Sandy State Fish Hatchery POTA K-10390 2023-10-27

New POTA parks are now being added in the US. There have been some very nice parks added. Activators hit the ground running (or driving) activating the new parks. One park added to Oregon is the Sandy State Fish Hatchery K-10390. I was hesitant in adding fish hatcheries to Oregon at first. Mainly because they are not a 'typical' park. After looking at aerial views. Map views. Reading the official hatchery website. I discovered that the Sandy Hatchery would be a great fit to POTA. I knew this hatchery existed. My father, who passed away last year, volunteered at that hatchery. He spent many many hours and days helping harvest Coho Salmon eggs and other duties. He told me of many stories while volunteering there. After reflecting on all of my dad's volunteer time, I quickly felt it was the right thing to add the park to POTA. I added the park this week. I also felt I needed to be the first to activate.

When I arrived at the hatchery, I immediately felt my fathers presence there. He lived for fishing.  My father and I fished for salmon, steelhead and trout throughout the years. Walking around the hatchery, I was reflecting on the many fun, exciting and great fishing experiences we had. I no longer fish. Well, I do a different kind of fishing now. Fishing for POTA activators and hunters. 

The hatchery has a stream called Cedar Creek running along it. It empties into the Sandy River. This time of year is Coho and early runs of winter steelhead. The hatchery has holding pens for the fry with many Coho salmon nearing ready for release. At the hatchery is a fishing parking area. The hatchery set this area aside for fisherman to park while walking the trail to the Sandy River. 

I found the fishing parking area was perfect for POTA. It is removed from the day to day operations of the hatchery. It is fairly far away from power noise. It has a beautiful pasture on one side. Tree lined on the other. To the SW is a slight hill. But the rest of the terrain was somewhat even. 

I chose hamstick and 17' whip antennas today. I wanted to keep it simple. But I could have used my kite pole with 84' wire without interfering with anyone parking. I started on 10m and the band was pretty good. I bounced to 15m to hunt. I wasn't feeling great. So I decided no big pileups. Well, until the end of the activation. I jumped on 20m and powered down to 10w. Everyone could still hear me. haha.. So I worked through the pileup a bit. But had to tap out after a short time. My brain told me I was done. 

I had so many nice QSO's with folks. It was nice to just take my time and catch up with some folks. The scenery was very good. Often, I would just sit and continue to reflect on the fishing experiences I had with my father. 

Thank you to all that got in the log. And thank you to all that couldn't, for trying. I will be back at that hatchery. 

Link to the Sandy State Fish Hatchery Website https://myodfw.com/sandy-hatchery-visitors-guide 

73 W7RTA  Charlie

10m Hamstick Dipole Nulls out Noise At K-4576 Oregon NHT 9-28-2023

 Today I was along the Willamette River where the K-4576 Oregon National Historic Trail passed down the river. At times, some of the bands get noise from the golf course across the street. Using my 10m Hamstick, I was able to null out the noise to where the 10m band was useful. 

Here is a short video on How I POTA'd Today using the 10m Hamsticks to null out noise.  

I started on 10m and bounced around a bit. I went to 40m to get some local PNW contacts. Then back to 10m where I got 2 VK4 stations and Argentina. Back down to 40m and on 20m for short bit. All and all it was a good few hours. 

Green = 10m  Orange = 20m  Red = 40m 

Thank you to all the hunters and P2P's today. 

K-4576 Oregon National Historic Trail and This is how I POTA. This time. 2023-09-08

I activated K-4576 Oregon NHT. I haven't used my painter pole in a while. So with 10m opening more lately, I decided to use it. 2 BD7 Chinese whips in dipole format with MFJ Hamstick Dipole mount. I was very pleased with how easy it was to measure the whips and put the antenna up. 10m was great again today. Need more hunters out there exercising that band. Japan and Australia. That was a nice treat. I wasn't at the park long. 1.5 hours. 15m and 17m were working well too. I am glad the higher bands are opening. 

