Technician Class Parks On The Air Activation QRP 10 Meters

Technicians, You Can Do This!! Parks On The Air QRP 10 Meters Using Only My Yaesu FT-818 & My DIY 10 Meter Dipole Antenna!! How Far Will I Get???
Consider becoming a Patron @ / k8mrdradiostuff
Follow me on Twitter. / k8mrd
Links to many of the things I use can be found here:
www.amazon.com/shop/k8mrdradi...
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Big Geek Battery Box: k8mrd.square.site
Watch the video here: • Big Geek 12V Ham Radio...
K8MRD Radio Stuff Shirts:
Happy Skull Guy: grapevineamateurradio.com/col...
Tower of Terror: grapevineamateurradio.com/col...
Links to other stuff (affiliate where possible)
**Save 15% off your Coax order at ABR Industries. Use code K8MRD at checkout.
abrind.com
The SkyHook Portable Mast Antenna Mount (non affiliate)
www.thehamstop.com/
Use code WINTERFD2023 for 20% off
Save 5% Off At Gigaparts With Code K8MRD:
www.gigaparts.com/nsearch/?lp...
Signal Stuff Signal Stick Antennas:
BNC Antenna: signalstuff.com/super-elastic...
SMA Female Antenna: signalstuff.com/super-elastic...
SMA Male Antenna: signalstuff.com/super-elastic...
Signalstuff Antennas: signalstuff.com/?ref=4089
~~~$15 off most purchases over $65 at Radioddity:
radioddity.refr.cc/mikedahlhofer
#hamradio #FT818 #parksontheair #k8mrd

[@Aimsport-video]

Man oh man… imagine if that antenna was higher. You’re showing people that things don’t need to be perfect to be way more than good enough. “5w????” Love it!

[@PNW_Hawk]

I am studying for my Technician license currently and nearing time to test. After hearing how General is the way to go, this gives me hope for some POTA fun between when I get my Technician license and my General. This was truly inspiring, and thank you!!

[@coreyb9895]

Thanks, for showing us Technicians what can be done. I just got made my first contact (Japan) this last weekend. Keep up the great work.

[@hamradiotube]

Heck yeah that’s awesome!

[@andrewb9276]

It’s 10 meters! When it’s open a wet string will work the world. Us who remember the last good solar cycle will confirm how great the band can be. Great video Mike. I’ll be POTA 1/21 and will start on 10 mtr. with ATAS. 73 de KF6LU

[@danthemyth]

Your enthusiasm is infectious and I look forward to your posts! Thank you for making videos!

[@hamradiotube]

Wow, thank you!

[@duncanchaboudy4187]

On Saturday I successfully hunted an activator in England on 10 meters SSB from North Carolina. We were both pretty stoked

[@HamRadioLady]

Fun, fun, fun. 10 meters is on 🔥 🔥 🔥 I have always loved 10 meters, even in the doldrums.

[@AudiophileTubes]

Great video! You don't need much power, or a fancy antenna on 10 meters (or 6 meters) when the band is open!

[@EdwardGriffin]

Part of the attraction of QRP ops you saw in this video when the DX station was verified. Impressive results from a modest setup is always a cool almost magical thing when it happens.

[@alanbrockmeier6871]

Mike absolutely fantastic 10 meter activation! Wish I could have got on the air with you. No radio in the RV in Galveston. So envious about AK contact, been trying to get AK for a good six months. Keep up the excellent work for the Amateur Radio Community. Blessings and 73 NM5SP Alan

[@robertmeyer4744]

that was super great. lately 10 meters has not been open much. summer 2023 .Boston NY. got 10 M FM repeater near me. has a 2meter 1.25 meter and 70 cm link . threw the link Technician class can run 10 meter threw the link. also the 6 meter band is open to technician as well. with 6 meter dipoles you can cut the legs 3/4 wave and it will tune 50 ohm and have great gain. was some nice DX 6 meters this spring. the last solar cycle 6 meters was great even some midnight dx on 6 and 10 meters. we saw northern lights in NY. hear our park rangers are very nice to HAMs. I had them take their lunch break with me. I love the low noise floor in parks. most of them. 73's

[@av3510]

Killin it Miguel! Chile to Alaska! Insane, dude!

[@KI5DDO]

The magic of 5 watts and a wire!

[@airheadzradioadventures]

Alaska on 5.. Good grief!! Nice job man 😆

[@kroberts2812]

Very cool! Just started on this journey and I'm amazed at what can be done with 5 watts!

[@walteredwards544]

It's a wonderful thing. My longest contact on 5 watts was from my QTH in Georgia, using my ELAD FDM DUO and my MFJ EFHW antenna to South Africa on the 20 meter band. (That was when the SFI was still in the 50's and lower 60's. The speaker is terrible and I wasn't even sure I had reached him so I sent him an email and he replied that I had and he actually heard me better than I heard him!

