Today , crikey , we're deep diving in the bush looking for a spot to activate Yep . We're going to talk about challenges of activating wildlife preserves and trail systems in POTA . Next on Live Free and Ham . Hello and welcome to the Live Free and Ham podcast .
This is our bi-weekly show , during which we discuss ham radio topics in New Hampshire , new England and beyond . So whether you're a regular listener or first time guest , we are excited to have you here and appreciate your support and thanks again for tuning in tonight's episode . So let's get into the show .
I'm your host , eric call sign N1JUR , and I'm always with my wonderful co-hosts .
Hey , it's Paul N1OG .
And I'm Todd W1STJ .
And we are ramped up tonight , all tonight , alright , so before we get into the topic , as always , we like to get you caught up on a few things again .
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And so with , as always , our regular segment Doing good , good Doing good you do , that's good .
Do good , do good .
You're doing good .
Good , good , good , good , good , absolutely . I do Good , good . I'm doing good , bob , doing real good , and right now my only outlet is my ham radio .
All right . So this week we are going to share something again from our own club here that we love to be a part of the Grand State Amateur Radio Association . They have been doing some awesome stuff and so if you're in the New England area and you're looking for a club to join in , these guys and gals are a great bunch of people .
We are getting teamed up with the 4-H Fair organization and we're going to be starting doing some really cool stuff with them . They are getting out there . We're teaching people about ham radio .
We're sharing everything we can about poda and ham radio and HF and VHF and anything that people want to hear , and so we're going to be probably at a 4-H event in September and they're going to be there as a club showing people all about ham radio and doing some seminars .
So if your club is sort of like that and you do those things out in your community , we want to hear about them . We want you to share that with us and you can do that a simple way , just by sending us an email at livefreeandham at gmailcom and show us how your club's doing good . As simple as that . Whatever the event's going on , we want to share it .
We want you guys to be a part of it . We want to spread the word , spread the love and let everybody know that there are good clubs out there doing some great stuff . And if you're one of those bad clubs , then again send all your email to Paul . He'll gladly recycle that in the appropriate manner . Alright , well , with that , as always , let's get into .
We're going to be skipping , I should say we won't be getting into our regular segment . Todd is taking a little hiatus to get geared up on his question pool there . We won't be able to see him in a dress like Vanna . So yeah , todd , what do you have to say for yourself ? Do we have to take you ?
to Ham Court , maybe the next one . I'll be ready to go , maybe . Okay , I'll work on it .
I'll work on it , that'll be September .
It'll be September . No , it'll be sooner than that . I hope so . The next podcast . We'll be ready to go . I'll start studying . You guys should send me reminders . Have you studied your extra yet ?
You heard , so like send me reminders . Have you studied your extra yet you heard ? So you can email him at w1stjnh at gmailcom and send him many reminders over and over again feel free , motivate .
Motivate me to do it . Yeah , I have adhd , you know . I say , oh , yeah , I have it on my to-do list . I honestly have it on my to-do list , but it's always like the next morning it was like study for your extra . It was like the next morning it was like study for your extra . It was like yesterday , the day before . So I got to keep up .
Motivation by spam . That works great . We'll flood Gmail like I've never seen before . All right , well . So with that we are going to dive into our usual . This is our segment we call what's your Ham Radio Week and so , paul , in usual fashion , what's your ham radio week been ?
Well , so ham radio week has been relatively quiet , although I will say I watched one of Steve KM9G with the hat right KM9G . He had this really cool multimeter and I really , really liked it and so I ordered it , and let me tell you that , working on the boat , this thing is amazing .
Right , dude , I did see that you bought it it is amazing .
It is so small and compact , it fits right in your pocket and it's accurate . It automatically detects the difference between a millivolt and a full volts and and it'll automatically adjust everything for you Like . Super happy with that purchase , so thanks , steve .
Nice , cool . Well , that's always good when that happens . I know , uh , I saw that and I started to watch it and then I got sidetracked and I was like I got to get back to that .
So pretty , pretty good multimeter , right oh absolutely yeah , 100% for a , for a pocket device that you're going to carry around with you , it's perfect .
So do me a favor , leave that in the notes , and I'm definitely gonna have to pick that up because , just in , in usual podcast fashion , we're gonna follow suit with , uh , the ham radio workbench and make sure that you you spend my money and todd's money if we can eventually figure out how he can incorporate that into his deck building skills .
So cool , all right . Well , that sounds like great . Yeah , I'm definitely always game for a multimeter , I know I . I always need one out in the field and never have one with me . So good on that one . All right , todd . So how has your ham radio week been ?
uh , pretty non-productive . Uh , just working on my deck should have it done by hopefully the end of the week , maybe wednesday , okay , I'll say friday , um got some base , got some baseball coming up , so we got a game tuesday and then , uh , friday , saturday , sunday games .
We're in a tournament so what's the deal with the antennas , though ? You know , have you made any trenching at all , any of that stuff at all , and nothing . It's been on the bed .
When the duck gets , when the deck gets done , I'll have to start . Yeah , okay , all right . Well , you heard it here . I had it all . I had it all cleared out and it was looking good . And then I don't know what happened . Spring came and it just overgrown again , so I gotta go take it to the weed whacker .
But uh , yeah , I can't tell you one thing that happened while I was on vacation that I wanted to I didn't bring up in the last podcast , is my buddy pole pro . I've been using it and I swear , right , that's my . It is awesome antenna Like . If you're looking for a potent antenna , you should go check that one out .
Well , yeah , I know you don't like , I love it . But I tuned the antenna . I set it up based on what I know about my antenna and what it does and how it gets finicky , and set it all up . I set the raised aerial , got at the right height , the right length . It's not right on the pin , it's a little bit out .
Put the uh , the whip just down a , maybe half an inch . I go back to the car . I set up the swr meter 1.3 for a shot . I was like now , that is awesome . So I know that , I know my antenna , I know how and I've been getting really good at not even needing that meter .
I mean , I check it with the meter , but I've , I've been pretty and that's the best I've gotten it without no fudging it .
So that was kind of cool wasn't the time that you actually were on the 10 meter band that we were activating that park down in um , I can't remember where it was or it was in where right that you had . You got it down to like 1.1 . I thought on the 10 meter band , yeah , yeah but that's , that's after .
That was after I was going back and forth . I'm talking this is like without even checking it first time . First time first time you know , so I'm trying to get it down the best I can get it . So I got it down to one . That's my record .
Well they , you know what the saying is a blind squirrel gets a nut every once in a while , right ?
But the perfect POTA antenna doesn't need to be tuned at all .
Oh , that's a stab in the back . That's a man that's going to be scored next time he goes out and plays Poeta , because any of his antennas are not going to tune , no matter what for him .
I'll show you better .