There is this thing that Wes VA5MUD is starting. It is a 'This is how I POTA' . Sort of challenge. So I wanted to jump in and share how I POTA at my activations. I mix it up when activating. So I will be creating more videos in future activations. Below is my first crack at how I POTA'd today. Below that are the maps. 

Thank you to all the hunters and P2P's today. 

13 days without an activation and trapped in the house sick.

 It has been almost two weeks since I was at a park. 13 days trapped at home recovering from a head cold. I made it out today, 9/7/2023 to the park K-3424 Ice Age Geological Trail. 

It felt great getting out in the fresh air. Weather has cooled. Partly cloudy dry day here in NW Oregon. I wasn't feeling very adventurous, so I used hamsticks on a triple mag mount for 10m, 15m and 17m. The 17' MFJ whip for 20m. I was in the Tacoma Truck in the bed with my topper lift canopy. Using the IC 7300 . 10m has been open lately at home. So I started on 10m at the park. It was a nice run of about 25 contacts. Midwest, SE US were coming in great. After a bit I moved to 15m. Got a few contacts. Not as active. But nice to work folks on that band. Then a few on 17m. I heard Wes VA5MUD on 20m in a park. So I put my whip on the mag mount (I use quick disconnects for quick antenna changes) . I hunted Wes for the P2P. I wasn't planning on 20m for my activation. I didn't want to lose my voice. But I wasn't feeling to bad. So I went for it. Yikes. You hunters are awesome. I had quite the pile up for a bit. WA7FLY, Tom, reached me with 5 watts (I had just

called for any QRP stations. Smart move Tom!) So after our QSO I kept the power down so the pile ups would not make me lose my voice. Sorry folks. After a it I packed it in for the afternoon. 

Shout out to the HamJazz Discord folks VA5MUD, W6PUG, WA7FLY, AJ5C, VE1SK. And a couple folks worked me on 3 bands. 

Thank you everyone! 73

W7RTA

Charlie

Riding the greyline W7RTA 7-27-2023 and 7-28-2023

 This summer of 2023 has been a bit brutal on many of the HF bands. Lately, I have been going to the park in the evening and working the greyline. That has paid off. Around 4pm Pacific time 23z, 20m as well as other bands seem to open more. 

Yesterday I went out to activate K-3424 Ice Age Geological Trail in Oregon. I arrived at the park and was set up and on the air by 23:17 UTC. Fearing I would not reach 10 contacts by 00z, I pushed through several mini pileups. I usually like to chat with folks. Catch up with hunters and other activators. But since I was nearing the 00z I spent less time being chatty. I wanted to get as many hunters in the old day as I could. Then in the new day slow down the pace a bit. 

20m started off getting 37 contacts in the log before the day change. Mary, KC3HMB was last in the log for the day and first in the log for the next day. This was the first time I got her in the log too. It has been a while since I got EC1R , Alfonso, from Spain in my log. But I also got EA1GIB, Manuel, from Spain in the log too. Almost back to back. I love when those openings happen. And good to get some DX in the log. 

Not often I get a couple of stations from Florida in my log. But yesterday, I had 6 in the log. That was pretty cool. There is much more POTA activity in Canada this year. Very good to see the increase in hunters and activators up there. 

After the 00z, I was able to chat more with folks. Conditions were changing a bit, so some of the weaker stations I had to rush through to get in the log. I started the new day on 20m. When it slowed, I dropped down to 40m. The time of day here in the PNW is during rush hour and dinner time. So there was not a lot of contacts. But those that I made were very welcomed. Nice to get more PNW folks in the log. K7CAN, Mike in Idaho is difficult to get in the log on 20m. But dropping to 40m , it was a success. KK7HGV, Jacob , has been maritime mobile the past couple of contacts. In February on 10m and April on 20m, he was in Southern Baja. Yesterday, he hunted me on 40m and was near the Olympic Peninsula. He had traveled from Baja to Hawaii. Then to the PNW where he lives. That was really cool to get him on three different bands. 

