What a lovely week. The first week in September was scorching and I could not resist getting out to work some portable radio. I decided to activate some POTA entities. I have 4 in easy reach. G-0070, G=0266, G-0271 and G-0040.
I have done G-0070 several times but it is always a lovely place to be and I have finally found a spot where I am not bothering the public and the aerials are out of the way. Morecambe Bay SPA Protected area covers the area around the edge of Morecambe Bay and has both Lancashire and Cumbria options. I have not done the Cumbrian one as yet. It is easy to activate from the car.
G-0266 and G-0271 are a 2fer. Leighton Moss SPA (and RSPB) Protected Area and Arnside and Silverdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. This is also easy to activate from the car. The ability to get a car to activations make is easy for disabled amateurs to join in with POTA. This inclusivity is one of the things I love about it.
G-0040 (Gait Barrows National Nature Reserve) is a little more tricky to find. I have previously attempted to activate this from the road but as Silverdale has a lot of rock, I could not get the ground I needed and I was a poor signal. I decided to do more research and found a lay-by to park the car and a gate giving access to the nature reserve.
It was a nice gentle little walk and I put the KX3 and BandHopper in the backpack with a small battery and a pad and pencil. The Tactical Mini pole sat nicely in the pole strap on my backpack.
I did not have any Internet and a very poor mobile signal at the roadside but I expected that I would have something when I was out in the open. This proved not to be the case. For information purposes I am on the 3 network. Next time, I will plan further ahead as I know where to go for the activation. I intend to walk a little more around this area at some point as well, it really is lovely.
One thing I will definitely take nest time is a groundsheet and a stool or lightweight camping chair. Getting down to the ground is simple enough but getting back up is starting to prove a little more problematical :)
I am also going to research the Knee Board idea. Postage from the States make the popular one over there really expensive, so time to check if anything is available over here or whether I can make one simply.
I really love doing POTA activations and I probably need to do some research around WWFF as well to increase the popularity of the activations. I also want to get a little further afield and find some more locations to operate from.
I have made a short video about my recent activations and you can find it below.
