UPDATE: CANCELLED 🙂 The POTA Weather gods are not smiling on us. After hoping all week that the weather forecast would slide to the right, unfortunately it has not happened. There is a 70+% chance of widespread rain from early morning through the rest of the day, so it doesn’t look good for a POTA event. We’ve surveyed some of the “hard-core” POTA people and they all say that rain is a good reason to stay inside. So we’re officially canceling tomorrow’s POTA event. Sorry, we will try again soon…
After a long winter, plans are coming together for another RWK Parks-On-The-Air (POTA) outing to the Spring Creek Forest State Preserve in Garland. Spring Creek Forest Preserve US-4423 is the closest POTA-eligible location to Richardson (and only about 10 minutes east of here).
Our RWK POTA events have been fairly popular, and we’re planning another one for Saturday Apr 20th. Weather-permitting, of course! The current plan is to go eat breakfast at Southern Recipes (yes, it’s that weekend!) and then assemble at the park around 9:30am and operate until 2pm. Andrew has promised some “smoked food that is recognizable”.
So if you’re a Technician, remember that you have voice privileges on 10 Meters, and most days there are plenty of people to talk to on 10 Meters. Come to our POTA event and we will get you on the air with a simple station and you can try your hand at 10M SSB If you are HF-challenged at home, either due to antenna restrictions or lack of HF equipment, we can get you on the air on the other bands as well.
The Spring Creek Forest Preserve is on Shiloh Road in Garland (six miles east of Richardson City Hall). See below for directions.
What do you need: You are welcome (encouraged even!) to bring your own POTA setup (Radio, Antenna, power) but the club or other members will also have equipment (and power) that can be used so you aren’t required to bring anything except yourself (and possibly a camp chair). If you want to build a simple-but-effective POTA antenna for HF, read here! (hint- it doesn’t just work in a park, it will work in your yard too). We will have AC power available if needed.
If you’re a new ham and want to experience HF operations, just bring yourself and we will get you on the air. If you want to use the club’s or someone else’s POTA station, you should still bring whatever you need to operate and log your contacts (yellow pad or PC). If you have camp chairs and/or a portable table, you might want to bring that as well.
Directions to 6006 N. Shiloh Road: From Arapaho, proceed east until you reach Shiloh Rd. (approx 6 miles from Richardson City Hall). Turn left on Shiloh and go north approx 1/4 mile. Park entrance is on the right just after the bridge and just before the apartment complex. From Campbell, go east to Shiloh and turn right, but you will have to make a U-turn cause there is no median access to the park entrance.
We will have a small selection of soft drinks and water at the park. If you are not full from the RWK Breakfast, please feel free to bring your own Lunch. Note: the park does NOT have rest rooms, but there are several locations at businesses just south at Arapaho and Shiloh Rd. The main picnic tables (operating areas) are mostly shaded (see above pic), but please take whatever precautions that you need for outside activities (sunscreen, bug repellent).
For those not familiar with POTA, we’ve got a website page that shows how you can get started.
You’re also encouraged to watch Don Weeks N5SKT’s General Meeting presentation from December 2021 and our QRV Tech session from October 2023 on the POTA website and logging. Please visit the Parks-on-the-Air website to sign up for an account if you haven’t yet done so. Here’s a short video of David KG5EIU (and Bill KF5ZBL) and their (fancy) POTA setups:
KG5EIU and KG5ZBL activating Park K-4423 in Garland