I used the IC 7300. 10.6 amp hours of battery consumed. 100w. 17' BD7 whip with WRC Sporty Forty (shorted out for 20m) on triple mag mount on the roof of my truck. 

It is always nice to get some of my regular hunters and POTA friends in the log. AJ5C, Bob, VA5MUD, Wes, K7CAN, Mike, VE7NB, Robbie, K2JWD, Mel, K6YYL, Kim, N3XLS, Joe, AD2CD, Tobi is getting in my log more lately :) , NA7X, Carl, thanks for the antenna info. I know I am missing folks. Every contact is special to me. 

Thank you to all the hunters and activators. 

W7RTA - Charlie

W7RTA Home QTH Rain Gutter Antenna

 After upgrading my ham license to general in March of 2021, I looked to different ways to enjoy the hobby. Antenna theory  is very technical and I enjoy learning what I can about it. But at some point, all the numbers, graphs and such are a bit challenging for me. At my home QTH, I have some challenges. I live in an HOA. I live between two broadcast AM radio stations. I live up on a hill 900'. At the top 1200', there is a massive commercial antenna farm. I was able to put up a random wire antenna that was mostly hidden from the street (HOA Rule). That works very well. But one day during the summer of 2021, I looked up at my home and was wondering what I could do to deploy another antenna. All of a sudden it hit me. I recall reading about folks using gutters as antennas in nursing homes, HOA's, etc. So I inspected my gutter on my home. The wheels in my brain were spinning with ideas. 

The gutter on my home does not wrap completely around the roof. One side, the gutter is in several sections. The other side, west side, has a more complete length of gutter. One downspout that runs down near my shack. The downspout does not touch the ground. There is a plastic pipe that the downspout rests on at ground level. I examined the west side more and found it wraps from part of the back of my home to part of the front of my home. The downspout is connected to that section. 

For my random wire antenna, I use a 9:1 Unun that I purchased off of Ebay https://www.ebay.com/itm/191903715614 . I thought, what the heck. That works well with my random wire. So I figured I would try it on the gutter. I have a spare 9:1 Unun, I took a 6" 16ga wire and removed the plastic sheath from the ends. I put a self tapping screw about 2 inches above the plastic pipe on the downspout. Connected the wire to the screw. The other end of the wire to the Unun. With the random wire, I use a MFJ Common mode choke. https://mfjenterprises.com/products/mfj-915 . I have a 20' and a 30' RG 8X feedline cable with PL259 connectors on each end. I put the common mode choke inline between the two feedlines. I have a ground rod nearby and I connect the PL259 connector closest to the shack, to the ground rod. I find it important to have at least 20' of feedline from the unun to the choke. The shield of the cable acts as a counterpoise. The choke and ground help keep the RFI and other noise out of the shack. 

In the shack I use a Morgan Filter M-400X  to filter out as much of the AM Broadcast signal flooding my antennas. https://kf7p.com/KF7P/Morgan_Filters.html . I also use a MFJ-939 auto tuner. Icom 7300 radio. 

During the summer of 2021 I tested my gutter antenna set up. I was surprised on the first attempt. It worked! 80m to 10m . I didn't need to use my ATU on 20m to 10m. A couple bands in between I needed the ATU. I ran some tests with FT8 and my reach was quite impressive.

After testing the set up, I found a few things that keep me from using it full time. My kid's rooms are up closest to the gutter. The RFI on their headphones and other things was a little annoying to them. The noise being picked up by the gutter is slightly more than my wire antenna. The gutter antenna doesn't 'hear' as well as the wire. Probably because of the noise is slightly higher. 

