ETH016 - NPOTA

Everything Ham Radio Podcast

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Everything Ham Radio Podcast! In this episode we are going to continue our series dealing with things to do on HF with National Parks On The Air(NPOTA).

The NPOTA is a year-long event that is celebrating the National Parks systems Centennial. As an amateur radio operator you can either activate a national park or make contact with someone who has activated a national park or both. ‘

• NPOTA Activators Guide – This guide has a lot of information in it about “activating” a national park, how to work with the park rangers, bonuses that you can get and much more.
• NPOTA for NPS Staff – This is a tri-fold flyer that you can print to give to the National Park staff in order to help you explain what you plan on doing in the park, if they have never heard of amateur radio. If the staff is “on the fence” about letting you set up in the park, this flyer could put them over to the yes column
• NPOTA/SOTA Map – This is a map of all the eligible National Parks and Summits that are available for activation.
• ARRL NPOTA – Check out this page for all the rules, FAQ, List of all the NPOTA sites, and lots of other stuff
• Official NPOTA Website – Official NPOTA website with the leaderboard, Honor Roll and other things. This site you can log into with your LOTW login and see where you stand in the rankings

Equipment

• PackTenna – A great little antenna that fits great in a backpack or small bag
• Go Kits – Check out my previous podcast episode #11 for information about go packs
• K0MOS SOTA kit – Check out this write-up about his SOTA setup.
• Remember you can also activate a National pack from your vehicle or any radio that you may have available as long as you can get power to it.

More Than Safe Blog

My wife has started her very own blog describing our journey through the foster care system and things that happen to us and how we dealt with the situation. Some things may just be foster care related but some of the stuff can be used as just general parenting. If you are a parent or are interested in learning a little bit about the foster care system, please check out her blog at MoreThanSafe.com. If you like what you see, subscribe to her email list to get notifications on when she puts up something new.

Packtenna Giveaway

A couple of weeks ago, I reached out to George with Packtenna to talk to him about this episode. I was trying to see about getting a coupon code, or an affiliate link with them. He instead has agreed to donate one of their new PackTenna Mini’s(an $89 value) to one lucky listener of this podcast.

So here is how it is going to work. Over this episode and next weeks episode I will give you a phrase that you will need to put in the subject line of an email. I am not going to put that phrase on the show notes, you will have to listen to the episode to get that. Send an email to [e-mail] with that phrase in the subject line and your name and call sign in the body of the message. As I receive those emails, I will put them on a number list in the order that I got them. On April 15, 2016, I will use a random number generator to randomly select a number. The person with the corresponding number will be the winner. Since this drawing is going over two weeks, you will have two chances to win this drawing.

Supporting Everything Ham Radio

I first off want to thank Cody Williamson, KG5CEW for the $10 donation that he sent me this past week. It is greatly appreciated! Secondly, I wanted to let yall know of something else that I was made aware of from one of yall. I received an email from one of my listeners who suggested I sign up for a service call Patreon. This service allows creators, like me, to set up an account with them and allows the people who enjoy the content to help support them, either on a monthly basis or per episode basis.

I have set up the account and have it live now. You can find it at http://www.everythinghamradio.com/patreon/. I have set up subscription levels at $1, $5, $10 and $25 a month. This is a totally voluntary basis and all my content that is free will remain free. Each level has its own rewards that you will receive as well, and I will be adding rewards in the near future.

Amateur Radio Club Spotlight

Fort Wayne Radio Club

Website: http://www.fwrc.info

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FortWayneRadioClub

Meetings:

3rd Friday of the Month at 7:00pm at the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church; 4700 Vance Ave, 46815

Nets:

• 6m AM Net – Thursdays at 8pm on 50.580 MHz
• 6m SSB Net – Tuesdays at 8pm on 50.580 MHz
• Allen County ARES Digital Operations Team Training Net – Thursdays, 8:30 p.m. ET, 145.51 MHz simplex. Net starts using BPSK-31 and switches to BPSK-250 after roll call to pass traffic etc. NBEMS suite of software (FLDIGI, FLMSG, and FLAMP) is preferred.
• Allen County ARES Training Net – Tuesdays, 9 p.m. ET, 146.94 MHz
• Fort Wayne-Area Student Net – Wednesdays, 9 p.m. ET, 146.91 MHz
• FW224 Net – 224.78 MHz repeater every Monday at 8 p.m.
• FWRC 6 Meter Net – Tuesdays, 8 p.m. ET, 50.580 MHz USB
• FWRC YL Net – Wednesdays, 7 p.m. ET, 146.76 MHz
• Help and Swap Net – Wednesdays, 9 p.m. ET, 146.94 MHz
• IMO Traffic Net – Daily, 6:30 p.m. ET, 146.88 MHz (or 146.76 MHz if the 146.88 MHz repeater is unavailable). Local net of the ARRL National Traffic System.
• “No-Name” Net – Sundays and Wednesdays, 8:30 p.m. ET, 1.965 MHz or via cross-band link on 146.91 MHz

Repeaters

• 146.760 – 141.3 Optional Tone – Northern Fort Wayne
• 146.940 – 141.3 Optional tone – Northeast Fort Wayne – ARES – Autopatch
• 146.910 – 141.3 Optional Tone – Northeast Fort Wayne – Echolink Node 519521
• 442.99375 + No Tone – Downtown Fort Wayne – DStar Repeater
• 444.875 + 141.3 Tone – Northern Fort Wayne
• Activities
• Monthly Fox Hunts
• Field Day
• Mastodon Stomp
• Juvenile Walk for Diabetes
• Heart Walk
• March of Dimes