Brew and Activate | Podcast on RSS.com

Brew and Activate

Brew and Activate

by Brew & Activate - N1JUR

Hobbies Technology

Season 1

We Asked to See Your POTA Bags… BIG Mistake

What does your POTA bag say about you? We asked the Brew Crew to open up their POTA bags and show us what they REALLY carry for Parks on the Air activations. Six brave operators answered the call. That may have been a mistake. This week on Brew & Activate, Eric N1JUR and Shannon KC1OHT are putting six real POTA bags under the microscope. Radios, antennas, batteries, coax, adapters, backup gear and a few items that are going to require some serious explaining. Welcome to the POTA BAG ROAST. But this isn't just about making fun of somebody carrying 37 adapters and enough battery capacity to survive the apocalypse. For every bag, we're asking: • Does the gear match the activation? • What's genuinely useful? • What's unnecessary? • What's missing? • What would WE change? • And most importantly… WHY ARE YOU CARRYING THAT?! Because there isn't one perfect POTA setup. A hiking activator shouldn't necessarily carry the same station as someone operating from a picnic table. QRP, 100-watt SSB, CW, quick activations, all-day operations and remote parks all create different requirements. Join us LIVE and bring your own POTA bag confessions. Tell us the weirdest thing you carry, the piece of gear that has saved an activation, and the item you finally stopped dragging into the field. ☕ BREW & ACTIVATE Brew & Activate is a weekly live show about Parks on the Air, portable ham radio, gear, operating skills, experiments, questionable decisions and becoming better operators. Hosted by: Eric — N1JUR Shannon — KC1OHT Grab a drink, join the Brew Crew and come hang out with us. 73! #POTA #ParksOnTheAir #HamRadio #AmateurRadio #PortableHamRadio #POTAGear ************************************************************* 📡 KEEP UP WITH N1JUR Practical ham radio videos, operating guides, equipment reviews, community projects, and Field Notes from around the hobby. 🌐 Explore N1JUR https://n1jur.com 📬 Join the free Field Notes Newsletter https://n1jur.com/newsletter ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🤝 GET MORE INVOLVED ⭐ Become a YouTube Channel Member https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBBAnDZb9q0hDFNEIUuOVDQ/join 🛠️ Follow exclusive builds, projects, and mentoring on Patreon https://patreon.com/cw/n1jur ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎒 GEAR, PARTNERS & DISCOUNTS See the radios, antennas, batteries, accessories, and production equipment I use: https://n1jur.com/gear Find available partner discounts and special offers: https://n1jur.com/discounts ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 👕 WEAR SOMETHING WEIRD N1JUR, POTA, and ham radio shirts, mugs, stickers, and more: https://makerfweird.com

Can You Activate POTA With NO Internet?

Can you successfully activate a Parks on the Air park with NO Internet? Modern POTA is loaded with incredibly useful tools: park maps, GPS navigation, spotting, propagation data, callsign lookup, logging apps, P2P information and instant log uploads. But what happens when the cell signal disappears? This week on Brew & Activate, Eric N1JUR and Shannon KC1OHT are putting the modern POTA workflow under the microscope. What actually requires the Internet? What can work completely offline? Do you need to self-spot? Can another hunter spot you? Could you still get your 10 contacts if the POTA spotting page disappeared completely? And just how dependent have we become on our phones during portable operations? We're also introducing the Brew Crew Airplane Mode Activation Challenge: One park. One activation. Airplane mode stays ON. Let's find out what breaks. Join us LIVE Friday and tell us: Could YOU successfully activate a POTA park without Internet access? ************************************************************* 📡 KEEP UP WITH N1JUR Practical ham radio videos, operating guides, equipment reviews, community projects, and Field Notes from around the hobby. 🌐 Explore N1JUR https://n1jur.com 📬 Join the free Field Notes Newsletter https://n1jur.com/newsletter ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🤝 GET MORE INVOLVED ⭐ Become a YouTube Channel Member https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBBAnDZb9q0hDFNEIUuOVDQ/join 🛠️ Follow exclusive builds, projects, and mentoring on Patreon https://patreon.com/cw/n1jur ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎒 GEAR, PARTNERS & DISCOUNTS See the radios, antennas, batteries, accessories, and production equipment I use: https://n1jur.com/gear Find available partner discounts and special offers: https://n1jur.com/discounts ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 👕 WEAR SOMETHING WEIRD N1JUR, POTA, and ham radio shirts, mugs, stickers, and more: https://makerfweird.com