Fast forward to October 23rd 2021. I had a guy come out and trim some trees away from the house. I had to take down the wire antenna. I hooked up the 9:1 Unun to my gutter and used it for several days. I mostly operated digital, as I wasn't feeling well and didn't feel like talking much. I did make some SSB contacts. The gutter antenna performed quite well. Confirmed contacts using FT8 on 40m with South Africa, China and Japan. I used multiple bands. 75m, 40m, 30m, 20m, 15, 12m, 10m. I made contacts on all those bands. All across the country and even into South America. I check into a net on 75m and no one can tell the difference in my signal. 

I bet you are wondering what would happen when it rains. It has been raining for three days straight and I cannot see any degrade in performance. No whacky SWR. We'll see what happens when it snows. 

Not every gutter is installed the same. If you are looking at this as an option, I would consider how many downspouts. How long of a run from the unun tot he farthest point of the gutter. I would recommend isolating to one downspout. Meaning if there are more than one inline, I would put a rubber or plastic insulator to to remove the other downspouts from the antenna system. If the gutter is too long, I would consider isolating a portion of it to shorten the antenna. Experiment and find what works for you. 

It is nice knowing that
I have a viable backup to my main wire antenna. Especially as winter sets in and damage to the wire will probably happen during ice, snow and wind storms. 

The below pic shows the red line where the gutter is. 

Notice how it ends in the front and back of the home. 

The contacts made in the three days using the gutter on FT8/4 

This is the 9:1 Unun I use for my random wire and gutter. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/191903715614

The MFJ-915 

https://mfjenterprises.com/products/mfj-915

The Morgan Bandpass Filter

https://kf7p.com/KF7P/Morgan_Filters.html

My Ham Portable Operations

 W7RTA

Charlie Bottita

I am often asked what equipment and antennas I use when operating ham radio via portable. Here is a break down of what I use. Pics towards the bottom. 

**Pictures are at the bottom**

Radios:

Icom IC 7300 

Xiegu G90

HT's - Baofeng and a Yaesu (I use these mostly for SOTA. 

I use the IC7300 in my home shack and portable. I made a 'rack' for the radio, bandpass filter and tuner. When I do Parks on the Air (POTA), I mostly use this radio. Living in the Pacific Northwest, the need for extra power is helpful. There are not as many POTA hunters on the west coast, as there are on the east coast. So the extra power is helpful. Having the radio in a rack makes it easy to pick up from my shack to my van. I thought about buying another radio, but this set up works and is very portable. The rack is made from a plastic 3 drawer from Walmart. I took out the drawers and cut the frame. I mounted each item using zip ties. 

The Xiegu G90 I use mostly for Summits on the Air (SOTA). Or if I am out on my scooter . The G90 has a very low power draw and is not too heavy. The built in tuner is great. So no external tuner needed. In the pic below, I am using the G90 on a drive up summit. I have it set up to do digital modes. 

Antennas and masts:

Various lengths of end fed random wires with a 9:1 unun ( https://www.ebay.com/itm/191226640113 )

20m speaker wire dipole homemade

Hamsticks, Hamsticks and Hamsticks https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-011589

Hamstick Dipole - https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-014059

Jackite 31' windsock pole  https://www.jackite.com/online-store/Windsock-Flying-Poles-c21767998 

Harbor Freight Push Up Flag Pole  https://www.harborfreight.com/20-ft-telescoping-flag-pole-kit-64342.html  

21' Crappie Pole from Amazon  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074M6BRZ8/?th=1&psc=1 

Electric fence post  https://www.google.com/shopping/product/3228771980588713026 

Triple 5" Mag Mount for Hamsticks - https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-006460

Single 5" Mag Mount for Hamsticks - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013HHINDS/

Random Wire -For POTA and SOTA I utilize the random wire antenna with the 9:1 unun. I carry 41', 58' and 84' lengths. Those seem to work the best for the bands I want to use. This is a compromised antenna, but it works very well. I have made many many contacts around the world using both my G90 and 7300. I also use a MFJ Common mode choke 20' in between two feed lines. The random wire can be set up in various configurations, depending on my situation. When doing SOTA, I carry the crappie pole and the 41' random wire. I run the wire up the pole, with the unun at the base. Then I take the remaining wire, and tie it off with mason string so that the antenna is an inverted L. When doing POTA, I use the 31' Jackite pole with the random wire. Depending on my location, I can choose which wire length. I also run the wire up the pole, with the unun at the base. The remaining wire, I will tie off with mason string to a electric fence post. Or use the Jackite pole and slope the wire with the unun on the lower end. 