Resonance my ass .
When we go to that park in Milford I'll bring my antenna , just in case yours don't want to work right , Because I't want to work right , Because I know mine will work right .
And listen that antenna , as much as people don't like it or like it , but that antenna saved Eric and I from getting a park , Because when he bought the hex beam the wires weren't cut right and it didn't work . And I'm like you know what . We just spent an hour and a half putting this sucker up .
We're getting this park and brought it out and it worked now , sadly , in the long shot of that that whole ordeal , we could have still used the antenna without the four , the 20 meter element , but then we would only be on 10 , 15 and 17 .
But yeah , whatever that behind us now oh good , it's a , it's a , it's a nice compact , good antenna it's nice and compact .
It sits under here in my desk all the time . I haven't taken it out yet . I was that . I bought it from paul , so you know , just like paul has had it , he used it for once , tucked it away , sold it to me and then I put it underneath my desk and I haven't used it ever since . No , I used it once when I went to .
Maine , if anyone's watching this , has that antenna , the BuddyPole Pro . Leave us a comment , help me out here . Let them know that it's a really good antenna and it's great for polar .
Dude , mike N2MAK solved your problem . He fixed his friend's BuddyPole Pro and he works 7200 on it . So you know there's proof in the pudding . So there's a video already in there . You know . It's already got the proof , you know . So you're in the clear .
That was a great video I'll give you that your antenna is great ?
Yeah , it was , it was totally awesome and I've brought that antenna everywhere it's been in Arkansas , louisiana , mississippi , north Carolina , virginia , all these places . I have to go Florida a bunch of times . Been to Wally World .
Yeah , so yeah , mike did an awesome video . If you aren't a subscriber of Mike N2MAK's channel , head over there , check that Buddy Polo video out . I was thoroughly impressed and you know I can't say anything bad . I mean he was wearing Liffrey and Ham . There's no doubt in my mind . I mean , you know , he just knows the right stuff to wear .
It's as simple as that . So well , we can thank him for that I did like his elevated radial holder . Dude that was smart . I love that . That was like the little like uh , what we use for driveway markers . Yeah , yeah , that was slick , totally that . Yeah , I would say that good god well , I've used .
You know , the first thing I used for mine was a tent stake , right , but you can't travel with that , so then I was using really you might get pat down really I don't think I could bring in a metal spike onto the plane . Uh , so then I got creative and I was using my , my luggage , um , and I would hook with a carabiner .
I would take the handle of the luggage , move it up and down and carabiner the thing on . And I was like , well , I don't always bring luggage , like sometimes if I'm doing just like an overnight or I just bring my poda bag and throw a change of clothes in it . So then I found out that I have a tripod with that extends .
Oh yeah , I see , in my bag it's like a selfie stick that turns into a tripod and I use that and it's been the best . So it fits in my backpack , it's all done . I was like , how am I ? I had to come up with something and then one day I was doing the camera thing . I'm like , hey , I got this tripod , why don't I just use this ? And it worked .
So that's what I use . It fits right inside of my bag , it's compact , goes up .
Adjusts . Now , if anybody from BuddyPole is watching right , just if they could figure out how to take , uh , something that is the same diameter as as the driveway marker and shock cord it so that it could be folded up into the bag . Then you've got the perfect kit of it right yeah , that's .
The one thing it doesn't come with is how to put the to raise there . And I'm telling you the little it's what was it ? Like what is that thing it's't come with is how to put the , the raise there . And I'm telling you the little it's . What was it like ? What is that thing ? It's like 20 bucks on amazon .
It's nothing and it's well worth it and it's been great because I've just once I started using that . That's all I use .
I don't even use the spike anymore I don't even know what mine is since we're already on gratuitous you know uh , you know uh . Promotional uh , you know promotional review items . If BuddyPole is ever going to finish that Bluetooth little rotator device that plugs on this , we're more than happy to test it .
As a club and or myself , I am all for the fact that I can control my phone from a little Bluetooth device that rotates our BuddyHex . Because I am lazy , as you know , I won't use the explicit of there , but I don't want to have to walk 10 feet in the other direction to be able to turn , my , rotate my antenna to go west to east , to north to south .
You know , come on , I'm more than willing to . You know , we'll QA to death , we'll break it on purpose and tell you how to fix it .
So you know , send it one this way , I'm very good at breaking things so Send it one this way , I'm very good at breaking things .
We all are yeah , for sure 100% All right .
Well , so with my ham radio week I've got some interesting stuff going on . The first one I am revamping my beach poda kit . If you've seen the video on my channel , I started my version 1.0 . I modified it a bit because I'm trying to adapt um more of a vertical because of what I've determined , at least in a beach scenario .
If I'm going to take this with me and set up in a beach , uh , on a beach , I need something more . That's kind of compact , vertical and less wire , because you know it takes a little bit of space to get a good intent up there .
And and putting a you know 10 meter mast in in , you know , hoping you don't kill anybody around you , uh , is probably a challenge . I don't want to , you know kind of take on . So I've , uh , I've ordered a uh res antenna , um , uh ground spike , a antenna bits and bobs there . So I'm going to go to vertical and try to incorporate my coil from Mad Dog .
I'm going to bring the 40 with me and kind of compact that down into my bag . So I'll have a little bit more of an update on that , hopefully in the channel after I get back from vacation end of July , maybe early August on that . So that'll be fun . But then at the same time I finally got confirmation . Actually I got a couple of things .
I finally got confirmation . So Rez and Tana will be sending us their 80 . So I'll be getting one soon . So that means you know , us three we're going to have to find a time to get together , you know , do a little whisper testing of the back-to-back-to to back of the Wolf River coil 80 or the , the silver bullet 80 , the mad dog 80 and the res 80 .
And we're , all you know , get together . We're all going to do whisper tests real time and see which antenna actually fares pretty well in a , you know , head to head to head tests . So that's coming up soon . So I'm looking forward to that . It'll be fun to hang out with these guys and do those tests , these guys and do those tests .
So keep an eye on my channel and we'll definitely , you know , talk about it , I'm sure , in a future episode of our podcast .
Do we have to give the resin ton of back ?
Yeah , Well , so here's . We'll still talk off the air , I don't want to mention it , but we'll . We'll see what we can do about , you know , maybe making that you gotta buy it , so yeah that may be it , but you know maybe making that you got to buy it so yeah , that may be it , but you know , now that you have one you don't have to pay shipping .
So you know , simple as that . So that . And then I have been working on a secret squirrel project with one of my club members , casey1nid those that are familiar obviously with the Wilford Recoil and K9VBR's baggage carpet . I'm doing a little bit of a different version with that .
We kind of brainstormed and came up with a real cool idea of how to , you know , enhance the magic carpet a bit .