[@brentN4BDW]

Dude….love the activation, and love the original build. I got a couple of friends I wish would upgrade beyond Tech, and this build is exactly the tool I need to pump them up. Great job Sir! 🤘

[@hamradiotube]

I hope it works!!

[@brentN4BDW]

@@hamradiotubellowup….works perfect! Activated March 1st afternoon from K-3812, hung maybe 8-9 feet, got Brazil, Chile (CE3FZL, just like you) and the far upper west corner of Northwest Territories with 50 watts. 10m is definitely getting more exciting! 🤌

[@bak4320]

Thanks, Mike. This is inspiring!

[@KX4UL]

Nice activation! QRP and the Yaesu FT-818 ROCK! Way to go Mike...73!

[@stevegriffin9552]

Hey Mike, excellent video and that was awesome to get Chile and Alaska with what you was working with. Plus the weather looks pretty good too for you. Thanks for the video. Hope to see you on the pota spotting. 73 WD5ENH Steve

[@KO4GAR]

Gotta love QRP!!!

[@mattdenneyccsbusdriver54]

I just watched and I can’t believe you did that well. Congrats Mike. Wish me luck. Taking my General on Monday night.

[@hamradiotube]

Heck yeah man, good luck and let me be the first to say congratulations on your General!!

[@walterbeaton5056]

Congratulation on 25k subscribers! 73, Walt

[@hamradiotube]

Hey thanks so much Walt!!

[@mw0hac]

Definitely the best youtuber for ham radio , every video is a joy to watch your friend in the UK MW0HAC

[@hamradiotube]

Thank you very much!

[@theearl1477]

Hi Mike. You worked two of my friends in Schenectady. Nice contacts from Chile & Alaska. I'll put this stream on my web site to show Technicians and the like how easy it is to make contacts with a simple antenna and 5 watts. 73, W2BK

[@stephenburgess5109]

Nice contact into Chile

[@MyFishFiles]

And +1 on the antenna. I have a similar 20 meter dipole that works great. I call it “Joe’s $40 dipole” (was $30 when I made it). And don’t overthink it - the antenna does NOT have to be X feet above the ground. Get it strung up any way you can and git on the air! WA2JOE

[@WX4CB]

I did my first pota the other day .. K8366 which is like 2 minutes from the house LOL.... i think in the hour i got about 40 odd contacts. I had the 7000 in the work truck and an antron 99 sitting on a 5ft tripod LOL

[@hamradiotube]

Awesome! Welcome to the club.

[@MyFishFiles]

These days I’m checking ten meters first during the day. Finding plenty of strong signals there. Go for it! Hope to catch you on the air soon, Mike. WA2JOE

[@Veedy]

Holy smokes ! That Alaska contact was strong. Must be the antenna built by a pro ;) Awesome POTA man.

[@hamradiotube]

That was so awesome, thanks man!

[@JacobNewmen]

Nice job :)

[@hamradiotube]

Thanks! 😄

[@paulplack490]

Mike, don't rush your CQs, especially your callsign. When you're QRP, saying it slowly makes a big difference! And thanks for showing off 10 meters for POTA. I recently did a SOTA activation with a similar homebrew dipole, center at 7' above ground, and had similar success. What a great band!

[@hamradiotube]

There's an old saying, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". I'm not having any problems making contacts. Plus, going slow just isn't how I'm made. I do appreciate you watching though. I'm envious that you have mountains to do SOTA on too. Not too many things as beautiful as being on top of the world.

[@K3JRZOnTheAir]

Way to go! 73!

[@KK4DF]

Those are the contacts that make POTA worthwhile. KL7. Wow.

[@terrymoon6335]

The way 10 has been banging this ought to be an easy one my friend #hamharder

[@lousadventures2111]

WOW now I can't wait to get off this barge and go play with my new antenna I got in the mail. 😁

[@hamradiotube]

Or, bring the antenna on the barge. Salt water propagation does wonders my friend.

[@lousadventures2111]

@@hamradiotube yea I know. But we are always loaded with deisel. All I need is Rf to ignite it. Lol

[@austieoutdoors9763]

yes i luved it today on 10m braziL, chili , north america , yes its been like 40 year ago again allso picked up a wrtc contest award 73 from the uk M7BYF

[@AlanBarnwell-xx2em]

Love your channel. I am sure I am missing something, I am new to HF. I do not see a feed from the antenna to the radio. Thanks.

[@AliReza-zx8km]

Nice................