Speaker wire dipole - I made this antenna out of some speaker wire I had laying around and a female PL259 connector. I trimmed the wires and on the first try got them at the right length. This antenna works very well. I use my Jackite windsock pole as the center mast and run a feed line to my radio. 

Hamsticks - I use Hamsticks in different configurations depending on my needs. 

    Mag Mounts- The simplest method is using the above mag mounts and putting what ever bands I want to work on the top of my van. Once the Hamsticks are tuned, they work great! Very easy to deploy and be on the air in a couple of minutes. I do not drive with these on the roof. Although I did a 5 hour drive with a 20m on the roof and my G90 talking to folks all across the country. 

    Hamstick Dipole - I purchased the above flag pole to use with my Hamstick dipoles. I have two dipoles that I deploy. A 20m and 40m. I mount the flag pole to the side of my van with a bucket with weights at the base, and a 8' painter pole that is mounted to the rack on my van. I bungee cord the flag pole to the painter pole. This set up supports the flagpole very well. I have the two dipoles and two feedlines on the flag pole up 20' in a cross formation. The benefit of this set up is that it is less noisy than a vertical hamstick on the roof of my van. The dipoles also 'hear' the S0 signals so much better. I can turn the dipole to eliminate some noise from nearby sources at times. To deploy this set up is not very difficult. The drawback is that I only have 2 bands. I add other bands to the mag mounts on my roof. So I have 4 bands available to me. I can switch the mag mount hamsticks very quickly if I want to work other bands. 

    Free standing - Yes, Hamsticks free standing. I have a short tripod I fastened a 3/8" mirror mount on. I built several lengths of radials to use with this set up. I put a hamstick on the tripod about 2' off the ground and attach 4 to 8 radials. This works. And it works pretty good. I also bought a handful of measuring tapes from the Dollar Store and put clips on them to use as radials. Those work great. Easy to deploy and store. This has been more of an experiment and I don't use it often. But it works. 

Batteries / Solar- 

Lead Acid 100ah and 36ah Deep Cycle  

Miady 16ah Lifepo4 (3 in parallel) and a 8ah https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07X7MD2JK/
8ah Miady -  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07X5G2FFW/

Lead Acid -  I use these batteries while camping. They work well for keeping things charged, such as my laptop, lights and other things. But for use with the IC7300, they are not practical. They do work for the G90 though. The batteries are bulky and heavy. So they take a back seat to the Lifepo4 batteries. 

Miady 16ah Lifepo4 - I had purchased one of these batteries to try. It worked very well. So I bought two more. The trick to running them parallel to start is to make sure they each are at the same charge level and voltage. I wired the three batteries together to make 48ah. I put them in a ammo can I picked up from Harbor Freight. I have a watt meter I use inline between the battery and the radio https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B088NC3PZG/ This lets me know how many watt hours/ah I have used. This is critical with Lifepo4 batteries, as the voltage reading does not let me know how many watt hours are left. So I can look at the meter to see how many watt hours / amp hours were consumed. On the flip side, I plug the meter inline when charging. This tells me how many watt hours are being sent from the charger to the batteries. If I consume 11ah, then I should see 11ah from the charge when complete. 

Miady 8ah - I purchased this to use with my G90 when I need to be most portable. Like when I do SOTA. This battery size can be carried on a plane. The G90 consumes 1.75ah per hour of full duty cycle (I tested using FT8 for one solid hour). So I can get many hours of use before the battery needs to be recharged. 

