POTA is addicting....

Over the last few weeks as the weather has warmed up I have been trying to get outdoors more and operate Parks on the Air (POTA).

Besides the VHF/UHF operations during Simplex Saturdays (now over) I began doing HF POTA as well. Recently I went to Mt. Roosevelt WMA in Roane Co near the Time Zone line between Eastern and Central time, on the Cumberland Plateau. 

This was also on a Simplex Saturday (14 March 2026). I was going to go nearby to Ozone Falls to attempt an operation but because it was the first Saturday after the move to Daylight Savings Time, and also a beautiful and warm day, it was extremely crowded at the waterfall, so we opted to go back to Mt. Roosevelt.

I ended up with about 15 contacts on HF in about 20 minutes of operating. It was shortened due to Simplex Saturday getting started at 5pm and I had to move to a higher point on the hill to operate VHF/UHF. It was a good test of my equipment, and a good lesson on what to bring and what NOT to bring.

10 days later I went to Big Ridge State Park and operated during the late afternoon. It was a beautiful day and I made a spur-of-the-moment choice to go as I was going to be in the area for a radio club meeting.

I got to the park, set up, and began operating on 20m, then switched to 40m when trying to reach a friend of mine back in Knoxville. We made contact and then things exploded...in part because he spotted me on the DXClusters and I became the center of attention!

Because 40m was such a success, I was late to the radio club meeting! But I was HYPED! I wanted to go back to that park to operate afterwards, but they are closed after dark, so I decided to check out Norris Dam State Park. I parked at the Dam and attempted to operate for a little bit but received reports my signal was distorted. It just so happened I was parked underneath a high-power line and most likely that caused some of the issues. I was able to get the 10 contacts needed before packing up. I spent the entire trip home thinking about where to operate next!

I began looking at other parks in the region I have not visited or operated from (either POTA or otherwise) and saw Oak Ridge had two parks within "relative" close proximity. More on that momentarily...

The first was the Manhattan Project National Historical Park on the outskirts of town. I trekked up there last Friday (3 April 2026) and found it to be a small space relatively speaking. There was a city park next to it and I thought I could set up there but I do believe it was NOT within the boundaries and also, someone was in the only picnic area they had. So I went into the parking area of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park and decided to go in and ask if I was allowed to operate from there, if there was any restrictions, no-no's, etc. To my surprise, they have a Radio Club Station in the building! Apparently the Oak Ridge ARC operates from the building at least once/month for demonstrations. 

The attendant initially thought I wanted to operate that radio station, which I corrected and said I had my own equipment and would be in the parking lot, to which they readily allowed. So I set up in the furthest end of the parking area and began operating!

It was a fast and active operation, and in just a little over 30 minutes I had 52 contacts made! I decided it was enough and tore down the operation to head to the next location, the Oak Ridge Wildlife Management Area.

For whatever reason, I was not clear on the exact location, as the name listed ("Oak Ridge Wildlife Management Area") does NOT appear on Google Maps or Waze. The POTA web site gave me the URL for the official page for the WMA which had the coordinates at: 35.96777 N  -84.24952 W.

In typical government fashion, when I put these coordinates in, not paying that much attention, these SPECIFIC coordinates are for some desert area in China! 

HOWEVER...

When you plug in the coordinates without the negative in the longitude, you get a road just outside the gates of ORNL. 

HOWEVER...

When I put this into the Waze app on my phone, it took me here. WHY...I have no idea. But since it has been 10 years since I worked in Oak Ridge on a regular basis, I trusted too much in technology. So it cost me 30 minutes ONE WAY to find out it was an oopsie...

I ended up going back into Oak Ridge (another 30 minutes...) and went to Clark Center Park. I messaged some people on Facebook's TN POTA group if I was good in the city park, and was told it's within the Wildlife Management Area so...yes! 

Mental note: RESEARCH YOUR DESTINATIONS BEFORE YOU EMBARK ON YOUR JOURNEY!

After a few minutes of setup I was once again on the air. I began calling CQ and within 10 minutes all hell broke loose as many stations came flooding in at once, as if I was a rare DX entity. For 60 minutes straight I was cranking out contacts and the adrenaline was pumping!

