Successfully Operating a Portable Amateur Radio Station

Successfully Operating a Portable Amateur Radio Station:
Reactions of NPOTA Activators

S. Joseph Levine, W8JRK
W8JRK@ARRL.NET

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Sample size

75 NPOTA Activators (out of a total population of 1492 Activators)

How selected

Activators with the most activations were included in the sample. The busiest Activator in the sample managed to put 503 NPS units on the air and the least active ones put 44 on the air. This was certainly an extremely experienced sample of portable station operators.

Table 1 - Number of Activations for Sample

Greatest number of Activations	Smallest number of Activations	Average activations per activator
503	44	116.7

Administration of the Study

The email address for each Activator was collected from QRZ.COM. An Activator with no listed email address was eliminated from consideration. Activators were sent a short email invitation (Appendix 1) that briefly explained the survey and requested their participation. A hot link was provided in the email that took them directly to the survey (Appendix 2 & 3). Only one mailing of the invitation was made and there was no attempt to follow-up with non-respondents.

Instrumentation

A survey was developed that consisted of 10 questions in two areas of inquiry (Appendix 3). The first area of inquiry, consisting of five questions, focused on the specific equipment they used. The second area of inquiry was subjective and included five questions asking for their thoughts/opinions related to the experience of operating a portable station. All responses were free form, they were not given any guidance for their response, and Activators were told they could use short or long answers and there was no "right" answer.

SurveyMonkey (www.surveymoney.com) was used as an online vehicle for administering the survey (a 10 question survey could be done for free). The selected Activators were informed that the collected data would be summarized in a draft report and sent to them for their reactions before being shared with anyone else (Appendix 2). It was also stated that the researcher was not associated with any manufacturer or organization and that no identities (call letters, names, etc.) would be used in the report. Data would be aggregated and findings would be reported anonymously.

Data collection and analysis

The email invitation was sent out on January 3, 2017 and data analysis began on January 26, 2017. A total of 58 (out of 75) Activators completed the survey by the time data analysis began. The response rate for the group was 77%.

Table 2 - Survey Return Rate

Invitations to Participate in Survey	Number of Surveys Submitted	Return Rate
75	58	77%

Responses to individual questions varied in length from just a word or two ("Portable", "SSB exclusively", "Just do it!!", etc.) to one respondent who wrote over 1,000 words in response to "What problems did you experience in your activation?"

Responses for each question were examined and discrete comments were extracted from the response and added to a listing. This meant that for a respondent with a short answer there might be only a single discrete comment added to the listing, whereas for others who provided a more extensive response a number of discrete comments were added.

Once all comments for a particular question were listed, similar comments were grouped and categorical names were identified to label each group.

Area of Inquiry 1 - Specific Equipment

Survey Question #1 - What type of transceiver did you use and how much power did you operate?

Table 3 - Types of Transceivers Used

	Yaesu		ICOM		Elecraft		Kenwood		Alinco		FLEX		TenTec		YouKits
	Model	#	Model	#	Model	#	Model	#	Model	#	Model	#	Model	#	Model	#
	FT857	12	IC7300	6	KX3	12	TS480	3	DX70	1	6700	1	Eagle	1	HB-1B	1
	FT817	5	IC706	4	KX2	2	TS570	1
	FT897	3	IC7000	3	K3	2	TS440	1
	FT450	2	IC7100	3			TS590	1
	FT60	1	IC718	2
	FT100	1	IC7200	2
	FT847	1	IC703	1
	FT991	1	IC746	1
			IC756	1
Total		26		23		16		6		1		1		1		1

Grand Total = 75 Transceivers (1.3 Transceivers/Activator)

Survey Question #2 - What type of antenna did you use most often and how was it supported?

Table 4 - Type of Antenna Used

Vehicle Mounted Vertical	Doublet, dipole inverted V with pole/tree	Center loaded vertical	Tripod supported vertical with radials	End fed long wire	Yagi/beam	Loop antenna on tripod	End fed dipole
38	16	13	11	6	5	4	3
Mag mount, screw-on	G5RV, dipole, inverted V	Buddipole, MP1 SuperStick	CrankIR, Wolf River Coil		Hexbeam, Spider Beam, Arrow II, SOTA beam	W4OP, Alex

Survey Question #3 - Which mode(s) did you use?

Table 5 - Mode Used

All/Mainly SSB	SSB & Some CW	SSB & CW	CW & Some SSB	All/Mainly CW	Some Digital	All Digital	Some FM (Satellite, 2M)
30	11	8	4	3	10	1	3

Combined Results:

SSB = 53
CW = 26
Digital = 11
FM = 3

Survey Question #4 - How would you best describe your NPOTA activation?

Table 6 - Type of Activation

Portable (Camping, Picnic Table, Fixed Mobile)	Mobile	Backpack (SOTA, Trail, Hiking)
44 (76%)	29 (50%)	11 (19%)

Survey Question #5 - What was your power source?

Table 7 - Type of Power Used

Battery Portable External	Battery Car/Vehicle	Battery Internal (contained in rig)	Solar	Generator
56 (97%)	16 (28%)	2 (3%)	11 (19%)	3 (5%)

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Area of Inquiry 2 - Thoughts/Opinions on Operating a Portable Station

Survey Question #6 - What problems did you experience during your activation?

Table 8 - Activation Problems

Survey Question #7 - What did you do to make your operation a success?

Table 9 - Strategies for Success

Survey Question #8 - If NPOTA were to happen again, what changes would you make in your portable operation?

Table 10 - If another NPOTA, what changes?

Survey Question #9 - What suggestions do you have for others who are about to operate portable?

Table 11 - Suggestions for Others Operating Portable?

Survey Question #10 - Other Thoughts/Comments

Table 12 - Other thoughts/comments

Summary and Conclusions

NPOTA Activators are a highly motivated group

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NPOTA Activators were very enthusiastic about the year of operating portable

having a good antenna system

most popular antenna was a vehicle mounted vertica

Having enough power available for a portable operation

Yaesu FT-857 and the Elecraft KX3

most popular mode was single sideband (SSB)

enjoyed operating from units of the National Park Service

rules, regulations, and staff of the NPS can make it difficult to effectively operate a radio station

be aware of all NPS rules and regulations and to make contact with the NPS Unit ahead of time. Sharing complete information with NPS staff

good planning

practice before leaving home

computers made sense since log data would be uploaded to LOTW

paper log provided insurance from a computer crash

social media was an excellent vehicle for boosting the productivity

having a friend prepared to spot your information

https://npota.arrl.org/

https://npota.arrl.org/nps-stats.php

https://npota.arrl.org/leader-board.php

⁴

https://facultyinnovate.utexas.edu/sites/default/files/response_rates.pdf

Appendix 1 - Email Invitation

Appendix 2 - Survey Introduction (surveymonkey.com)

Appendix 3 - Survey (surveymonkey.com)

NPOTA Activator Survey