Flying with Ham Radio Gear and POTA in Nevada

I had a short vacation planned to fly down to Las Vegas and play some video poker, I decided it would be neat to take my ham radio gear and do a parks on the air while I was in town.  Having lived there at one time in my life, I knew the perfect place to visit.  Lake Mead National Recreation Area, lots of space to setup anywhere along the shoreline.  I have put together a nice kit that includes a 6ah LifePo4 battery, the Xiegu X5105 HF radio, a QRPguys antenna, and a small laptop.  The entire HF kit fits into a small bag with molle straps to which I have added a Condor 191028 pouch.  This gives me one more pocket to hold the antenna.  This easily fits in my carry-on luggage.  I prefer not to check a bag, so I decided to use my radio bag as my personal item and put the rest in my carry-on.


First stop, TSA.  I had spent some time doing some research and found that the current requirements to carry on a lithium battery is for it to be under 100 watt hours, have the terminals protected, and that it needs to be carried on.  Since mine is a small 12v 6ah battery that wasn’t a problem.  Ham radio transceivers are also currently allowed by the FAA, but you cannot operate in the air without the consent of the pilot.  I had no plans of operating in the air, I just didn’t want to get stopped at TSA and have to go back and leave it in my vehicle.  Passing through security, I let them know I had some electronics and they pointed me to a lane that was easier to get extra bins at.  I pulled the transceiver, laptop, and my iPad out and ran them through separately.  After passing through the body scanner, I waited for my belongings.  I fully expected them to flag my stuff and to have my bag searched.  However, I watched it come out of the machine.  The person operating it stopped with my bag next to him, picked up my transceiver, and said to the person standing next to him “I don’t know what it is but it looks fine”, sat it back down, and cleared my luggage for me.  It was much easier than I expected and no hassle at all.

On the day that I chose to go do my activation, I went down and picked up my rental car.  I was pleasantly surprised that the economy car I reserved wasn’t available and they had to put me in a convertible mustang.  It was fun for a little bit, but don’t know that I would ever want to own one.  I made my way into Boulder City and got a burger at Pit Stop.  It was one of my favorite places when I lived there, they still make a pretty good burger.

I arrived at Lake Mead National Recreation Area and had to pay the $25 day use fee.  Much cheaper than a few hours playing video poker.  I made my way down to Boulder Beach and found a spot where the terrain would let me set up my gear.  Keeping my kit so small and light I knew I was going to have to overcome a compromised setup.  I was able to run my short piece of coax out the passenger window to the QRPguys matching transformer.  From there I ran an end fed half wave cut for 20 meters out to my bag that I had placed up on some rocks.  This kept it off the ground, but just barely.  I would have liked to have had a lot more elevation.

I was easily able to make my 10 contacts.  My brother was experimenting with the Xiegu G90 in Washington but we were unable to make voice contact.  We will have to do a bit more experimenting.  It was fun getting to do another activation, this one away from home, using a compromised setup, I only ran 3 watts, but I got it done!  I will certainly be making POTA/SOTA activations part of my future vacations.


~73s K7WJV

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