So we're coming up with a couple of designs and hopefully , once we finish some of the you know secret , you know testing that we're doing with it , that we'll have one to kind of maybe show and I'll put on the channel and we'll definitely show here and you know see how it goes . But it's looking pretty cool . So I'm a little excited .
I don't want to let too much out of the bag . I'll let these guys know off air , but you know I can trust them that you know nothing will , you know , escape out into the ether , um , but uh , keep an eye out for that . And so I'm looking forward to , uh , you know , play around with that new little project and having some fun there .
But I haven't done much on the uh , you know , the the HF front I think we had mentioned last episode was , um , the 4th of July uh , 13 colonies I think I did two or three , didn't really do much in there and I was kind of the bands were tough but I just didn't really have the drive or the motivation to want to hunt them down and I was like I'll
make a few here and there and I know we had a couple of good friends of ours do actually be K2K or actual folks that are part of the colonies there . So we'd love to probably get Tim on and maybe one day have him discuss his feelings and how he did it , because he was pretty psyched about it .
When I talked to him last and he was literally we were at a club meeting , I think it was last Saturday , and he was like hey , does anybody need K2K ? Because I can whip up my two meter and we could do simplex and I'll give you a contact there I'm like yeah , if I was really that motivated I would say , sure , go ahead , let contact .
There I'm like , yeah , if I was really that motivated , I would say , sure , go ahead , let's make that happen . So , yeah , thanks for Tim for being that gracious in that sense . So all good , so all right , cool . Well , you know , as we always do , this week we are talking again about our favorite topic , pota .
We always love to , you know , get better , as we always get a chance to get out and activate , but at the same time , you know , we felt that you know , get better , as , uh , we uh always get a chance to get out and activate , but at the same time , you know , we felt that , you know , one of the things that we haven't seen a lot of people talk about
or discuss is some of those parks that , you know , don't kind of quite fit the typical state park type mold . So we're talking about wildlife areas , we're talking about trail systems and then we're talking , you know , a little bit about flora and fauna .
And maybe , if you've done any of that I know I've done very little of that and I'm really kind of myself and I'm sure these guys share the same uh , sentiment is that we're all poda guys , and you know flora and fauna is a great program , um , but it's not as simple and not as easy . You know , when you get into poda , you just you just get in it's .
You know , once they suck in , it's like kind of you just you know you're in it for life , you're not going anywhere else and you're just going to walk it away at it . So it comes to obsession . Oh yeah , it's an addiction and an obsession .
Well , it's like , if I , if I don't do a like , if I like a while , I hope I can still do this . You still have to go park to Paul , right ?
You guys still have to go , do I know , next week , not this week , the following week , when the deck's done , it's going to be too hot this week anyway , I was going to do a park the other day and it was like 95 . I'm like , no , I'm not doing that .
It's too hot . It could be zero below . Which would you prefer ?
Zero below . I could be in there . It was just too hot . It was like 2 in the afternoon and like 94 degrees . I was like maybe I should do this . I'm like , no , you know what , I'm going to be miserable . And I looked at my stupid app and 20 meters was still poor , which means it was gonna be crappy .
And I was gonna be like and with my luck , it'd be one of those parks where I'd have to sit there for three hours to get 10 cuts never , never , never trust the uh propagation app .
Never trust the propagation app .
I know it's never Well . All I know is mine has said 20 meters has been poor nonstop since that first solar storm we had that big one , the G5 . It's been poor ever since . Yeah , it's been poor ever since . It's not even gone up to , okay , it's just been .
May I remind you , last summer was like this too , until like end of August , and then , all of a sudden , the band just like exploded . And remember when , august , we were on 10 meters and you were like 10 meters on fire . What the hell's going on , you know so it's , it's just going to happen .
Right , but but last summer I was talking to Australia on 20 and now it just tells me I can't even hit like Pennsylvania on 20 . Maybe your antenna is too high , yeah .
It's gotta be the antenna . Yeah , it's always the antenna , right , it's , you know , never anything else . All right , well , so yeah , so let's talk a little about wildlife and wildlife preserve areas and trail systems .
We obviously all touched upon them a little bit here and there and we all know that they're kind of the bane of all of our existences because they're always the most difficult ones to get to .
They're not the , you know , the easy , what I call the easy layups , the parks that you can just pull up your car , literally work off your tailgate and boom , you're in the park and you got 10 contacts and you're done with your day and you move on .
Or you know , or the , the nice ones where you drive into , and you know , you set up and you're in the wildlife and you're seeing bambi walk behind you and you know the whole nine yards and you're feeling in one with nature and you're making bazillions of contacts . You know it's a , it's like that .
So so have you guys done any of those types of trail systems at all ?
well , when I was in north carolina I did , uh , stones creek state game land okay , which it wasn't a park , it was a trailed wildlife preserve . Yes , it's how I would uh call it . It's a us 6953 and this one was a little different than some of them I've been on .
This one actually had a little parking lot and then it had like the trailhead and then you could go walk by and I drove around it and there's different entrances that you can hop in different sides of the thing . But it wasn't really a park . All it was was some trails and it's a lot of wildlife . They had a turtle rescue , I think is near there .
I don't know if the turtle rescue is was part of that , but a lot of people hike in , running , you know , through it , but um , big , huge chunk of area that was just that nature , nothing built on it , and um , yeah , it was kind of cool . But for me it was like an easy one because there was a parking spot .
Now I've had some where you put in the coordinates and you're on the side of the road and you're like where the hell is it ? It's like woods . There's not even a trail . You're like what that's it Like . I got to get in there , yep . So those are different .
I mean traveling when I'm , you know , especially , you know , by air , and I don't have all my stuff and I don't know where I'm at , or whatever .
I like to stick to the , you know , designated parks , but there are a ton of wildlife refuge or state forest , or you know , we have in new hampshire a lot of state forest , which is literally you're driving down the road and we have a lot of woods , you know forest everywhere .
And all of a sudden it's like , oh , you're in a park or you're at a , you're at a pota , you can activate this place . But there's a sudden it's like , oh , you're in a park or you're at a , you're at a pota , you can activate this place , but there's nothing there , it's just woods , it's like trees . So you got to be creative .
Yeah , that's the Reed's fairy forest for me .
There's not even an entrance into that place .
No , it's literally like a sliver . No , no , wider than six inches . I'd have to say literally to where the park entrance is , you know , or where the designation of how you can get actually access to it . And everybody I talk to is like oh , I go activate over . I'm like you can't activate over there . That's private land .
You just literally can't pull over there and call that like I'm activating . I'm sorry , it's just . You know it's beyond the rules . I'll let some of it slide , but you have to activate on this small little sliver next to a transformer on the pole . That's freaking , noisy as hell .
