Alliteration aside, with my recent review of N6ARA’s TinyPaddle I noticed that I’ve started a collection of small, portable paddles. I thought it might be useful to do a quick comparison post for everyone’s reference.
Each brings something to the table that the others don’t, while sharing many similarities beyond just portability.
I’ll focus on physical characteristics only – how a paddle feels to a user is subjective, I really like each of these for different reasons, and as such your particular tastes may or may not align to mine.
The Paddles
(left to right) N6ARA TinyPaddle, N0SA SOTA Paddle, American Morse Ultra Porta Paddle, and the CW Morse Lightweight Double Paddle. Note that each square grid is 1″ x 1″ (25.4mm x 25.4mm).
I have purchased each of these for portable use and keep 2 of them in my bag each time I pack things up to leave the house. They are all small and light enough that having a backup means that I don’t have to stop playing radio if something breaks (and to date none have – I’m just paranoid).
NOTE: I am using my cheap set of calipers and a kitchen scale, and as such all measurements are close enough but perhaps not precise.
Yesterday I took my sons with me to camp at a local State Park that we hadn’t been to before.
Frontenac State Park (POTA K-2484) is approximately 1 hour south of my QTH in a sparsely populated area along the St. Croix river which forms the boundary between Minnesota and Wisconsin.
It is a beautiful park that is atop a forested rise that sits above farmlands and the river on the east.
We reserved the group camp site and invited a couple of friends and their kids to come along, and I – of course – brought my radio gear in the hopes of doing a second successful POTA activation.
Arriving in the afternoon, and with it being November in Minnesota, the sun sets quickly and earlier with each passing week. The weather was getting colder and the wind was quite gusty, making the cool fall temperature feel much colder than it was. We set about getting tents setup and getting some dinner, and waited for our friends to arrive. While we waited, I got things setup.
I took the opportunity to bring my Lab599 Discovery TX-500 radio which had only been used from home since my acquisition in August of this year. I also brought my LnR Precision Mountain Topper 4 v2 for the same reason, hoping to get both of them on the air outdoors.
My 15 year old son making faces at me as I take a picture of my setup. Thanks son! You can see both the TX-500 in the center, and the N0SA paddle in the lower right.
I paired the two radios with a QRP Guys Tri-band Vertical which was supported by a 20ft (6m) Jackite telescopic pole.
New to me for this activation was a N0SA SOTA Paddle – an ultra-miniature paddle that is produced in very small lots by N0SA. This thing is tiny, but it is superbly constructed and a solid performer.
I called CQ once in order to get RBN to spot me and hoping to get the https://www.pota.app spots to pick up RBN and get me on the list (I scheduled a spot window before leaving). I was picked up in Arizona and California on 20m.
Immediately I had K7GT in Oregon come back and that kicked off a 20 minute back and forth. Allan was most patient with me as my fingers became increasingly numb and my fist became increasingly bad. Being a new CW operator meant that I also had to have him repeat things sometimes.
In the end, I had to call it quits as even with some thin gloves on I couldn’t reliably work the paddle any longer. The wind was gusting to 20+ mph (32kph or so) and with lower temps it was cutting straight through the wool.
I packed up the radios after a single contact and settled down by the fire with friends and my sons and enjoyed the warmth provided by both. We slept that night serenaded by the local coyotes while the raccoons scratched around the picnic table next to us looking for any crumbs left behind from dinner.
While I would have greatly enjoyed completing an activation of this park, I had to pack up early this morning to return home – something that I had known before I left the day before.
All in all this was another learning experience as all endeavors are; first of all I need to come up with a solid fall/winter POTA plan to deal with the cold and remain on the air, and secondly that even though it didn’t go as planned the experience was worth it nevertheless. I had logged a great contact with K7GT and had a good time with my boys.
Time with my sons is never wasted. 🙂
Some more pictures from a great getaway.
BedtimeA very large group campsite that included two pavilions and nobody else for a quarter of a mileSunrise peeking out through the trees
It is probably a common one amongst hams but it takes significant amount of time, effort, and resources in my spare time.
……
I like to create/build/home brew things. Like…all the time.
Its a sickness (or so my wife thinks).
Anyway.
I have had a QRP Guys Portable Tri-band Vertical kit for a while, and it is a great kit that is easy to assemble and works great. It is small, lightweight, and provides 20/30/40 meter coverage. Run the radiating element up a collapsible pole and you’ve got a field antenna that sets up quickly.
Since I was raised an “Army Brat” and it was drilled into me from an early age that “two is one, one is none”, I never stop at having just one POTA/SOTA vertical antenna system.
My Super Antenna, CHA MPAS Lite, Buddistick, Wolf River Coils Silver Bullet, and others can attest to that.
I might have another problem – antenna addition!
After having spent some time researching options, I decided on the following factors being important to me:
No kit – I’ve done multiple kits and while I enjoy them and will still do more in the future, I wanted to build something more “DIY” than that
Lightweight
Multi-band (Ideally 20/30/40/60/80)
Most parts (if not all) are already in my possession amongst my surplus of wires, connectors, and such
Inexpensive in case I do have to buy anything (i.e. less than $10 USD) out of pocket (not including what I have already purchased for past projects)
Occupy some degree of free time 😉
I then settled on wanting a tapped coil design that would allow me to play with the tuning to find the sweet spots per band, and after looking at various home brewed ideas, I found SA2CLC‘s Vertical Antenna Loading Coil on Thingiverse.