Solar - I purchased the Harbor Freight Solar Panels a few years ago. They worked well for camping and charging the lead acid batteries (The charge controller that came with it is only good for lead acid). I disliked having 4 panels to set up each time. So I purchased a Rich Solar panel off of Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DNP14JY/ . This also worked with the charge controller from Harbor Freight to charge my lead acid batteries. After I purchased the Lifepo Batteries, I had to buy another charge controller https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MU0WMGT/ This is very inexpensive. The lead acid controller had no RFI issues. But the Lifepo charger does. I increased the length of the cable from the charge controller to the batteries and put a 1" toroid wrapped with the cable. That has all but eliminated the RFI. I am one that likes to use what I have for a project. I had several old laptop wall chargers laying around. They are 15v at 3amp. I wired one with a plug similar to my solar panel. I plug the laptop charger into the charge controller when I am home, and charge my batteries. It works very well. (The charge controller doesn't know the source is not solar) The charge controller limits the voltage that is required by the batteries. The batteries have a BIM Battery Isolation Manger built into them. So when they reach full, they tell the controller to not send any more. I charge the three 16ah in parallel. I also set up something similar to charge the lead acid batteries with the other charge controller.   

When I am in the field and the sun is out, I can run my IC 7300 full power most of the day while the Lifepo batteries stay fully charged. For 5-6hrs of use, the IC 7300 will consume about 13ah of battery. 

POTA Van - I have a 2015 Honda Odyssey that I have removed the middle seats and folded down the back seats. I put in a 'bench' seat of totes with pads on top. I am 5'7" and I fit sleeping across right behind the driver and passenger seat. I have some side boards I made to protect the interior sides. I put a board across the top and use it as a table. I lined the floor with removable linoleum. I use this rig for camping and for POTA activations. As well as other ham activities. It is very comfortable to operate in. 

Extra Gear - If I want to put my random wire up in a tree, I have a couple ways of doing that. I have rope with a weighted end I toss up. It works, but I cannot go very high. I also have a crossbow pistol that I mounted a Zebco closed face fishing real onto. I added weight to one of the darts and I put a fishing swivel on it. I point and shoot the dart with good accuracy up to about 50' into a tree. The dart will slide down the other side of the tree, I will then tie a mason string to the dart and 'reel' it back over to me with the mason line. I will then tie the mason line to the wire and pull that back over the tree. I do this mostly in the forest and not parks. https://www.amazon.com/80-lbs-Self-Cocking-Pistol-Crossbow/dp/B00EFF1K1E/ I had the crossbow already, so I didn't go out and buy one. There are other options for getting lines in a tree, but this works for me. 

Headset and PTT - I use a headset/mic when operating POTA mostly. I can hear much better with a headset on. And the mic frees my hands to log. I made a PTT out of an unused light switch. Hey it works and cost me nothing to make :) I have several headsets that have a 3.5mm female port on them. This is so a wire can plug in and go directly to a mp3 player, tv, etc. The headsets I have are comfortable. The IC7300 and the G90 both use electret microphones. I purchased a couple of these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KHRWC78/ for $15 on Amazon. They work great! This splitter is required https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B094VS7HBP/  as well as an adapter for each rig. A headset with a port like this one is what I use https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZN2IZ1Q/