When I got home and uploaded the log, 117 contacts in 1 hour! I was gobsmacked at the numbers! I then kicked myself thinking if I hadn't wasted over an hour of driving to the middle of literally NOWHERE, what I could have done...

I was blown away by the amount of activity POTA generates whenever I'm activating a park. It's been giving me a revitalization in HF activity after literal years of using VHF/UHF only for communication.

The beauty of these last few activations has been my JPC-12 antenna. I am absolutely a believer that this antenna is one of the best out there for portability, reliability, and affordability. 

NOTE: I am not paid to say this, this is my honest opinion. I was gifted this antenna from a close friend who liked this antenna when he used it. 

I can say that when I purchased the JPC-12 radial plate and some 18awg speaker wire to better complement the ground radials, the difference has been night and day! The radial wire that comes with the antenna is just ribbon cable that can be separated into smaller strands, and I felt this was not a good option. So I purchased the plate and speaker wire and crafted 8 strands at ~18.5" each. I then tested with 4 of the 8 radials at Big Ridge, which is where 40m was incredible.

When I put out all 8 radials, 20m has been unreal. I was able to bust pileups for contacts with POTA activations when I was hunting, and a majority of my contacts were "5/9" on high and low power. I haven't had time to try 40m much, and I have been getting some success on 10m. 

Hopefully I will be going back out for more POTA in the days and weeks ahead, and POTAPalooza is coming up in a couple of weeks. Look for me there!

Harsh lesson about wind load, magnets, and "metal" surfaces

Over the last few months, I've been participating in Parks on the Air (POTA) and Simplex Saturdays (sponsored by TARA) and the antenna I've used is the Comet UHV-4, a quad-band antenna that works with my FT-8900 radio (10m, 6m, 2m, and 70cm).

It's a great antenna, and it's nice to have one antenna to rule them all, but one disadvantage is that its profile is not the most conducive for magnet-mounting. It's heavy, even somewhat top-heavy, and has a high profile for windy conditions. Most of the time I've owned it, I kept it indoors, or stored in my shed, taking it out to operate on Saturdays.

Admittedly I can be lazy, and thus was the case three weeks ago (as of this writing) when I last operated Simplex Saturday/POTA. I came home and simply left it on my Dodge Durango in anticipation of operating the next weekend. Unfortunately I was unable to do that, so I left it on the roof of the Durango as the weather was fairly pleasant, if not a bit chilly, but little precipitation occurred.

Last Wednesday (25 February) I went to Morristown for a SKYWARN Board meeting and simply left the antenna atop the roof. I didn't bring my radio (although I considered it) and it turned into a blustery day and I didn't think much of it as the temps were in the 50s. and it was relatively nice.

On the way home I took the interstate and was traveling westbound into an eastern wind. At one point a stiff gust hit and I heard the noise I never expected...*THUD* *THUMP*, and looking in the rear-view mirror I saw a flailing coaxial cable trailing. 

Other cars around me must have seen the hilarity ensuing and allowed me to move over to the shoulder. And when I got out, my worst fears had come to pass. The only thing remaining was the shell of my tri-magnet mount, with the coax adapter where the antenna once stood sheared right off. Whatever remained of the antenna was now about a half-mile back and destroyed. 

I had purchased the antenna at the Dalton Hamfest the year prior. And what a coincidence...guess what  event was the following Saturday!

I now had a mission for the Dalton Hamfest: To get a replacement UHV-4 and magnet mount.

So why not get a more "permanent" mount for my UHV-4? It's complicated, but in short, I have the quad-band radio mounted to my battery box, and so it's portable, and sometimes I take my vehicle to participate, and other times, I use my wife's car. So I need to be able to remove and attach to either car.

So I went to Dalton last Saturday and picked up the UHV-4 (thanks to ChattRadio for holding one back for me!) and a larger and (hopefully) stronger magnet mount for continuing to do POTA and Simplex Saturdays. Tower Electronics had the mount and connector for the UHV-4.