Printing the Parts
It checked all of the boxes above and, after downloading the STL files, I begun printing the coil form and mounts. I have a couple of printers, but find that my Flashforge Adventurer 3 provides the most consistent ABS prints for me. I’m not a fan of the constrained print area of this printer, but it does do a good job at whatever I throw at it.
The photo above is about 90% complete. I have to give SA2CLC a lot of credit for an elegant design. No supports are needed to print this model, and it is well laid out and logical. Great work!
I chose to use ABS and printed the parts at 50% infill at standard quality. My goal here was to have a balance between weight and strength, with ABS widely used in products where durability matters.
About 15 hours later I had three parts; the coil form itself, and two mounts which allow you to affix the coil to a telescopic pole.
Upon completion of the print, I immediately realized a mistake on my part – I chose ABS for all of the parts, and the two mounts require some flex in the prongs so that they can be inserted into the body of the coil.
ABS doesn’t like to flex like some other plastics do, and I quickly snapped one prong off of the first piece I tried to insert into the coil, so I kicked off another print of just the mounts using PETG. That is what SA2CLC used and posted to his model page on Thingiverse.
That is another problem I have – reading the directions!
I then sent off a print to my Creality Ender 3 (I don’t have the higher temp nozzle to allow for PETG prints on the Flashforge – yet) and within a couple of hours had two new mounts that won’t break on me.
Assembling the Coil
In addition to the ABS/PETG printed parts, I used the following materials:
1.25″ non-insulated alligator clips
SO239 chassis mount connectors
18 gauge aluminum wire
6-32 machine screws and nuts
4mm binding post connectors
short length of 18 gauge wire to connect the center plug of the SO239 to the coil
ring terminals
aluminum tape (see below)
I followed the excellent YouTube video that the creator posted as a part of his model. The two places that I deviated slightly was first in connecting the ground for the SO239 to the binding post connectors. Why? I had seen this used in other projects online and had been wanting to apply it to a project of mine for a while, so I went ahead and added it here. Time will tell if this is effective or not, or even if it will stay put or not.
UPDATE: I found some thin sheet metal from some ducting work I had done previously that I decided would be more durable than the aluminum tape shown in the next photo. I cut out a piece that is roughly the same dimensions as what is shown below. As before, we’ll see how effective this is over time.
You can see the white PETG mounts on the bottom of the coil – one left and one right.
The second deviation was the use of another 6-32 machine screw and wingnut for the radiating element connection instead of a binding post as in the creator’s design. As with the aluminum tape, I may change that out but I’ve used wingnuts on multiple antennas and find them to be solid connections that are still quick to add/remove wires to. That is especially true when the wires use spade connections.
We’ll see how it goes in the field.
Stay tuned for Part 2 – Assembly and Initial Testing
After last weekend’s failure to activate Afton State Park (K-2466), I decided to take my learnings and head back out to the park.
This time I chose to record the session so that I could go back and review. As a new CW operator, this is invaluable and I’ve done it at home with just an audio recorder to check my progress and blind spots – I highly recommend doing so.
I chose 20 meters and had 10 contacts within about 30 minutes of being setup.
Anyway, here is the video:
For reference, here is what I took with me:
Elecraft KX3
Chameleon Antenna MPAS Lite w/coax and necessary BNC adapter
Elecraft KXPD3 Paddle
Bioenno 4.5Ah Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery (overkill for what the KX3 draws)
Sony ICD-UX570 Audio Recorder
Pencil and Paper for recording QSOs
iPhone 12 for POTA spotting, RBN, etc.
Goruck GR1 for hauling everything
Elecraft AX1 as a backup antenna
Here is what RBN saw on 20m:
And here is a map of the QSOs I logged on 20m:
A great day in a beautiful part of my home state in all the glory of fall colors.
I just completed the CWOps Basic Course and decided to take my new and improved CW skills (or lack thereof) to the field
Afton State Park (K-2466) is the closest state park in my part of the Twin Cities suburbs, so I packed up my KX3 and Wolf River Coils vertical and headed out the door this morning.
A beautiful early fall day awaited me along the St. Croix river which forms the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin.
After arriving, I quickly setup my Wolf River Coils antenna which had already been tuned from earlier use for 40m. This was mistake number 1 – knowing that 40m is not particularly great for mornings, I chose convenience over propagation.
Live and learn.
I setup the radio on a park bench close to the pavilion and restrooms area in the above picture. Being fall, I had to first cleanup the walnut husks the local squirrels dissected and left everywhere. Without thinking I sat down on the bench and didn’t think about the walnut oils which make excellent stains.
Mistake number 2.
I only called CQ for a couple of minutes before I had my first contact – KA0WKG gave me a 579 in Colorado. I started to think that maybe 40m wouldn’t be too bad today and I might get this activation done in no time.
Mistake number 3.
It was another 30 minutes of calling CQ before I landed another QSO. I did have one station come in between the first and second, but after giving a signal report they mysteriously vanished with no report back to me, so I’m not counting that one.
K9IS in next-door Wisconsin came in with a 559.
Another 20 minutes before my third and final completed QSO for the morning happened, with K0NIA in Iowa (also next door) providing a crisp 599.
With time running out for me today, I packed up and headed down the road towards home. Activated or not, it was a great day to get out of the house among the trees while still enjoying a great hobby.
Wolf River Coils 80-10m Vertical
So lessons learned:
Be ready and willing to change bands in order to match the conditions. This is obvious and something that I recognized at the start, but chose convenience instead – especially after getting the first QSO in short order.
A longer wire antenna or even a taller vertical might have increased my ability to both get out and be heard. RBN wasn’t showing great propagation for me – even at full output on the KX3.
kd0hbu 