Although I've not managed to complete any of @hamchallenge to date, I feel that an #IOTA activation barely a week after the proposed week for #HC29S is worth tooting :-)

The 9V1IO[TA] team[1] performed our customary "Island Station - DXpedition" activation, this time back at Pulau Ubin for the first time since 2019. 175 QSOs is our largest haul to date!

1: This year: Haoyuan 9V1HY, Gopal 9V1AZ, Klaus 9V1KG, JT 9V1AV, Kishore 9V1KV, and myself

Week 29 of the #HamChallenge: Make your own xOTA activation

I interpreted this as "get a type of place on the air which doesn't already have an established xOTA program."

This is PLOTA: Parking Lots on the Air. I semi-regularly try to activate the top of a parking deck at work over lunch. Looking forward to fall 🥵

https://hamchallenge.org/2025/29

#HC29S #PLOTA #HamRadio #AmateurRadio #Portable #QMX @hamchallenge

Squeaking in at the end of @hamchallenge week #HC29S — I played #POTA today, hunting CW park-to-park, to test my new QRP linked dipole, entirely of my own design. Used a 10oz throw weight to put a slippery UHMWPE line over a branch and pull the dipole up. I like using UHMWPE throw line because it is very gentle to the tree. Then I pulled the arms out to form an inverted V.

Took a bit over 2 hours, including faffing about with the new antenna. My first contact was with N2VGA in US-3617 in FL on 15m with 5w, which was extra impressive because I had one leg of my linked dipole on 15m and the other on 17m due to disconnecting the wrong link while setting it up. The KX3 tried to give me a hint because it took it about 2–3 seconds to find a match on 15m. When I chose the right links, it was even better. I worked 15m, 20m, and 40m. I couldn't hear anyone running POTA on other bands. I used 5–15W as needed, but tried to do as much as I could at 5W.

I didn't realize that I was doing this during a Support Your Parks Event, so I was surprise to see that I got "Support Your Parks Activator" and "Support Your Parks Hunter" awards at https://pota.app after I uploaded my logs.

I have some additional changes to make to the winder before I publish the design, but I do plan to publish it, along with details of how I made the antenna, once I'm satisfied.

As a bonus, as I started putting the antenna away, I heard a passer-by ask, "Is that a ham radio?" Turns out she was a new ham, three months licensed, who hadn't really used the license yet. So I got the opportunity to encourage another new ham to join a club and start learning. ❤️

#HamRadio #AmateurRadio

Let's try a 10fer for @hamchallenge :  

I went out today for POTA RO-0109 #HC29S in front of this communist mammoth #HC13S, operated all day on 36Ah #HC36S (ha!). I worked one DX, the ITU HQ, out of today's DXpeds PJ4M, VP8DPD and V73MT #HC07S, 14 DXCCs #HC37s, plus all xOTA #HC16S I heard. I had 20 contacts on CW #HC38S including @YO3AX and @G0TRT. I even heard F4JRC on 6m #HC28S. I fixed my audio card #HC45S and used the antenna I built with the YL #HC33S.

Details follow.

This week I activated two #SOTA summits and eight #POTA parks.

I also activated three mountains for the "Sächsischer Bergwettbewerb" ("Saxonian Mountain Contest").

@hamchallenge #HamChallenge #HC29S
#hamradio #amateurradio #amateurfunk

Today, I participated in the 2m segment of the Winter Fieldday / Bayerischer Bergtag from my usual VHF hill which is also valid for POTA (#DE0315).

In two hours I made 15 contacts to German and Czech stations using my trusty FT-818 (6 W out) and a 4 element yagi.

With today's activity I accomplished three #HamChallenge|s at once:
• #HC06S (Contest)
• #HC29S (xOTA activation)
• #HC38S (Morse contact)

#hamradio #amateurradio #amateurfunk #contest @hamchallenge