You have neighbors walking by looking at you like you have six heads activating aliens . So yeah , I totally get it . How about you , paul ? Any of your similar scenarios ?
A hundred feet is a hundred feet . Right , that's the rules . You have to be within a hundred feet of the bounce . But my my wife actually said that I had to tell this story about the , the Savannah national wildlife refuge .
Okay , this is yeah , so so this past April we we went down to florida and , and I like to drive and I I hate flying , I like to drive , uh , but I , I specifically had asked my wife to give me a little bit of time to activate a couple new states , uh , and so on the trip down I got to do , uh , chickatee , chinkatee island in virginia , which is also
a wildlife preserve , um , and , and the reason that I , that I bring it up is because wildlife preserves have different rules than state parks , right , and so with a wildlife preserve , the , the focus is on preservation of the wildlife , which includes it , yeah , but it includes the trees and everything else .
So they , they don't want to see antennas in trees , they don't want to see ground spikes in the ground , they don't want to see any disturbance of the area , uh .
So I packed my wolf of recoil for that specific purpose , because I knew it was a freestanding antenna and I could just throw my ground radials out and there was no interference with the , with the nature at all , um , but so as I was packing up at the Savannah , uh made a bunch of contacts with people all over Parks on the air is kind of what we do , and
I explained it a little bit and she's like , oh , that's super cool .
She's like I'm so glad to see that you knew ahead of time not to put anything in the trees and not to put anything into ground in the trees and not to put anything into ground , and so it was nice to like get props from you know , like a lady that was , you know , doing her job , and she was like , yeah , no , you are doing the right thing , you're ,
you're , you're an ambassador of the hobby in a way . Right , like so , yeah , so just understand that when you're planning these trips and you're planning the , the parks , you're going to activate , that just because it's a park reference doesn't mean that it's the same as any other park reference , right ?
because , uh , yep and the rules yeah like I mean , so I could go to russell abbott state forest , which is one of that's my favorite . I'm working my kilo . Uh , I can put stuff in trees , I can put stuff in the ground , it doesn't matter , because it's just a state forest . There's no rules like that .
Um , but yeah , no , if you're , if you're planning uh , and it says uh , nature preserve or wildlife preserve or any type of reservation , you better plan to have an antenna system that is not going to interfere with nature in any way .
And a side note , leave the place cleaner than when you got there , right , like oh , totally I it drives me nuts , like when I go fishing and I see a a spool of fishing line on the ground . Like no , like I pick it up , I throw up my truck , like always . Just just leave the place cleaner than you , then you got there yeah , totally so I was .
I was at a park in florida and I pulled in and you gotta , you know , you gotta pay . And the guy's like , oh , what are you ? He goes . Oh , what are you planning on doing ? And I said , well , I'm just going to activate a park . And he gave me , like the same rules he goes , can't throw anything up in trees , you can't .
But I had , you know , my , my antenna , Yep , when you guys don't like , and I don't like it . So anyway , I uh , so I , I got the uh . So I said , oh , I got vertical , he goes well , he goes well . Oh , that's great , he goes , that's great , he goes .
You know , we had guys coming in here and throwing up lines and trees , and you know we don't , we don't allow that . I said no , it's all freestanding , and he goes , he goes . Oh , he goes . Well , good , he goes . I , how do you power it ? I said I have a battery . He goes .
Well , we have electricity under there in that shelter , mike , that's good , I got a battery . But yeah , the guy was like , hey , I got electric . Like , here we are at the state park , don't't destroy anything , don't put anything up . But if you want electricity , which you had to dug some lines . You know you had to dig up and put the wires in somewhere .
But no , it was kind of cool . But , like I said , if I only had like a wired antenna , I wouldn't have been able to activate that park , only because I would have had no place to put it up .
Yeah , yeah so sorry , I just .
I just wanted to comment on on what Todd said there real quick . So , yes , there's a lot of parks you have to pay for . However , if you are a military veteran , if you're a member of a gold star family , a blue , a blue star family , uh , and and there's .
I believe that there's another pass for seniors as well is , you can get a national parks pass which is good for lifetime and it's it's a , I think , an $11 administrative fee to get the pass and you never have to pay for any state or federal park ever again . So , for all the people that qualify for that , look into that , because it's a game changer .
I never have to pay for a park ever again . I just throw the little tag in my rearview mirror and I drive up to the gate .
The guy looks and he goes have a nice day . Wow , now I think , now I know that you can buy a federal parks . No , you can buy a federal park Like it's like 90 bucks a year and you go to every federal park . Like you can go to Yosemite , you can go to like all the . I wonder if that works for the state parks too . Or is it just a yes ?
Oh , it does .
It works for every park . So if you pay that 90 bucks , you get everything . State parks are included in that but .
But that's for you , for the vets . But what about a non ?
good point . Yeah , you might have to look into that right .
Yeah , I'll have to look into it , because I do know that , like , if you're going to go out west and you're going to go hit like mount rushmore , yosemite , yellowstone , you get like , uh , you pay like 90 bucks and you get a pass to to go to all them and you don't have to pay for each park you go to . It's like a better deal , I guess .
But if it works on all state parks , that would be . That'd be a game changer for me . Try to go to massachusetts in the summer , like you can't it's gonna cost you a small fortune to park .
If you want to go activate hampton , it's like 40 bucks to park there nevertheless . So it's like yeah , yep , oh yeah yeah don't get me going on that one .
That was expensive for us when we tried to do the seven park road although we didn't really pay for any of those parks because we were out of season so that worked out good , to our benefit well , right , well , there's no one there .
Like it's not like we tried to scam out of it , it was just it was free to go because , like , who's going to a beach in november we do .
Yeah , that's exactly right in the october . Right , exactly yeah , it was october , november . It was crazy too , it .
Yeah , it was October , november . It was crazy too . Remember how hot it was , people were swimming . Yep , they were In the New Hampshire Ocean .
Yeah , so it's a kind of wildlife places . There's one place that I've done that I thought was very odd , and so if you've ever been in Mass and you've activated US , this is actually a new one inside of Freetown Fall River State Forest .
So if you've been down in Fall River , there's a big giant forest there and so within that this also has a trail system and the trail system is not linked per se , so you can't get a twofer out of it . I don't know why , but I have never been able to figure that out .
But the trail system , if you look at the maps , they all kind of bisect each other and run right through the forest .
There's a new park in there called the wildlife management , so I tried to activate it and the nice part about it is , if you use the coordinates or you you know you gps it based off of , instead of the street address or whatever you find on the maps , there's a trail logging system that you can follow this all the way out , and I guess there's a huge land
mass out there that a guy owns , a private , uh , that does a lot of like cranberry bogs and you know farming and stuff like that . So I went out there to activate that .