[@homebrewguykc1atw268]

Wow, I should try 10 meter band, thanks for sharing video, de KC1ATW

[@christophersmith1155]

We are at a solar maximum right now. We can shoot skip around the world with QRP power "less than 20 watts" Im re-living the 1970s and 1980s all over again. 10 , 11cb, 12 meters are all open. I make more contacts world wide on CB than my HAM RADIO . Europe at sunrise and the Pacific rim at sunset. 73's

[@robledgerwood6802]

This is what I’m talking about! I trying for a similar thing this summer. Putting my parts and pieces together. The last thing is my antenna and totally making this dipole to get me off the ground and running. 73 KK7LJY

[@ChrisCookTech]

Nice work dude! Does the 818 have an auto voice keyer?

[@hamradiotube]

It does not.

[@kennethblackwell1137]

I'm smiling big and wide....

[@511anjo]

muita bom

[@davidc5027]

Would like to hunt 10 Meter POTA, but I'm central U.S., which means I'm in the skip zone for most, OR too far away. Not only that, conditions have to be right to have a chance, fortunately here over the past couple months 10 meters has been open during the day, but there will be a time coming when 10 meters will be closed day and night.

[@m7trsradio]

Hi fantastic video and great activation. So would I be right in thinking you are loving the Ft818nd then🤔😃 Motters M7TRS 73 👍🏻

[@hamradiotube]

It's a pretty cool radio, yeah. It has its quirks and is defiantly a bit dated but so far I'm enjoying it.

[@DonDegidio]

Hi Mike, Awesome activation. How about showing Jerry's KG6HQD speaker wire antenna. It's even simpler to make. I think you have enough speaker wire left to make one. Stay safe. 73 WJ3U

[@hamradiotube]

I've done a couple of those, most recently this one: studio.kzbin.info5g1jXzujPhg/edit

[@DonDegidio]

@@hamradiotube Hi Mike, Forgot about that video. That's what happens when you get old, the memory is first to go. 🙂 Stay safe. 73 WJ3U

[@hamradiotube]

Lol, well just stop getting old, duh :)

[@joshmyer9]

I just tried to activate a park today, and was wanting to stay on 10m entirely to include the techs, based on seeing the thumbnail for this video yesterday. The ionosphere had other ideas, unfortunately. I think my dipole was pointed poorly, as well, so I'll have to try again soon. (It's on the way home from dropping my kid off for his school carpool. And his school is literally inside a double POTA location, so I'm going to try from there, too. SF is blessed with an embarrassment of Parks.) Did you crimp that RG-316 cable? I need to crimp my linked dipole's end properly, and would love to hear your experience with BNC/SMA crimping tools.

[@hamradiotube]

That ionosphere can be finicky for sure. I did crimp the RG-316, yes. I made a video a while back. kzbin.info/www/bejne/a32zgoRne9iHa8U

[@jerryinman1360]

Great video mike but I want to do activation also. Can you do a video on how to activate parks on the air. Thanks KD6VGB Jerry

[@ryany4326]

There’s a whole 1 hour Episode that k8mrd did with Josh over at ham radio crash course, on your tube, on how to get started just search for it

[@hamradiotube]

Like this? Get Started In Parks on the Air kzbin.info/www/bejne/pYLVZoGlg75phsU

[@wheelsgonewild1286]

What radio are you using

[@hamradiotube]

Yaesu FT-818

[@yrath5034]

What paddle is that?

[@hamradiotube]

It is a prototype from K6ARK.

[@joelaut12]

why do you need 10 contacts to active a park? Does that mean it will be assigned a K number?

[@hamradiotube]

That's just the rules of pota. 10 contacts in on Zulu day and you activate the park. They already have a park number. go to www.pota.app to learn more.

[@MatthewEnglat]

Real silly question, but what does it mean when they say, "you're coming in 53 or 58" it's at the 2:42

[@hamradiotube]

We're exchanging signal reports. The first number is how well we can hear/understand them (1-5) and the second is how strong their signal is (1-9)

[@MatthewEnglat]

@@hamradiotube Thank you!!!

[@billhatch9420]

10 meters never seems open when I'm in a park.

[@hamradiotube]

10 meters has not been so good lately. At least for SSB. FT8 is still pretty good though.

[@user-lz6ih1jq8d]

Just one problem and its not even you are the reason. If for whatever reason ol Mother Nature decided not to be good to you and the 10 meter band is "shut down" then you wasted a trip. On the other hand IF you held a General or Extra class license then you are not stuck on one bad band. You could move to another band that is open, Trip not wasted then. Just another big reason to get a General or Extra license. N5LRZ

[@epnuzuluaga766]

This makes me want to take a soldering iron to my G90 and do the ole mars mod.

[@Davidjb37721]

Thanks 4 your help and time Ke4hpq