Activating POTA US-4571: Vertical TouCans Almost as Convenient as a KH1

Through a timing miscalculation, I found myself arriving early to my Cantonese class at City College San Francisco. I'd taken my time getting there, even stopping for dinner on Mission at the Recovery Room,

where some of the customers were carrying on about elections while others at the other end of the bar were avidly watching sports. Me? I was studying for my upcoming Cantonese quiz.

However, after taking time for a nice dinner, I still found myself on campus at 01:10 UTC. I studied for a bit, then decided I needed a break. I'd been out all day carrying TouCans around town in a tote sack with its new carbon fiber pole compacted down to two and a half feet or so.

Then, it occurred to me! Inspired by K4SWL's many Ham Radio Work Bench tales of activating parks while out running errands as well as W6CSN's treatises on activating parks in San Francisco with a KH1 and a vertical, I looked up the map for Juan Bautista National Historical Trail. Sure enough, it was located just across the street from my building on campus! I left my study notebook on the classroom table, grabbed my backpack and the rig's tote sack and headed out.

My first Reverse Beacon Network spot of the evening was at 01:52 UTC. That was only 18 minutes before my class was slated to begin. Then, I made my first QSO at 01:54 and began to reconcile myself that if I had to be a bit late, that was probably ok :)

So, how was the station set up you ask? Well, let me tell you. I laid TouCans on its side on the ground, took the 'positive' RF out wire and measured a length of wire up to the side of a sturdy sapling tree where I intended to mount the mast. The mast is a bit shorter than the length of resonant wire for TouCans on 14057.4 kHz, so it has to be mounted up to compensate.

I then got to work washi taping the antenna to the mast. The final step was to lash the mast to the top of the tree, (about four feet up), using black electrical tape. I'd learned over the last two days that TouCans was happiest with it's counterpoise in a bit of a jumble laying beside it, so that's what I did. I pulled out my laptop, turned on the radio using the keyer controlled WiFi on/off switch, and I was off and running!

I finished activating the park at 02:17 UTC, seven minutes after class started. I wound up being twenty minutes late for a three hour class. It was ok, I'd activated the park in 23 minutes! (Also, I passed both my quizzes!!!)

As an operational note, I've always been able to cut out most of the power supply and Pico-W keyer noise in TouCans by holding the Bluetooth audio transmitter in my hand, capacitatively coupling it through me to ground. That does me no good when the rig's in a dipole since I can't reach it. When the rig's on the ground though! I had a really nice, clean signal!

Here's the map of QSOs:

As usual, QSOs are denoted by blue markers while RBN spots are shown with red markers. By the way, 20 meters works better in the early evening most days here for me. There seems to be a Rocky Mountains cutoff during the daylight hours.

Here's a list of the QSOs

Callsign	tx RST	rx RST	Time (GMT)	Frequency
w0gop	569	579	2024/11/06 01:54:00	14057.4
k4mw	559	559	2024/11/06 01:57:00	14057.4
w4afb	559	559	2024/11/06 02:00:00	14057.4
wd5eei	339	449	2024/11/06 02:00:00	14057.4
ai7dk	339	449	2024/11/06 02:04:00	14057.4
wj7wj	339	229	2024/11/06 02:05:00	14057.4
ke8njw	339	559	2024/11/06 02:07:00	14057.4
wp4qgh	339	449	2024/11/06 02:09:00	14057.4
ni0ck	559	559	2024/11/06 02:11:00	14057.4
n5dux	339	559	2024/11/06 02:12:00	14057.4
n6gc	559	559	2024/11/06 02:16:00	14057.4
kf7zz	559	599	2024/11/06 02:17:00	14057.4

And finally, here's a wider look at how TouCans was set up.

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