Unfortunately I was not able to get up on a mountain for Simplex Saturday that day but was able to get up on the Parkway a couple of weeks afterwards.

The Blizzard That Never Was and the Social Media-rologists That Love 'em

Meteorology has become way more advanced and technologically superior to previous generations of what was used even 20 years ago. Supercomputers have taken on a much larger role of forecasting weather from a few hours to a month out. Forecast models can often give a broad idea of what could happen in a week or two, and has been used to forecast tracks of hurricanes (called a "spaghetti" model) to help coordinate evacuations and give people an idea what to prepare for if and when it should strike.

But oftentimes, models don't get it right.

Such is the case of this recent snowstorm across the US. As I type this, we are in the conclusion of this recent winter storm and setting in for a deep freeze. The week prior, Youtube and some weather channels were going completely crazy because at least one forecast model was predicting nearly 30" of snow for Knoxville along with up to 5" of ice mixed in as well. As you can imagine, people were a tad concerned. My phone started blowing up with people asking me what my "expert opinion" was.

While I am humbled to know that people trust me with giving them my opinion to help them plan for weather, I am not a meteorologist and I've been wrong many more times than those that have a college education.

So what actually occurred was that here in Knoxville we got a slight bit of ice and freezing rain, then some dustings of snow, followed by rain for almost the entire day on Sunday, then a deep freeze. It was NOT the 30" of snow atop 6" of ice that ONE model predicted a week prior.

What gets me are these "Social media-rologists" who take these opportunities when the worst-case scenario is even remotely possible to hype up the possibility that weather MIGHT get bad.

On the plus side, it's good that social media has made people more weather aware. On the flip side, these social media-rologists have a bigger responsibility to sponsors and their own wallets than to truly be doing a public service. They need clicks, views, subscribes, and likes to be sure to drive up the algorithms on Youtube and other platforms (Tiktok, X, etc) and get paid, and also get their sponsors exposure. So as the adage goes, "If it bleeds, it ledes", meaning that for these influencers to get more clicks and views, they have to bring terrorizing stories to the table with over-the-top thumbnails, AI-driven drivel or bombastic text wording that screams gloom and doom.

Because boring doesn't make money.

So people panic, click on these videos, get worked up and start hoarding bread and milk and toilet paper, and then get pissed off at their LOCAL media's weather folks or the local NWS because some shill for a weather product no one can afford who lives somewhere else and has really expensive software and fancy graphics said we MIGHT get an inch of ice, a foot of snow, or frozen bodies all over the landscape, when in fact nothing near that scenario occurred.

Forecast models are just fortune tellers when it comes to trying to predict what MIGHT happen in a week or two. They are NOT forecasts. At their best, meteorologists can often be accurate about 48-72 hours out when it comes to a severe weather, winter weather, or hurricane event. And even then, things change at the last minute. Hurricanes have often been shown to go right through a particular part of the coast, when it suddenly shifts due to a wobble in the eye, or an external push from a high pressure system, or something that was not seen in any model or map until the shift occurs. 

And yet, if it bleeds......

There are a lot of forecast models in use globally. Some centered on particular areas of the world, others on a more global scale. They are all different in some way or other, depending on the type of software, AI, and computational programming that is fed into the computer to "predict the future". For the most part, no two models are alike. Some are programmed to give the "worst-case scenario" so that they can allow local officials to prepare accordingly. And it's these predictions that the social media-rologists feed off of to scare the bejeezus out of the simpletons who don't grasp that seldom does this ever play out, and then these social media-rologists can simply offer "free shrugs" when it doesn't happen. Or they will play it off with the "I'm not a REAL meteorologist" mumbo-jumbo, or even delete the videos and pretend that nothing happened. After all, we agreed to the terms and conditions when we started watching them that it's "for entertainment purposes only", right? RIGHT???

So we need to just say "NO!" to social media-rology. We have to stop giving these so-called experts a reality check instead of a paycheck. All they are doing is hyping up the next big weather event to put cash in their pockets as you spend yours buying all the milk and bread you can find. They need to STOP creating events that do not happen or have the likelihood of occurring at <1%.