Are You Actually Getting Better at POTA

Are You Actually Getting Better at POTA? You’ve logged more parks. Made more contacts. Bought better gear. Earned some awards. But are you actually becoming a better POTA operator? This week on Brew & Activate, Eric N1JUR and Shannon KC1OHT are looking beyond activation counts and asking what operator improvement really looks like. We're talking about the POTA skills nobody keeps track of: troubleshooting, propagation, pileup management, antenna decisions, adaptability, operating efficiency, mentoring and knowing what to do when the activation absolutely refuses to follow the plan. We'll build the POTA Skill Tree, put ourselves through the POTA Combine, talk about the difference between DOING POTA and PRACTICING POTA, and challenge the Brew Crew to deliberately improve one skill over their next ten activations. The big question: What can you do today that you couldn't do on your first POTA activation? Join us LIVE Friday at 10 AM Eastern and bring your answers. Brew & Activate Hosted by Eric N1JUR and Shannon KC1OHT Join the conversation, hang out with the Brew Crew, and check out the links below for the Discord community, memberships, Patreon and more. #POTA #ParksOnTheAir #HamRadio #AmateurRadio #PortableHamRadio ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📡 KEEP UP WITH N1JUR Practical ham radio videos, operating guides, equipment reviews, community projects, and Field Notes from around the hobby. 🌐 Explore N1JUR https://n1jur.com 📬 Join the free Field Notes Newsletter https://n1jur.com/newsletter ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🤝 GET MORE INVOLVED ⭐ Become a YouTube Channel Member https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBBAnDZb9q0hDFNEIUuOVDQ/join 🛠️ Follow exclusive builds, projects, and mentoring on Patreon https://patreon.com/cw/n1jur ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎒 GEAR, PARTNERS & DISCOUNTS See the radios, antennas, batteries, accessories, and production equipment I use: https://n1jur.com/gear Find available partner discounts and special offers: https://n1jur.com/discounts ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 👕 WEAR SOMETHING WEIRD N1JUR, POTA, and ham radio shirts, mugs, stickers, and more: https://makerfweird.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔗 LINKS FROM THIS VIDEO Brew and Activate Live Stream - Are you getting better at POTA? ➡️ https://youtube.com/live/JVJa8kDgXwE?feature=share

Your POTA Wallet Is Lying to You The Hidden Cost of Portable Radio

Is POTA an expensive hobby... or do we accidentally make it one? This week on Brew & Activate, we're talking about the hidden economics of Parks on the Air. Not budgets. Not financial advice. Just the buying decisions almost every activator makes along the way. We've all been there... Buying another antenna because it might perform better. Adding another battery "just in case." Convincing ourselves that the next radio will finally be the perfect one. But what if the biggest expense in POTA isn't the equipment... It's buying things before we've learned whether we actually need them. We'll discuss return on investment, diminishing returns, upgrade traps, and why many experienced activators eventually end up carrying less gear—not more. Whether you're building your first POTA station or your tenth, this conversation might save you money... and help you enjoy the hobby even more. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📡 KEEP UP WITH N1JUR Practical ham radio videos, operating guides, equipment reviews, community projects, and Field Notes from around the hobby. 🌐 Explore N1JUR https://n1jur.com 📬 Join the free Field Notes Newsletter https://n1jur.com/newsletter ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🤝 GET MORE INVOLVED ⭐ Become a YouTube Channel Member https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBBAnDZb9q0hDFNEIUuOVDQ/join 🛠️ Follow exclusive builds, projects, and mentoring on Patreon https://patreon.com/cw/n1jur ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎒 GEAR, PARTNERS & DISCOUNTS See the radios, antennas, batteries, accessories, and production equipment I use: https://n1jur.com/gear Find available partner discounts and special offers: https://n1jur.com/discounts ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 👕 WEAR SOMETHING WEIRD N1JUR, POTA, and ham radio shirts, mugs, stickers, and more: https://makerfweird.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Has POTA Outgrown Itself?

Has POTA outgrown the platform it was built on? Parks on the Air has become one of the most successful operating programs in amateur radio—but with that success comes a bigger question: can a volunteer-driven organization keep up with the demands of a rapidly growing global community? This week on Brew & Activate, Eric N1JUR and Shannon KC1OHT take a constructive look at POTA’s growth, the website, the mobile experience, feature development, volunteer limitations, and whether the program is beginning to face the same growing pains that affect much larger amateur radio organizations. Then we turn the conversation over to the Brew Crew. If you were given one development sprint, what would you improve first? Better search? A native mobile app? Smarter maps? Personal park notes? Improved dashboards? Offline tools? Or something completely different? This is not a complaint session and it is not a developer pile-on. It is an honest, forward-looking conversation about what POTA has become, what should never change, and what a future POTA 2.0 could look like. Join us live, bring your ideas, and help us build the community wishlist. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📡 KEEP UP WITH N1JUR Practical ham radio videos, operating guides, equipment reviews, community projects, and Field Notes from around the hobby. 🌐 Explore N1JUR https://n1jur.com 📬 Join the free Field Notes Newsletter https://n1jur.com/newsletter ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🤝 GET MORE INVOLVED ⭐ Become a YouTube Channel Member https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBBAnDZb9q0hDFNEIUuOVDQ/join 🛠️ Follow exclusive builds, projects, and mentoring on Patreon https://patreon.com/cw/n1jur ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎒 GEAR, PARTNERS & DISCOUNTS See the radios, antennas, batteries, accessories, and production equipment I use: https://n1jur.com/gear Find available partner discounts and special offers: https://n1jur.com/discounts ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 👕 WEAR SOMETHING WEIRD N1JUR, POTA, and ham radio shirts, mugs, stickers, and more: https://makerfweird.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Your POTA Bag Is Lying to You | The Gear You Carry… But Never Use