Computer  - When Portable, I operate on phone and digital. I have a dedicated laptop that I purchased used from https://blairtech.com/laptops/ I paid $119 for it. It is a Lenova Yoga 11e. I bought additional RAM to make it 8gb. Check back with that site, as they have new deals often. That laptop works well for my portable operations. I also use it in my shack for digital and logging. The only problem is battery life. All laptops have this issue. I can get a solid 4 hours of use , which is good for most activities. I also have an external battery I had laying around to charge it. So I can get another 3-4 hours from it. I also had a small 10" Windows tablet laying around. I had thought about putting together a Raspberry Pi system, but I found the Windows tablet works. One big plus with the tablet is it is charged via 5v USB-C. I have about 10 USB batteries ranging from 3000mah to 15000mah. I ran some tests using the tablet with FT8 for an hour. It only consumed 1,000mah of power. That was consistent use for the hour. The internal battery lasts about 3+ hours. But I plug in any of my USB batteries and I can get days and days of use. https://www.amazon.com/CHUWI-Hi10-Quad-core-1920x1200-Multi-Touch/dp/B087WNHD88/ I use the tablet without the keyboard (it detaches), as I really don't need to type much when doing FT8. Using the keyboard does use slightly more power, but not too bad. 

Logging Software - when I am portable I use HAMRS. I use this for POTA and SOTA. I use it with my Samsung 8" tablet and a Bluetooth keyboard. I also log on paper at the same time. When I hear a call sign coming back to my CQ , I write the call sign on my notepad. As I repeat the call sign and give a signal report, I type it into HAMRS. I use a headset, so this is easy to do while talking. Having the call signs on paper gives me a good backup if something were to happen to the digital log. When done with my POTA activation, I export the ADIF file and email it to myself. Assuming I have cell service. When I get home, I import that ADIF file into my N3FPJ ACLog software and upload to eQSL and LoTW. I try to send my logs to the POTA area rep for upload into the POTA system about once a week. I may activate several times a week. For SOTA, I do it a little different. I just log on paper, then enter into HAMRS. Why? Because Summit 2 Summits are handled correctly. I can review the ADIF file before uploading to the SOTA site and my ACLog. It works for me. 

Internet Access - I have a Visible Wireless phone. For $25 I get unlimited data/phone and hotspot on the Verizon system. My data speed can be throttled during peak times, but I rarely run into that. I launch the hotspot on my phone to use with my Samsung tablet. I have a cell booster with a cell yagi antenna. I use then when camping and works well. I have an older version of this I bought refurbished. https://www.amazon.com/weBoost-Signal-Booster-Cradle-Holder/dp/B073V5S3T7/  This is the Yagi I use. https://www.amazon.com/Electronics-Wideband-Directional-700-2700-314411/dp/B00J14YEHQ/

Pics of my setups. 

This is the setup inside my van. The rack on the left contains the IC7300, MFJ Auto Tuner and a Broadcast AM Bandpass filter (mostly needed at home). The tablet is used for logging as well as the pad. 

The G90 on the left. The Chuwi 10" Windows tablet on the right. I did a SOTA activation using FT8. (Wanted to test the viability and it worked well)

The small tripod with the hamstick mounted and tape measure radials. This was 20m and it worked very well for my SOTA activation. 

When using the 20m speaker wire dipole on the 31' Jackite windsock pole, I run a 41' random wire sloping down. The 9:1 unun is at the low end. This set up gives me resonant 20m and I can band hop using the random wire. 

The Jackite pole can be used many different ways. Here I am using it to support the JPole roll up antenna I have for 2m/70cm. 

 

When I am out in the forest, I take my somewhat off road scooter. The bag has the G90 and other items. The 21' crappie pole is seen here too attached to the bag. 

21' crappie pole at a local park.

The 21' crappie pole is attached to my scooter. I am using the G90 at a local park with a 41' random wire. 

The 20m speaker wire dipole supported by the 31' Jackite windsock pole. 

My solar panel and my POTA-Mobile

The Harbor Freight flagpole supporting the 40m and 20m hamsitck dipoles. Each have their own feedline. 

This is how I support the flag pole on my van. The painter pole is extendable. When done, I twist and slide it back in. . 

The base of the flagpole I use a small bucket with weights and a piece of PVC the flag pole is inserted in. 

The inside of my POTA-Mobile (Van)

If you have any questions, you may email me at charliebottita@hotmail.com 

73 W7RTA