And , um , I thought I was going to get a twofer on that but , based off of where I was , because , uh , I started to activate , I was recording it , and that's another story I'll talk about later . But , um , I was recording it and a guy was busy mowing the lawn down in the fields , like I mean .
He was like eight miles away and I was sitting on the top of the hill in my truck . So I got out of the back of my truck and set up off the back of my tailgate , put my Wilfred coil up or my , uh mad dog coil up , and I was , you know , activating , you know no problem .
And he kind of came , pulled up in the truck and , you know know , he kind of looked at me , got out of his truck and kind of waddled on over and it's an older gentleman and he's just like . He's like what , what are you doing ? And I'm like , um , doing ham radio is like , is that like cb ? And I'm like , yeah , it's sort of like cb , but not really .
I'm like it's . You know , I'm actually in park . He's like , oh , that's , that's real cool . You know , I thought first you were my foreman and you were watching me from the , the , the ridge line there , to make sure I was mowing the grass to the right level and everything . And I'm like , dude , I don't care how long that grass is .
I'm like you want to come over and play radio . He's like , oh , I got to get going , but yeah , thanks for the offer anyway . And long story short that park was kind of like exactly right , like I don't care , I'm not sitting there watching . Trust me to do so . Yeah , all of that . You know that wildlife management was like it was .
It's weird because if you look at the maps on poda it's very much boxed in to the overall state forest . So it's like this small chunk of land someone donated that's now the wildlife registry refuge and it's a mixed use land and so if you're not sure where it is or how to activate it , it's a little bit of challenge trying to get to it .
But it kind of thought of me when we started talking about this topic of you know those places I usually steer clear of . It's like because I'm thinking okay , wildlife management , they're not going to be easy , accessible . They're not going to be off the you know , they're always going to be off the beaten path to get to them .
You might get lucky sometimes where there might be some logging roads or access roads to it , but nine times out of ten , I don't know about you , but I steer like knowing . In this example , freetown forest was literally surrounded by it . I could have gone anywhere around . It , found a side road to pull on and I would have been in the state forest .
You know to activate that park and you know none the better , wouldn't totally fine , but you know I , I , you know , like you , paul , I was more about . You know , hey , I'm going to try this as a different park .
It was a five-digit , you know , park number so I needed to activate it because it's a new park and you know it was a little challenge to get to it .
I mean , I was very unsure for a long time I was following the GPS coordinates to get to this location where I was , and until the guy really confirmed where I was , that it was the right area , because I was like this can't be a beautiful spot , because I was literally on top of a hilltop looking over , you know , into the Valley and I could see everything .
And you know , I think it was all wide , open , open spaces . I'm like this is a great view . And I mean , you know , sadly , the video I recorded I didn't have any audio , so it's literally garbage .
So all I have is just , you know , video of the scenery and me talking and , you know , just play some music , um , so you won't see , I'm really trying hard to make that photo one work , but you know it's going to be a difficult one , um , but yeah , it was a the copacut wildlife management area .
So if you're ever in mass and you try to activate that , I mean it is a challenge to get to um , but it's not difficult in the sense of you know it . It is a , a mainstream , and if you're off , you get the benefit of being in a different park .
You just have to know that you're in the , the forest , and not in the the specific wildlife area , which is I have you guys running that same problem where , like , they tend to cross over , because I've seen a lot of like that in mass where , like , the wildlife and the the state forest are all the same , yeah , but so we've hold on before you move on to
that question .
Right , were you able to find a spot , based on , like the satellite imaging , where you could be 100 feet off the trail and then close enough to both parks that you could do the three-fur and have it count ?
Well , not a three-fur , because I had the trail system . I had no idea where the trail system bisected the park . I knew it did , but I couldn't confirm and I didn't want to waste the time to do it because it was like late in the day and I was like lazy with this later because you know I was at a client visit . Yeah , I was .
I was at a client visit , dude , and so you've been to that client with me . You know what I'm talking about . So I went all the way down there and I was like I just want to get it activated and get home Because I know the traffic's going to be bonkers .
So , yeah , I probably could have gotten a twofer on it and I bet you , if I just renamed my logs to the Freetown park number , it would have been no different , because I was literally in the state park on top of this management area .
For what it's worth , it wasn't terribly difficult to find , based off of at least the GPS coordinates that were left , which kind of like . It was sort of helpful because I don't know about you .
Have you ever noticed that when you go into the details of a park on POTA , sometimes it's better to use the GPS coordinates than it is to use the actual like link that it goes to the website , because the website's about as useless ?
as all the rocks yeah , yeah , the gps coordinates , I think whoever puts it in there , like that's where they actually activate it . So there's , I find that there's . There's like someone's been to that gps court , so it's , it's accessible somehow . It's guaranteed , yeah , you know .
One thing I I want to say , though , is , like you know , you said , like the wildlife management system are like just areas , right , but I noticed , like down south , like north carolina , louisiana , mississippi , those um and even arkansas , those , while they're almost like they call them wildlife management , but they're like parks so it's . You know they have .
You know sometimes they have an entrance , sometimes they have a sign . You know what it is . They might have a picnic table or something , or you know they might have a parking lot , like at the trailhead to go into it . Where I think around here , like our state forest , are just like chunks of land that's been that you know you're not going to build on .
It's a state forest and there's not like an entrance to it . But I found that down south , the ones that I had been to or looked at , um were , were more like a park .
So I don't know if you're outside New England or New Hampshire mass area that that it's a wildlife management project or system is , is not like a park that we see as a typical park , so it could be different in different parts of the country . So if you're listening , you know , send us a comment . Let's uh , let's find out .
If you're not from New England , you know what your wildlife ?
We sort of know that . I mean , obviously , and maybe you guys have you guys activated Maine at all ? Or Vermont ? I know you've done Vermont , todd , right , yeah , so Vermont does have wildlife management areas and they are not like their state parks , like Vermont is very clear about , like their state parks .
They will say what their state parks are and you know they're very well labeled , even though they're a pain in the ass sometimes to get to , to find . But you know , once you find them , you know you're there because there's no doubt .
But like when you get into Maine , wildlife management areas , especially like along the coast and stuff , even when you go inland inland is even more difficult , like I went to . I did a video a long time ago called Shoot , what was the park in Maine ? It was . The video was titled on my Snakes and something else like that .
In essence it was literally you were driving down 1A in Barrington or something , not Barrington , somewhere in Maine .
Berwick .
I literally drove right by the park Twice , going both ways , because there's no signage whatsoever and when I realized that the little indentation on the side of the road , the old logs had been so rotted that they never replaced the sign , because the sign was like kind of fallen on the ground . So it's like that's a wild and that's not like not any different .