How much gear is really necessary for a successful POTA activation? If you've been activating for any length of time, chances are your "portable" radio bag has slowly become... less portable. Every new antenna solved a problem. Every adapter seemed like a good idea. Every backup battery was "just in case." Before long, you're hauling equipment that's been riding along for months—or even years—without ever leaving the bag. This week on Brew & Activate, we're taking an honest look at the gear we all carry but rarely use. We'll explore why we overpack, the difference between being prepared and packing out of fear, and how experienced activators naturally evolve toward simpler, more efficient stations. Along the way, we'll share real-world examples from the POTA community, discuss the items that truly earn their place in your kit, and challenge you to rethink what belongs in your go bag before your next activation. Whether you're building your first POTA kit or refining one that's seen hundreds of parks, this episode will help you carry less, operate smarter, and focus more on enjoying the activation than managing your gear. ************************************************************* Affiliate Links: I receive no compensation for these and want to pass on the savings to all my followers. Mad Dog Coils: Receive an additional clamp when ordering any Mad Dog Coil - Use N1JUR in the order/shipping notes https://maddogcoils.com.au/ Reliance Antennas: 10% off with Free Shipping. All orders of any Reliance Antenna or product use N1JUR at Checkout. https://www.relianceantennas.com/ Seeed Studios: Discount Codes on all Meshtastic Devices on my website n1jur.com SpoolTenna: https://spooltenna.com SHOW LINKS: Discord Brew and Activate - https://discord.gg/EcuySeKkVv Brew & Activate Podcast - https://rss.com/podcasts/brew-and-activate/ Brew and Activate Merch - https://livefreeandham.com/shop POTA Bucket List - https://n1jur.com/pota-bucket-list

Confessions of a POTA Addict

It starts innocently enough... "I'm just going to try this Parks on the Air thing once." Then suddenly you're researching antennas at midnight, convincing yourself you need one more battery, planning vacations around park numbers, and explaining to your family why the truck is permanently stocked with radios, coax, and enough gear for a weekend expedition. Sound familiar? This week on Brew & Activate, Eric (N1JUR) and Shannon (KC1OHT) take a hilarious trip through the life cycle of a POTA operator—from the nervous first activation to full-blown gear acquisition syndrome, award chasing, burnout, and finally becoming the Elmer who helps the next generation get on the air. Along the way we'll share real stories, plenty of laughs, practical tips, and probably expose a few habits we've all developed along the way. ☕ Join the Brew Crew on Discord: https://discord.gg/zwg9mWyHmY 🎁 Member Perks & Discounts: https://n1jur.com/discounts 📬 Join the Newsletter: https://n1jur.com/newsletter Whether you've activated one park or one thousand, chances are you'll recognize yourself somewhere in this story. #HamRadio #POTA #ParksOnTheAir #PortableRadio #AmateurRadio #HamRadioCommunity #BrewAndActivate #N1JUR #POTAActivation #OutdoorRadio Affiliate Links: I receive no compensation for these and want to pass on the savings to all my followers. Mad Dog Coils: Receive an additional clamp when ordering any Mad Dog Coil - Use N1JUR in the order/shipping notes https://maddogcoils.com.au/ Reliance Antennas: 10% off with Free Shipping. All orders of any Reliance Antenna or product use N1JUR at Checkout. https://www.relianceantennas.com/ Seeed Studios: Discount Codes on all Meshtastic Devices on my website n1jur.com SpoolTenna: https://spooltenna.com SHOW LINKS: Discord Brew and Activate - https://discord.gg/EcuySeKkVv Brew & Activate Podcast - https://rss.com/podcasts/brew-and-activate/ Brew and Activate Merch - https://livefreeandham.com/shop POTA Bucket List - https://n1jur.com/pota-bucket-list

