It’s 1973 and you want weather images from one of the only six satellites up there at the time? Better build yourself a dish out of chicken wire so your neighbors can come knocking for the latest forecast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EYntanZS1M

On my way to the airport I squeezed in yet another #POTA activation, this time at #US7493 Candlestick Point State Recreation Area north of the airport.
It took way longer than I had hoped to get to the 10 contacts, but I did complete the activation and made it to the airport just in time to check my luggage. 😅

Today I sneaked off early again from the office to go to #US7375 Cowell Ranch SB for my last #POTA activation on this trip.

I did a very quick after hours #POTA activation of #US3482 Natural Bridges SB. This time directly on the beach, since there weren’t too many people around and I also wanted to enjoy the sunset here.

After stopping by at the SCCARC #wfd location, I drove to #US3574 Sunset Beach, a new park for me.
The location was a recommendation from one of the SCCARC members and a good location. However, initially I set up too far down the hill and used a new, untested mic for the FX-4CR. Apparently I put mic into overdrive and also competing with field day stations for space on the band made the activation rather slow and strenuous. Not to mention that W6/ in front of my call often leads to confusion.

Looks like there will be another, "YL POTA (Parks-on-the-Air) Party" this year on International Women's Day, March 8th 2026!

#AmateurRadio #HamRadio #hamr #ParksOnTheAir #POTA #radio #YL #YLRL #InternationalWomensDay #WomensDay #March8 #March8th #YLPOTA #YLPOTAParty #YL_POTA_Party

@bud_t maybe was an option?! 😅
Thanks to FFWN I realized that I’m arriving in California Saturday night of field day. I am thinking about potentially stopping by one of the clubs that is participating on Sunday, but I’m not sure… so N.

@warteschleife in Deutschland auf der Straße? Ich dachte die wären hier (zum Glück) nicht zugelassen.

@ian which luckily seems like an easy fix.

@DK4HAA looks like I visited at the wrong times or missed out by going straight to T-92 🫣

@DK4HAA what did I miss out on in the basement? 🫣

@df9hc we debated that before congress in #chaoswelle Matrix, but a separate qrg would likely lead to less activity, since most people don’t have a dedicated radio for #SSTV and just use acoustic coupling with smartphones.

The protocol of “this is <call>, in <nn> seconds I’ll send SSTV in <mode>” wasn’t really followed this year and worked better last year. That heads-up usually allows folks to prepare their SSTV apps or turn down the volume. Maybe that’s something to formalize in the rules.

@stk @yetzt @geheimorga also fürs #TOTA haben wir vorgelegt.

@ian @DL6PL @DK4HAA do you know the numbers for late shift and FLINTA?

@ian yeah, I think they did. For each of the three 12 UTC activations, we had >10 participants. I don’t know the exact numbers for the late shift and the FLINTA activation, but IIRC the FLINTA group had a similar size.

It was especially satisfying to see trainees from previous years saying ‘hi’ at the assembly, some with their own callsign now.

Die #Chaoswelle war auf dem #39c3 und wir hatten sehr viel Besuch mit Rufzeichen… #amateurfunk #hamradio

Thank you @ian for integrating #TOTA into https://spothole.app and https://fieldspotter.radio. It was a nice surprise when I saw you coming up with the idea for it, very quickly followed by the solid implementation.

Thank you for building and maintaining the #SSTV posting bot @tota and for lending the domain @DH5GH.

Thank you to all the #TOTA participants from #39c3. You all activated modes and bands than in previous years.
While your memory is fresh, I’m happy to collect feedback on things that could be improved for future events.

tnx fer #TOTA cw qso @dj4ram, @DH5NN, @dc1tc, @jz, @DL0TUH, @df9hc 73 00

Were there any other cw operators at this year's TOTA I did not get in the log?