{"id":242,"date":"2026-05-16T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/?p=242"},"modified":"2026-06-17T10:19:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T09:19:38","slug":"pota-activation-at-ie-0029","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/2026\/05\/16\/pota-activation-at-ie-0029\/","title":{"rendered":"POTA Activation at IE-0029"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Having figured out the bigger issues on the first two &#8220;shakedown&#8221; POTA outings and also now with some sense of what a POTA activation is like, I set off to IE-0029 Rostellan woods for a longer activation. I didn&#8217;t go too far, Rostellan is about a 25 minute drive from home and due the geography of Cork Harbour, as the crow flies it&#8217;s actually only about 3km from my home QTH.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_8689-768x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-244\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.7499999753360098;object-fit:cover;width:500px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_8689-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_8689-225x300.jpeg 225w, https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_8689-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_8689-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_8689-scaled.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Spot the antenna!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Murphy&#8217;s Law was in full operation as the activation coincided with very poor propagation conditions. Nonetheless, I stuck at it for just over two and a half hours. A big thanks to everyone who took the patience to work me to give me 43 QSOs (50 POTA contacts) across 20M SSB and, for the first time CW. I had some technical issues with CW, a combination of the first time I&#8217;ve used a new keyer (yes, I did have the manual with me but misunderstood something it said) and an RFI issue, where my first CW transmissions resulted in the boot (trunk) of my car opening all on its own! All in all, good fun though and proof that even when conditions are poor, you&#8217;ll work stations with a bit of persistence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_8692-1024x768.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-245\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_8692-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_8692-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_8692-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_8692-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_8692-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">My initial attempt at CW operating &#8220;\/T&#8221;. The ergonomics need a bit of work.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"588\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4B85768D-D1BB-4932-B87A-2C79D25C252B_1_201_a-588x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-423\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.5742221963546553;object-fit:cover;width:500px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4B85768D-D1BB-4932-B87A-2C79D25C252B_1_201_a-588x1024.jpeg 588w, https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4B85768D-D1BB-4932-B87A-2C79D25C252B_1_201_a-172x300.jpeg 172w, https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4B85768D-D1BB-4932-B87A-2C79D25C252B_1_201_a-768x1337.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4B85768D-D1BB-4932-B87A-2C79D25C252B_1_201_a-882x1536.jpeg 882w, https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4B85768D-D1BB-4932-B87A-2C79D25C252B_1_201_a.jpeg 1170w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 588px) 100vw, 588px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Activation Summary<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"501\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/D7FC99D3-D0BC-4E4A-8E67-0E6185008E89_1_201_a-501x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-422\" style=\"width:500px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/D7FC99D3-D0BC-4E4A-8E67-0E6185008E89_1_201_a-501x1024.jpeg 501w, https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/D7FC99D3-D0BC-4E4A-8E67-0E6185008E89_1_201_a-147x300.jpeg 147w, https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/D7FC99D3-D0BC-4E4A-8E67-0E6185008E89_1_201_a-768x1569.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/D7FC99D3-D0BC-4E4A-8E67-0E6185008E89_1_201_a-752x1536.jpeg 752w, https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/D7FC99D3-D0BC-4E4A-8E67-0E6185008E89_1_201_a-1003x2048.jpeg 1003w, https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/D7FC99D3-D0BC-4E4A-8E67-0E6185008E89_1_201_a.jpeg 1170w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 501px) 100vw, 501px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">QSO Map<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Having figured out the bigger issues on the first two &#8220;shakedown&#8221; POTA outings and also now with some sense of what a POTA activation is like, I set off to IE-0029 Rostellan woods for a longer activation. I didn&#8217;t go too far, Rostellan is about a 25 minute drive from home and due the geography [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":243,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,6,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-portable","category-operating","category-pota-portable"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":425,"href":"https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242\/revisions\/425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ei4hq.ie\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}