I've done the three wildlife in Berwick and in a way further up that you know they're all the same . It's like you pull in in but you go in their state parks it's like boom , you know you're at state park , you have to pay your fee and you know the whole nine yards . So it's very different to find a wildlife management area in every state .
So I I probably would suggest it's the same . You know it .
Most other states too , especially texas , I'm sure it's probably even different well , I know , I know the area around Moosehead Lake in Maine like it's inaccessible by vehicle . Like to go activate the park right Like the forest , if you will . Yeah , like I mean , you got an ATV in , so better make sure that you bring your ATV and it's registered in Maine .
It's a ton of fun though .
Well , you know , dude , that's just accessorizing your ham shack . You know ? Simple as that .
Oh , there we go Now . I just I need a HF ATV .
Yeah , dude .
It's a new form of mobile .
I'm doing it to my truck , you're doing it to every other vehicle . You got a submarine .
Is that ? Next ? When I was in , when I was in North Carolina , there was a park that was kind of near me but it was a fricking Island and there was nothing on the Island , so it was like a wild part or refuge , wildlife management Island .
There's no roads , there's no cars and like two people activated and clearly they had boats and I'm like , yeah , I can't swim there and keep my radio . I don't have a drive back . Well , is that ? I was like , and I didn't have access to a boat .
So wasn't it like the one that we want to do off of , uh , our seven part ? What is it that white white island ? That's right white island in the middle of our seven-park . What is it ? White Island . That's right , white Island is in the middle .
It's a historic state park , or it's labeled as a historic state site , and the only thing that's out there is just literally a science lab for studying whatever they do out there .
Well , look it , paul's on a boat .
Throw that buddy in there , buddy , and we'll just cruise over there . Let's go all right , well right .
Actually we just go . All we have to do is anchor right offshore and work it right from the boat .
Okay , so we have to work our 10 park road next year , or in october , from the boat right ? So in that case , what we'll have to add ?
So as we work , so paul will have to follow us up to the point , he'll have to get his boat set up , and so what we'll do is we'll start in Hampton , work all the way back up , so once we get to that point we can just take the boat over to that island , work the island there , take the boat back and then work the extra four that go up into Maine ,
and then we'll have 10 .
Yeah , we got to get 10 . We had seven last year , so we got to get 10 this year .
Yeah , it looks like people have activated the island . I'm actually just looking at the photo site . Wow , five times it's been activated . Holy crap with 1,600 . What ? That's not right . Someone activated it as 1,600 Cusos . No , come on . And one activation , three successful attempts and he had 1,699 contacts Must be digital that yeah .
Wow , Um no Holy crap , no , so okay .
So here's the breakdown . So of his three activations , one activation he had seven . The next time he went out there he had 502 . And then the next one after that he had 31 . And this is all phone . Oh no , and then he had a bunch of cw too . So he had wow , he worked both .
So his first activation in 16 was 251 cw contacts , seven phone , 560 cw contacts . The next one , 500 phones . He had a thousand contacts already in one day between cW and phone . Holy crap .
But maybe he was sitting on a boat parked offshore within 100 feet and he's doing what Paul's going to be doing .
All day long , maybe he camped there for the weekend . So , Paul , you've got to vet that out . So get the boat in the freaking water , in the salt water , and tell us exactly how it performed based off your antenna . Then we'll just drive up to the island . We don't have to get out , We'll drive up to the island .
There we go Wow .
And we do islands from the islands on the air too .
We might have to do our 24-hour poda there if we're going to beat his 1,699 contacts .
Yeah , Just stay on the boat . You go pretty much dude . That might probably be over . There's so many things like on the air . There's islands we should have like walmart's on the air . There's like a walmart like every .
There is a walmart on there there is , yeah , walmart , that's on the air , yep seriously I'll post the link here . Let Let me grab it . Walmart's on the . Oh my God , that's crazy .
Because I'm like there is a Walmart , Like everywhere you go , there's a Walmart . Right , Like almost every town or within a couple towns , there's a Walmart .
Posted in the private chat . Here it is . They have a website Awesome . W-m-p-l-o-t-a .
W-M . They have a website , wmplotaorg . Do they have a database or is it just ?
It looks like it's not an attempt , like it is for regular POTA attempts , but they have one from the first week of July , so we just missed it . Oh , you can only do it for the first week . Looks like they only do it for the first week . Looks like they only do it from July 2nd to July 2nd . So , yeah , we missed it .
The day after July 1st . I'm doing it next year . Oh boy , absolutely , come on . You know how many Walmarts are around here .
So here I got to show you .
We'll each pick a different . Walmart .
Right . So here here , I gotta show that I guess we'll each pick a different walmart , right ? So so this is this is their , this is their cover art . Oh , you guys see that yet . Yeah , that that is . Uh , you know what that's from what movie ? Uh um , yes , yes , you know what I'm talking about the horror movie . I can't think of it right now .
I always forget it . Axe and the Evil .
Dead .
Evil Dead .
It's something , something in the Evil Dead .
Yeah , evil Dead movies . Anyway , we're getting off on a tangent here . Yeah , it's all evil dead movies . Love , love it chainsaw , anyway , that's it when you do so ?
when you do what ? When you do walmart , walmart on the air , is it woda cqwm ?
wm ploda , but WM Plota .
What .
Walmart parking lots on the air WM Plota , that's a multiple Walmart parking lots on the air . They have a leaderboard . They have a leaderboard . Wow , you can do anything . You can do Exxon gas stations on the air . If you want to do , make up your own .
Boats on the air .
Oh man , boda is , I think , a thing too as well . Yeah , man , I'll think , google this one too , boda . School's on the air , I don't think school . Why would anyone want to do that one ? I thought he said tools yeah , both on the air .
He was going to turn a wrench into an antenna .
Home Depot on the air , lowe's on the air .
We'll do scaffolding antenna .
The main rule of ? So here's the only rule . The main rule of BOTA is that the boat must be underway or anchored during the activation . Mooring or tying to a dock is not allowed . That's it , boatsontheaircom . They have a website . Wow , you can do anything . Anyway , how do we say ?
what were we talking about ? Wildlife ?
management trails wildlife , wildlife , yeah we get to walmart yeah well , you mentioned walmart , so so talking about wildlife stuff , so any of you guys run into any really serious ones where you had to like hike through and just been like you know dude , like I could tell casey's story if you guys haven't heard casey's story about his wildlife management area that's
over in amherst you hear about now ?
is that the one that's behind the cemetery ?
no , there's no , yep the one that's up on the top of the hill . He went up there with his dog one time or very early spring , and he's like I will never go back to that place because my dog was covered in ticks . It was so bad .
He's like I hiked up the hill , I was ready to do an activation , I could barely make contacts and when my dog finally came out and I finally came out , we were covered in ticks and I'm just like that was like landlocked . There's no way you get access to that piece of property without hiking into it . I haven't attempted that one yet .