I posted the above video last week as we were approaching the Snowmageddon of 2026. I was frustrated more than anything at the complete lack of candor some of these Youtubers have that when they hype up these storms, they intentionally omit key pieces of data that would prevent people from blowing up my phone and others' when SHTF.

Now, I am all about preparing for the worst case scenario. I'm not exactly a "prepper" but I do have supplies at the ready when SHTF. I have water, propane and propane accessories, plenty of radios, and adequate supplies for most scenarios that I can think of. But it's always the scenarios you DON'T THINK OF that get you. On the one hand, yes, making people aware of what COULD happen is not a bad thing as long as you explain that to your audience. Honesty builds trust, and that's more important than likes or views, and in the end, trust builds the likes and views and makes your content reputable, not laughable.

Simplex Saturday / Parks on the Air for 12/20/2025

 I took another trip up to the Foothills Parkway for Simplex Saturday. After a 1-week hiatus I trekked back up the parkway in gorgeous weather conditions to make a few contacts. I made 15 contacts total, 14 for POTA, one while mobile on my way to the Parkway.

The weather was fantastic and clear. I installed my Yaesu FT-8900 Quad-band radio onto the battery box to help with portability. It did really well.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

I really dislike Youtube for content creation

Over the last few years, Youtube has become the standard for content creation, with people making interesting, entertaining, and informative videos on a wide variety of subjects.

I've been trying to create some informative ham radio and weather-related content but my choice in using intro/outro music is a problem for Youtube. I've been creating videos off and on for Youtube since 2006 and these issues just get worse.

I have been using bensound.com for music that's ROYALTY-FREE for a few years when I made my drone videos and other content. One song in particular ("Dreams" by Benjamin Tissot) was one song I enjoyed and more or le made it my "theme" as it set a good tone for the video and a positive vibe.

However, nowadays when I use it...and remember, it's allegedly ROYALTY-FREE to use...I get copyright-struck by Youtube despite playing by both Youtube's and bensound's rules!

First off, I'm officially and technically monetized now with Youtube, but I have not employed any of the features to monetize. It's a headache and hassle for me and my content is not exactly setting records for views, likes, and subscribes. Second, if I actually earned any money, it would probably cost more for the stamp than whatever amount is on the check! My dozens of views aren't paying the bills!

I do these videos to pass the time, make things fun, or interesting (to me) content that others might enjoy. I don't have a common theme, it's whatever I'm in the mood to discuss, from drone videos of snow, to doing Simplex Saturdays in the mountains, to discussing radio quirks, and reporting This Week in Amateur Radio podcasts via RSS feed. 

For the last God-knows how many years, Youtube's algorithm has been finding and striking videos for music no matter how brief and how awful sounding it is...if you make an hours-long video, and use 5 seconds of intro music, they will de-monetize the 99.9% of the content YOU create because you chose to use someone else's content for "mood".

I understand if someone used music for background effect across an entire video. I've done it on my drone videos. It helps to add a dramatic effect to a video. And I can understand profit-sharing for that aspect. If it's my video and someone else's audio, split the monetization 50/50. If I use 5 seconds of an intro song for a 60-minute video with no other music, then profit-share those 5 seconds and be done with it.

But Youtube and the music industry don't work that way.

In my latest video, I used about 30 seconds of ROYALTY-FREE music (10 seconds at the front, 20 at the end credits) and once again, the 33 minutes of content I worked on can now be demonetized should the copyright holder deem it so. So the (as of this writing) 200 views could be demonetized for <1% of music. Royalty...free.......music....

And to beat all, I play by their rules. I now have to download and use a different attribution license code for every video I use the music in, and give credit and attribution in the description of the video and even in the video itself I credit the site. I try to cover all my bases. And yet still I deal with headaches like this.

I contacted bensound and simply asked what I could do to permanently use the music and not have to dispute every time I want to use it. I offered to pay them a one-time fee to use it and whitelist my channel. And their response was to dispute the claim with the attribution info. But the disputes don't happen immediately. When uploading the videos, Youtube checks to see that all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed. It always passes the copyright check on the initial upload. But sometime later, it hits. And I have to file a dispute, and go through the headache of filling out the dispute form. 