The Great Coax Mystery Does Coax Length Really Matter

One of the biggest myths in amateur radio has nothing to do with antennas... it's the coax connecting your radio to them. Does coax really have to be 18 feet long? Can changing the length of your feedline lower your SWR? What exactly is velocity factor, and why does everyone seem to have a different answer? This week on Brew & Activate, we're diving into another ham radio rabbit hole to separate physics from folklore. We'll explain velocity factor in plain English, explore why coax behaves the way it does, and connect the dots between transmission lines, SWR, resonance, impedance, and real-world station performance. Whether you're building a portable POTA station, setting up your first HF antenna, or just trying to understand why your analyzer says one thing and your radio says another, this episode will help you make sense of what your coax is really doing—and what it isn't. ************************************************************* Affiliate Links: I receive no compensation for these and want to pass on the savings to all my followers. Mad Dog Coils: Receive an additional clamp when ordering any Mad Dog Coil - Use N1JUR in the order/shipping notes https://maddogcoils.com.au/ Reliance Antennas: 10% off with Free Shipping. All orders of any Reliance Antenna or product use N1JUR at Checkout. https://www.relianceantennas.com/ Seeed Studios: Discount Codes on all Meshtastic Devices on my website n1jur.com SpoolTenna: https://spooltenna.com SHOW LINKS: Discord Brew and Activate - https://discord.gg/EcuySeKkVv Brew & Activate Podcast - https://rss.com/podcasts/brew-and-activate/ Brew and Activate Merch - https://livefreeandham.com/shop POTA Bucket List - https://n1jur.com/pota-bucket-list Guests/Hosts: Shannon's Channel (KC1OHT) https://www.youtube.com/@shannonkc1oht Help Support the Channel: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/N1JUR Buy Me a Beer: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/n1jur N1JUR & KC1OHT Shop: https://www.livefreeandham.com/shop Follow me on: Website: https://n1jur.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/n1jur Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092365884527

I Packed a Radio Instead of Extra Clothes

Who needs another pair of socks when you can bring another antenna? This week, Brew & Activate is coming to you from my Airbnb for a special Vacation Edition! There won't be the usual 90-minute show or deep technical dive. Instead, we're slowing things down, grabbing a cup of coffee, and seeing what happens when portable ham radio becomes part of the adventure. We'll be setting up a travel-friendly station, activating a new Tiles location, making contacts live, and chatting about why some of the best operating isn't from the shack—it's from wherever life happens to take you. Whether you're operating from a campsite, a cabin, a hotel, an Airbnb, or just your backyard, this stream is a reminder that amateur radio doesn't have to stay home when you leave town. So pour yourself a fresh cup, kick back, and pretend you're on vacation with the Brew Crew for the next 40 minutes. ☕ Live portable radio operation 📻 Tiles activation from the Airbnb 🌎 Travel-friendly ham radio setup 💬 Plenty of conversation, coffee, and RF If you've ever packed a radio before packing your suitcase... this one's for you.

Your SWR Is Fine... So Why Can't You Make Contacts

We spent the last two episodes learning what SWR and resonance actually mean. Now it's time to answer the biggest question of all: How do you know if an antenna is actually performing? In this final installment of our three-part antenna deep dive, we're moving beyond analyzer readings and getting into what really matters on the air. We'll explore why two antennas with identical SWR readings can perform completely differently, how antenna height affects your signal, why efficiency matters, and what changes as Solar Cycle 25 begins its downward swing. We'll also tackle one of the biggest misconceptions in amateur radio: the idea that a low SWR automatically means a good antenna. ************************************************************* Affiliate Links: I receive no compensation for these and want to pass on the savings to all my followers. Mad Dog Coils: Receive an additional clamp when ordering any Mad Dog Coil - Use N1JUR in the order/shipping notes https://maddogcoils.com.au/ Reliance Antennas: 10% off with Free Shipping. All orders of any Reliance Antenna or product use N1JUR at Checkout. https://www.relianceantennas.com/ Seeed Studios: Discount Codes on all Meshtastic Devices on my website n1jur.com SpoolTenna: https://spooltenna.com SHOW LINKS: Discord Brew and Activate - https://discord.gg/EcuySeKkVv Brew & Activate Podcast - https://rss.com/podcasts/brew-and-activate/ Brew and Activate Merch - https://livefreeandham.com/shop POTA Bucket List - https://n1jur.com/pota-bucket-list Guests/Hosts: Shannon's Channel (KC1OHT) https://www.youtube.com/@shannonkc1oht Help Support the Channel: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/N1JUR Buy Me a Beer: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/n1jur N1JUR & KC1OHT Shop: https://www.livefreeandham.com/shop Follow me on: Website: https://n1jur.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/n1jur Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092365884527

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