If I remember right , it's Hodgman State Forest . Yeah because that's on my list , but you have to hike in . There's no easy place to park and walk 20 , 50 feet . You have to hike it yep , now there is .
I haven't had the conversation with the people yet , but there's landowners that own , like a construction company , right adjacent to that graveyard area .
You could probably converse with them because if you look at the aerial maps , you could drive all the way in the back and it looks like when the logging company went up there to do level cutting again to clear out all the dead stuff , they went up there and created a road , so you could possibly probably get up to at least the plateau of it .
We'll just take my Polaris Ranger .
No .
Polaris Ranger I can drive it on the road . Drive up and just drive up to it .
Well , let's do it . Polaris Ranger's on the air .
I'm going to set the antenna right in the back of the bed . We'll just set a big giant 5A .
Swip off the back of that 10 meters . We'll do hamsticks galore off the back of that thing . We'll have like 15 hamsticks off the back of it . We'll just do it with the little AB switch .
Yeah , so let's figure that one out . In the fall , maybe the ticks will be gone .
So , todd , you're going to come out and do Russell Abbott with me , but in behind Russell Abbott is Abbott State Forest and that one . The only way to get there is it's like a two and a half mile hike , so that might be , uh , another atv or ranger , you know type scenario yeah , I would say for sure , definitely , if you want to haul enough gear .
As long as there's a logging road , it's just not great that the thing . Oh yeah , long as I can get the Ranger through it , yeah , I think it's pretty good . I mean , it goes once I if I put it in four wheel drive , it goes through anything so problem solved .
We got boats to solve our island issue on our 10 you know 10 Park Grove and we got ATVs to get us into the deep woods of Apple Abbott Russell . So I think we're in good shape , we just have to time it All because we don't want to walk too much . You heard it here , folks we're working smarter , not harder .
We refuse to do the old-fashioned hike our crap in the Alaska guys drive five miles , they snowmobile another 20 miles and they hike in to do a park and we're like , yeah , we're not walking two miles . Oh , dude , whatever you .
You see their videos , they , they set up shelters , they eat steak . That you know . Come on please now come winter .
winter is a totally different animal . Like I'm all about packing the ice , shelter and and going out and setting up camp . But I recently redid my poda bag to make it a soda bag and so , yeah , I minimized the radio gear as much as possible . The bag originally , with just the poda stuff , was 30 pounds . Now with hiking gear and the radio it's 30.2 pounds .
So I'm good to go , let's go hike .
What radio did you go ?
with 891 . That's what I got .
Oh dude , I thought you would drop that a little bit , okay , all right , good , yeah . I mean I have said right . Oh , dude , I always thought you would drop that a little bit . Okay , all right , good , yeah .
No , I mean I have said right , should the fx4cr come down drastically in price , I will happily make that my summit radio . Uh , but yeah , no 891 , that's what I got , so that's what I'm hiking with well , we'll do this .
We'll start our first soda attempt and you'll hike the 891 up with you and then I'll , like , halfway through the hike , swap it out with my fx or cr and then have you hike the rest of the mountain , probably see which one you like . Better that that'll . Just now you're gonna spend that extra 300 or whatever you're complaining about , because your back is .
You know what the hell is wrong with you , idiot . Yeah , I , I need to . Uh , it was funny because I was having a conversation with the , the wife , about hiking and stuff like that .
So , yeah , I've got to start thinking about the , the incorporating my ham gear and my you know hiking pack , that I don't have any ham gear and in my hiking pack I think it's like maybe 15 pounds total , not even . I mean , there's probably way less than that .
I'm sure I'm over inflating it , but I'm sure once I throw the 891 in there , it'll be the same right around where you're at it's not even the it's .
It's not even the it's the battery that weighs so much . Yeah , it's not even . Uh , it's not the , you know , it's not the , I mean the radio is not that heavy about .
My battery is the heaviest thing in the battery in the radio , probably about the same yeah , yeah .
Well , and you know you could probably get away with a six .
You got you know what you guys , you guys can practice on pacman ad knock , I'll drive up , I'll set up , I'll get going and I'll meet you guys he's like I'll make my first 10 contacts while you're still hiking and then I'll set up a little bit .
Then I'll have conversations while I'm waiting for you to get to the peak yeah , a couple years ago , when zach was little , he what we hiked up there with diane's brother and his family and he was like , oh , the blue light . He was running ahead . Doing all that back and forth , I found it where it goes .
Now it goes here , you know , we get up to the top or whatever , and and he's like I can't walk down . I'm like what I'm not doing ? He was little , right , so I had to put him on my shoulders and I was like I ain't walking down through the woods .
So I took the road all the way down with him on my shoulders you want to talk about ?
Yeah , and it was in summer , so you know I was like , oh gee , this is brutal . I said , from now on , if we hike up , we hike down , none of this dad's carrying you anymore .
It only takes once , right . Only takes once , all right . So let's steer the ship , you know lost at sea , back to wildlife stuff .
So you know , obviously , any recommendations we can kind of give people , folks in dealing with wildlife , you know , and and those parks that you know or trail systems that you know aren't easily identifiable , you know what , what do you guys are used to ? You know , identify where you really need to kind of be , or is it most of been trial and error ?
Have you used , like a mail map systems or anything like that ?
So I use coordinates , especially if it's not a park and there's not an entrance , because I figured someone's been there before . They put those coordinates in . So there must be a way to get there . So put the coordinates in . I use Waze . Waze gets me to where I need to be .
Then , you know , typically you'll see a trail or something and you can get in there . The other thing you could do is , um , if people , the last couple people that activate , you can always go on , look up their call sign , email them and say , hey , I'm thinking about doing this park . You have any suggestions ? That would be another option to do .
Or just go for it and get in the general area and drive around and so you see somewhere you can like jump into it . But uh , like I said , I think it's around here . I think it's . It's a little bit more difficult because we just have these land masses that aren't really labeled or anything .
I think my experience when I was down south is the wildlife refugee . They're labeled , some of them have parking lots . It's more like a park that we would see up here versus .
So I I'm sure it's different around , but at least , at least in new england I mean , we have the state forest and , like you look on the map and it's like in the middle of nowhere and you've driven through it or by it and you didn't even know , because it's just a chunk of land that they've designated . This is a state forest .
You're not building here , it's staying green , whatever , yeah I was uh .
I was uh , like , I'll look at the podo reference , but I don't go by their numbers or their , their coordinates , uh , I'll . I'll say , okay , this is the reference , okay , this is the park , and then I'll look up the park , I'll google the park .
A lot of , a lot of them , um , like , even if they're , even if they're town maintained , um , but it's a state park or a state forest , but it's town maintained , there'll be a website and the website will have some kind of key information on how you can access it .