So now I am in search of other music, despite my REALLY wanting to use "Dreams" but it's becoming a nightmare to deal with.

This certainly isn't the first time I've had headache's with Youtube. Many years ago my daughter was doing a karate demonstration and the group played "Eye of the Tiger" over the gym's PA system. It got hundreds of views (mostly from parents of other kids I assume) and did particularly well. Then, 3 weeks later, Youtube strikes it. Basically saying "You're using music that is owned by these people and they don't like it so F*** YOU!". 

I dispute it under fair use, and background music, I cannot control what other people play over a loudspeaker. If I were at a hockey game, and a fight happens, I cannot control the DJ using "Hit me with your best shot" by Pat Benatar...and even with that argument, it got struck, I got a mark against me, and if any money were to be made, it goes to everyone but. So I hid the video. It's private and no one can see it except me. Because I refuse to let Youtube and the copyright claimants have a shot at whatever little money they could get. Youtube would run ads (for non-Premium members) and the copyright holders get their share. Not on my watch. So piss off Frank Sullivan, Survivor, and "Rude Music".

I made a video to vent my frustrations, it's listed above. 

Prepare for winter NOW!

Here's a video I made on what you should have in your vehicle, home, and farm for preparing for winter weather.  

Ham radio and Techno combine in a song spanning multiple languages

I would like to share this song I heard by a German ham (Hartmut, DK4BE) who created this upbeat song with a lot of jargon we should know quite well. YLs, field day, moonbounce, QO-100, etc.

The video is insanely over the top. Some original video of actual ham radio activity, mixed with completely unrelated Adobe Stock/AI generated goofiness that makes no sense. Look for the woman holding a "73" flag whose arms do a weird morph as she pulls a beer out of nowhere. 

If you want to hear just the song first, you can listen to it here on Dropbox. If you want to see the AI awesomeness, they're on Youtube in several languages with some of the language versions having a different beat / rhythm (not sure the musical terms) to match more with the culture I assume:

• English
• Spanish
• Portuguese (my personal favorite)
• German/Amateurfunk
• Nederland/Dutch
• French

So grab your glow sticks and rave on!

vy 73 de K4HSM

K4HSM Vlog: 25 November 2025

 

Thought I would submit a video to discuss various ham radio topics including echolink, repeaters, the power of a telescopic HT antenna, and Thanksgiving. 

Don't know if I'll make a habit of this but it gave me something to do while sitting in my hotel room bored. I rerecorded about four times to try and get it right, and I'm still unhappy with it because of all the "uhhhhhs" and "errrrrrrs" I uttered during the recording. Even when trying to catch myself I found myself doing it more. You certainly won't see me being a toastmaster anytime soon... 

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and looking forward to a Merry Christmas. 73 de K4HSM 

Simplex Saturday: Week 6 - Taking a commanding lead (that I know of)

 For the 6th week in a row I made an appearance for Simplex Saturdays, sponsored by TARA. For all but one of those weeks I went up to the Foothills Parkway in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to operate. The over 2000' elevation certainly is advantageous when trying to get a large footprint on VHF/UHF simplex.

This week I had company as three other hams came up to operate and to converse about the event.

Michael, KQ4MKV and Darrin KQ4RAY were up on the parkway with me to try and get a few more contacts under their belt than what might have been if they'd stayed at their home QTH.

I found out about 3 weeks ago I could be using POTA (Parks On The Air) for dual event QSOs as the Foothills Parkway is part of the GSMNP which has the POTA designator of US-0034.

On the way up I ran in to a ham on another pulloff who was operating CW for POTA. I was so excited I forgot to ask him his name/callsign!!!

I got up to the #8 parking area and made a slight change in operating. Over the last few operations, I was operating from the back of the vehicle (mine or my wife's) and was basically operating out of the trunk space. This time I ran the coax from the quad-band Comet antenna I had into my Durango and temporarily placed the Yaesu Quad-band 8900 on the center console connected to the battery box instead of to the vehicle. This helped as it was a tad chilly due to the shift in time to an hour earlier last Sunday morning.

