Nearly three months late with getting this published in a timely manner, but here it is. As one should expect, this year’s campout was a fantastic time camping with great weather, great people, and lots of portable radio!
Links to related content
Beside the below video and pictures from a POTA activation of an adjacent wildlife area and summary of the campout in general. I will have some stand alone videos of some camp and radio setups form the campout. They will be linked here once I get them posted.
Amazing Home Built Camper for Portable Radio (link coming soon)
This year we took over Buckhorn State Park, POTA entity US-1443 with somewhere around 50 campers! We had above average temperatures and good band conditions. What more could a camping ham want?
The large park and adjacent state wildlife area with interconnected hiking trails and picnic areas gave plenty of options for a POTA activation location. Of course one could simply activate the park from their campsite.
Buckhorn Wildlife Area
Adjacent to the state park is a wildlife area with the same name that is connected by a hiking trail. A large portion of the wildlife area is barrens, or oak savanna where an old growth oak forest that has been hit hard by oak wilt is being re-established as oak savanna. In the wildlife area is a small observation tower.
My first morning at the campout I decided to hike over to that observation tower, where I decided to set up my station for a little POTA fun. The activation went well. After spotting myself through the fantastic Ham2K PoLo app, it just took a minute or two of calling CQ before I had a decent little pileup to work. Nice way to start the day.
Pictures from the hike in US-12077 Buckhorn State Wildlife Area
The is more to this blog after the photos, so keep scrolling so you don't miss out!
The Campout Itself
I did a few more POTA activation over the campout, but didn’t record any of them. But I got a QRO activation from my campsite and also a nice setup from a riverside picnic area.
It truly was a great time all around. Got to catch up with some old friends and made some new ones over the course of the event. Lots of fun and food around campfires. Not to mention opportunities to check out other people's camping and radio setups. I'm already looking forward to the 2026 Wisconsin Ham Radio Campout.
Pictures from the Campout
