Self-Spotting a Parks on the Air Activation via Winlink

March 24, 2023

If you find yourself in an area that has no cell phone service and need to spot yourself for a POTA (Parks on the Air) activation, here’s how you can get yourself spotted via Winlink.  Obviously, you need a Winlink gateway to get to, so Vara HF will probably work the best in this situation.

Compose a message in your Winlink Express client.

TO: potagw@outlook.com
SUBJECT: SPOT {your callsign} {park designator} {mode} {frequency} {any comments}

Example: SPOT KM6ZPO K-TEST 14321 K-TEST SSB 20230324 @ 0925

Don’t add anything to the message body.

If you did this correctly. two things …

Continue Reading →

ISS SSTV Transmissions April 1-2, 2019

March 29, 2019
If you’re in the Southern California area, tune your ham radio to frequency 145.800 between 10PM to 10:15PM PST and have your mobile app ready to listen for a chance at capturing SSTV images from cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station. The satellite moves quickly from the north just above Oregon to the south near Houston, Texas.

Continue Reading →

APRS-IS vs. GPS

April 29, 2019
Yesterday I put APRS-IS to the test in the mountains on the San Juan Trail, located a few miles way from Ortega Highway 74. In this area there are no digipeaters close enough for RF transmissions, so I tested the SPRINT cellular network to see if I could be tracked in real time (KM6ZPO).

Continue Reading →