POTA Activation Report: Columbus Lake — US-7129October 4, 2026

Well, apparently I decided that spending a beautiful Sunday evening sitting beside a lake and talking to complete strangers was a good idea.

Which, when you think about it, is pretty much the entire hobby.

Today’s POTA activation took me to Columbus Lake (US-7129), where I got the station set up, fired up the radio, and started making contacts at 22:05 UTC (17:05 local).

This was an SSB-only operation on 20 and 40 meters, using my homebrew POTA Performer with a 17-foot vertical whip. It looks a little like a fishing pole, but today it was catching something other than fish.

And, as usual, the radio did most of the talking.

The Power Situation

I started the activation at 100 watts.

About halfway through, the battery started getting a little grumpy, so I dropped down to 50 watts.

The interesting part?

The contacts just kept coming.

This leads me to believe the other 50 watts were primarily there for morale.

Either way, 50 watts got the job done just fine.

Conditions

The weather couldn’t have been much better.

Overcast skies, a light breeze coming off the lake, and comfortable temperatures.

No sunburn. No sweating. No complaints.

Basically, POTA weather.

I may have finally figured out that activating a park doesn’t have to involve slowly roasting yourself beside a radio.

By the Numbers

103 QSOs in 1 hour, 43 minutes

That’s an overall rate of 59.6 QSOs per hour, with a peak rate of 62.7 QSOs/hour.

• 20 meters: 64 QSOs
• 40 meters: 39 QSOs
• 35 of 50 states: 70%
• 7 DX entities
• United States: 93
• Canada: 5
• Puerto Rico: 1
• Dominican Republic: 1
• Italy: 1
• Alaska: 1
• Spain: 1

The reported average distance was 986 miles, with the longest contact showing up as a rather impressive 7,522 miles.

Which brings us to…

The Contact That Took a Wrong Turn

My longest reported contact was K7GPS, showing up at 7,522 miles.

Now, unless K7GPS has secretly relocated to China, I’m going to go out on a limb and say the mapping software may have had a small disagreement with reality.

The map actually plotted the contact toward China.

So we have two possibilities:

1. K7GPS has developed an absolutely ridiculous antenna system, or
2. The mapping software had a rough day.

I’m going with #2.

That probably means the 986-mile average distance is inflated too, so we’ll just call it “roughly far.”

Close enough for government work.

The Coolest Contact

Spain.

Without question.

I had to listen several times to pull the station out of the noise, and it took a few attempts before we finally got the QSO into the log.

But we got it.

And it was absolutely worth the effort.

There’s just something satisfying about hearing a station from Spain buried down in the noise, repeating yourself four times, wondering if you’ve completely lost your mind…

…and then seeing the QSO go into the log.

Victory.

The States Still Trying to Avoid Me

The map showed a pretty good spread across the country, especially through the Eastern Seaboard and Midwest.

But there are still a few states that apparently haven’t received the memo.

I’m still looking for:

AL, AR, CT, HI, KY, MA, MT, NE, NV, NH, ND, OK, SC, UT, and VT.

Consider this your polite notice.

I’m coming for you.

Eventually.

Probably with a fishing pole.

And Finally… The Hunters

A big THANK YOU to everyone who answered the call today, especially those who hung in there when the bands got a little noisy.

And thank you to everyone who kept the spotting information updated and helped get the word out.

I had a great time activating Columbus Lake, but the truth is, POTA doesn’t work without the hunters.

You can sit in a park with a radio, an antenna, a battery, and a perfectly good excuse to avoid mowing the grass…

…but it’s pretty difficult to have a pileup when nobody is on the other end.

So thank you for making the activation what it was.

103 contacts, two bands, seven DX entities, one questionable trip to China, and a whole lot of fun.

Not a bad way to spend a Sunday evening.

Get Outside. Get On the Air. Get in the Park. But most importantly, HAVE FUN and Keep it Simple!!

73,
KF5WZD — Chris