a Kelty tarp frame contraption that hangs off the tailgate of my car and I’ve done activations under that, but although I’m outside (preferred) it’s frankly not a big improvement over the back seat.

Please share your favorite tactics for activating in the rain?

1 Like

it’s supposed to rain tomorrow here in the SF Bay, I am planning to activate a walk-up at a Vehicular Recreation Area with some gazebo/pergola type things. I’ll wrap up my EFHW unun with a thicker plastic bag or something to keep it from shorting then hide myself and my radio in the shelter. The unun doesn’t heat up so hopefully ok.

Waiting for an enclosed unun to weatherproof.

Otherwise, if I’m backpack portable, I carry a rain fly for my backpack and a bothy bag to hide myself in if weather goes south on top of a summit.

Don, which bothy bag do you like?