Because you know , to me , like , it doesn't matter the POTR reference coordinate , what matters is that you're within the bounds of that park , right , or that forest or whatever . Whatever the entity is Right , and so like with Hodgman , right , the , the way that I knew the easiest route in and out of there is through the cemetery was its website .
And when you , when you go to the parks website , it tells you . It's like , oh , yeah , well , the , if you , if you want to visit the , the state forest , the easiest access is through the cemetery , and you can park all the way at the backside of the cemetery and then walk your ass in .
But , yeah , no , I , I , I always reference the , the GPS maps , the satellite maps , because I want to know where the boundaries are , and and then I , I look and I try and find a good place that's going to have a decent amount of elevation and some trees for me to use and you know , kind of plan it out that way , rather , rather than going by what the
poda coordinates are okay .
So for me I kind of have a mix of that . So the poda coordinates , I agree . I mean I use them kind of as an initial , like get me in the general area , because nine times out of ten those porta coordinates are not derived from somebody putting them there .
They're actually derived from the database that they pulled from the national parks and anything else they used to build the poda database .
So , and the poda guys , all the admins have all said that that num , that those coordinates are whatever , they pulled from either other databases or other areas and may or may not be close enough or within the vicinity , but we'll get you roughly in the ballpark . So I've kind of always used those at least to get me near the area .
I've used Google Maps with their topographical map where they kind of lay out their forests and the boundaries . Based off of that graphical map , where they kind of lay out their forests and the boundaries , based off of that , I'll use that coupled with ways to be able to kind of coordinate roughly what access roads I have .
And and I'm saying this , but I like a lot of times I'll shortcut a lot of stuff , because when I'm doing a lot of these wildlife places I'm short on time and I want to try a new entity versus per se being like dead on in the place , and so I'll , I'll , I'll , kind of give that factor of the a hundred feet a little bit more graced .
Yeah , and you know . So you know I'll be like yeah , that's a hundred feet or so , and you know . Or that's in the general area , and you know , if somebody calls me out on it , I'm going to be the first to be like hey dude calls me out on it , I'm gonna be the first to be like hey , dude , I try my best to coordinate it .
This is again , you know some a fun activity . It's not like life or death . So if you want to me to pull my you know 10 contacts or 12 contacts off my account , fine , but in essence I don't really like . I'm gonna be like if I'm close in the ballpark , it's like horseshoes and hand grenades .
You know , it's that whole adage of like you're gonna get to get somewhere in the vicinity . It's not like you're at home and you're like , oh , I'm in the park .
Right , exactly right , like where Mike N2MAK lives . Like literally his backyard is abutting one of the main river trails and so you know he could technically operate from his back porch , but he knows he can't type things , so you know . So he kind of plays in that that same thing .
Or he goes to his kids soccer events and like you know and as a dad I'd feel bad about that , but then I get over it you know , activating a podo while my kids are playing soccer , I'm like oh yeah , sorry mike for outing you , but uh , yeah , I would you do it . I'd be like I'm gonna invest in hf mobile . That's the first thing going in my car .
I don't care anything else before that HF Mobile . If I have to go through that process , I could try coaching dugout . Set up the antenna . That would be pretty sweet If you could figure out how to balance that one .
Yeah , I could do it , have the headset on Remote into it CQ , cq .
I know right , whole new area to activate . Yeah , so that's kind of , I think with the wildlife stuff . I mean like as we all kind of come to the conclusion it's like as long as you're in the ballpark you're good . I mean like you don't have to sweat the idea that you know you have to be dead on .
And again , I know there are folks out there that like play by 100 , like it has to be that way . Well , do your best you possibly can and don't worry sweating the rest because you're not going to get anything close , because there's no real true 100 accurate data out there that I've run into .
That I can say for de facto standard for every park that's out there , that that the coordinates either that the poda page has or the government has or whatever , is all going to be accurate enough , because a lot of that stuff is either dated so far back that they don't have any records based off of .
You know who passed down , you know what ownership of what wildlife area and roughly what section . I've seen like places in mass , like over by um , the uh purgatory chasm in that area that there's like five different wildlife managers .
They're all sliced differently and every time I go I know I can't activate one or the other because they don't like they should cross based off of what the state maps say .
But they don't when you actually physically look at any of the other maps and so you just kind of go , okay , well , I'm just going to be in this one to play it safe , instead of you know saying I'm activating a four-fur , you know when you know it's possibly it could be one .
So you know , I know those illustrious three-f know they are tough to to be able to , you know , find and locate too as well I hear you so all right .
Well , you know , with that , I mean , I don't think we really kind of came to any good conclusions outside of the fact that just use your best judgment when you come to the land , your trail systems and and wildlife management , and , and most of all , I think having fun is more important than really whether or not you're dead balls on as long as you're close
100 feet is 100 feet .
I shared a link in the private chat here and I'll put it in our show notes too . But on X-Maps , it's excellent for hunters and outdoor people , but it's got perfect boundaries for all these entities , and so if you're looking for something that'll help you find these boundaries , that'll help .
That's a very good trail system map . A lot of off-roaders and you know true extreme , you know rock guys , rock crawlers , and those guys use , love those trail systems and stuff and jeepers use those a lot . So onyx maps is a paid service in some cases and well worth the investment , especially with the offline capability .
Um , and I used it for a little while when I was using it , but then you know , I just you know , started activating state parks and that type of stuff and at that point not needed . I know where I'm at . But a good system in general , so cool all right well , go ahead , dog .
I'm just looking at it now . It says uh , you know the premium . You get off-road trails , public lands in the us , unlimited on offline maps 35 , 34.99 a year . The elite 100 a year . You get pro deals , private land ownership in the us and canada . And then you get the offload , yeah , yeah . Well , that's that .
Stuff is good because , like you know , a lot of times .
uh , if you want to hunt an area or you want to atv in an area and it's privately owned , it gives you the landowner's information so you can contact them to get permission . Not super applicable with Parker designations . But yeah , it's good , but close , yep .
Cool , all right , but close , yep , cool , alright . Well , let's kind of put a bow on this for tonight . And you know , say that you know wildlife management , you know . And trail systems , they're kind of subject to your discretion for all intents and purposes .
Try your best to be able to put the effort to kind of coordinate it , but know that you might be off a little bit , but you know , for most of the guys who do poda and activate aren't going to ding you . We're not a little bit . But you know , for most of the guys who do POTA and activate aren't going to ding you .
We're not going to be like , unless you're all of a sudden like making 1600 contacts in one shot . Then you know we got some other bigger issues to worry about . But you know , hey , go out there , have fun , activate . You know if got that through my skin of my teeth . So , all right , well , with that again , let's kind of uh dive in .
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