I also put word out on a few nets, Facebook, and even on a livestream I tested during a weather net Friday evening about Simplex Saturdays. I think it paid off as I started off strong with a few contacts and using POTA as a duel event brought out the park chasers.

I brought my GoPro to film but due to hectic activity with all the operators I contacted and spoke to in person I wasn't able to set up the cameras.

Unofficially, I made 48 contacts across 5 bands (10m, 6m, 2m, 1.25m, 70cm) but the contest did not include 10m initially, however I'm trying to convince them to use 10m, and I think they've counted my previous 10m contacts already.

Speaking of...I was trying to make local contacts on 10m and the 10m band was wide open on 29.600. I heard a station in Nevade (he couldn't hear me) and another somewhere in Mexico!

So far for now, I'm in the lead on the Simplex Saturdays contest log with 74 QSOs and Darrin has 2nd place with 20. These numbers do NOT include today's numbers, so I can't wait to see how it changes going into next weekend.

There's only 3 of us that have submitted logs thus far, and I've been encouraging others to submit. If they make just one contact, they can submit the log to be entered for a prize drawing in April 2026. So please join the fun. I've been having a blast going up to the mountains to operate!

Preaching the gospel of SKYWARN to Scouts at 2025 Scoutfest

I made an appearance at Scoutfest in Monroe County on 25 October representing East Tennessee SKYWARN. Hundreds of scouts from around the region came out for a weekend of camping and learning about various trades, skills, and ideas that may help them become better people tomorrow than they already were today.

The Smoky Mountain Amateur Radio Club, RACK, and Monroe Co. ARES were in attendance at a couple of sites next to the airstrip where planes took off and landed all morning and afternoon. Helicopters from the US Army and Lifestar flew in for the event as well.

Scouts and their families stopped by and were informed on what amateur radio was, how it could be useful in hiking, emergencies, and of course, severe weather.

A portable station was set up to allow scouts to talk on the radio. Some were shy, and others very outgoing. They talked to hams on the 146.940 repeater throughout the day and were impressed by how far away some of the stations were located.

The morning started off chilly, but by midday the sun came out, the skies cleared, and it turned into a pleasant afternoon. RACK had an HF setup and scouts could listen to 10meters being active with stations in Italy, Costa Rica, and many others across the US and Europe coming in and out as the band conditions allowed.

I attended on behalf of SKYWARN and provided spotter guides to anyone who was interested in weather, showing what to looks for and what is considered severe. Many scoutmasters and family members in attendance were ham operators and stopped by for eyeball QSLs.

Held every 3 years, Scoutfest is an event where the entire Great Smoky Mountains Council is invited to attend. This year, Axiom Space Astronaut John Shoffner was the guest speaker for the event.

It was a beautiful day and an exciting event. All the volunteers are looking forward to the next Scoutfest!

Is your club a 501(c)3? You may have a GoFundMe set up and not even know it!

GoFundMe is being used by many for recovering from disasters, helping to pay for unexpected expenses, or to assist with costs from a life-threatening accident. Some even use it to help pay for trips and vacations. Whatever the need, it has been a great way for people around the world to help those in need.

But apparently GoFundMe wants to expand their reach and not let those affected know about it until people start donating or asking questions.

According to this ABC7 article, one ham who is the President of his local radio club as well as Treasurer for his local library’s organization was contacted about a GoFundMe page for the library and whether or not it was legit. He looked on GoFundMe’s site to find his library’s group listed. The only problem was he didn’t set the page up. GoFundMe did it!

GoFundMe has created a list of pages for various 501(c)3 organizations based on information from public records.

GoFundMe has taken upon itself to create “nonprofit pages” for 1.4 million 501(c)3 organizations using public IRS data along with information from trusted partners like the PayPal Giving Fund.GoFundMe has taken upon itself to create “nonprofit pages” for 1.4 million 501(c)3 organizations using public IRS data along with information from trusted partners like the PayPal Giving Fund.

If your ham radio club is 501(c)3, then search for it on GoFundMe and investigate whether you need to take action on the site!