Well, aside from the hot summer this has been, I’ve been out activating, and activating in odd ways. Just this Friday i activate a park while at work…actually working and playing on the radio. And I almost didn’t get the 10 contacts. The well I was loading from sat inside the Little Missouri River State Park here in ND. Since I have been bringing my QMX with me, paired with Ham Radio Duo’s Just OK Mini clipped to the mirror of my big truck, I was able to make 13 FT8 contacts throught the app. (9 on the first load, the rest on the second). Between all the electronic transmissions the truck puts out, and in an odd spot, it was tough one with 5 watts.
And speaking of tough, went out one a mile hike and did activate the Grasslands again, but couldn’t get enough for a Pack-Mule. Took out the QMX and mostly did CW with it. 5 watts is nothing to sneez at. Where I get a lot of pile-ups running eith the G90 or my FT-857, the QMX and the QRP is a patients mode.
To your point about being busy, I know I haven’t been doing much POTA this season. Just this past week I climbed Mt. Lafayette in NH, a 10-point SOTA peak and a POTA n-fer, with the full station and over an 8-hour hike didn’t think once to pull it out and activate. The gardens have been taking a lot of time, too.
Here’ I’ll show off, this is a pic of the garden a few nights ago…
Did you build your QMX? I have a kit in the closet that’s been there for at least a year, maybe longer. I’ve started thinking about downsizing anthe QMX is on my mind.
Beutiful spot you’ve made. Someday we’ll get out of the apartment to have a little spot to do something like that.
As for the QMX: No, I didn’t put it together. I wait some 5 months to get it, but it was worth it for what it does. My goal is to do an activivation with it just running CW at some point, but I need to get a EFHW slopper setup for it to try. I like running the verticle, it being advantagous in a region lacking trees, but I want to see if a EFHW pairs better with 5w.
Granted, its going to get harder to run QRP the more the solar cycle falls off.
Totally not kidding. My habit is to periodically look at what I’m spending my time on, and ask “is this making my life better, or worse? Am I doing this out of habit, or because I’m having fun?”
Online forum participation did not get a very positive evaluation. Playing radio in a park got a massively positive evaluation.
The obvious move was cut way back on online forum stuff, and WAY MORE play radio in parks. So I did that.
In the past year POTA added a bunch of parks close to me. One day it occurred to me that I could easily do a 3 park rove on any day I chose, so I started doing that. The big impediment was that the weather was rainy, so I figured out how to set things up in the car so that it was not an ergonomic nightmare and would actually be fun.
Once I had a good solution to operating from the car, it made bagging new to me parks much easier even in inclement weather.
Is it sustainable? Things have come up that put some constraints on my time and in particular impact my willingness to spend time away from home. So the rate will probably fall off somewhat but so far, still getting in some activations each week, if only because a couple hours of CW serves nicely as mental therapy time.
That’s really interesting, and good for you for doing the occasional step-back to think about your current state.
I’ve gone the opposite direction, I’m spending an astounding amount of time in the woods but I’m not feeling any POTA urge at all. I went camping for three days last week or so in a prime spot with my gear and didn’t even pull the radio out once, I spent all my time on the trail and recovering from being on the trail.
It ebbs and flows, six months from now you and I will have switched, probably.
I think I first started doing this every winter the year my daughter was born. Αround 5 years ago I stepped it up to every six months. To be honest at this point it’s probably more like a non-stop continuous evaluation. At a certain point in your life, you look at the dwindling time remaining and think “I am not going to waste even a second of this time on bullshit that makes me unhappy unless it is absolutely unavoidable.”
My inflection point was when my beloved dog died. I took it really hard, and ended up doing a few mushroom trips that really changed my perception of life. That was several years ago, and the shift stuck – I participate in consensual reality but it’s more of a choice, and I recognize it as a sort of veneer on a much deeper reality.
Every time I go out I wonder if it’s my last hike. I’m getting to the age where that’s a possibility. I think that when we get closer to the end it starts to burn away everything that isn’t really important, and we naturally become more selfish and more intense.
Some of us, not all. Some people just give up at this point and take the ‘rest’ that they’ve ‘earned’ in ‘life’. I think people like you and me and probably some folks we both know take the opposite approach, to wring as much out as we can before we can’t.
I understanding that more and more. Granted I just turned 43, so I’m pretty “young” to others, but the young folks are leaning on me more and more on lived wisdom. Thing is, my mind still is wrapped in a late 20 year olds motivation with 12 year old aspirations.
Coming to terms with my faith, marrying a widow, getting back into writing, and fostering a step-son has put things into focus, yet, I feel I’m burning the candle at both ends again. I did this in college in my mid late-20s (I did 21 credit hours during my sophmore year in college between two schools, one I was working in as a supplemental instructor). The next year it cought up with me, bad. I counted a few grey hairs on my beard that weren’t there during the fall semester, but were after spring. They were the only residents as a reminder.
For me, it’s been seeing my family smile, getting feedback on my works, doing radio, reading, and a healthy does of Jesus and Carl Jung.
