On February 13, 2026, I sent the following e-mail to my Delta Division Director, David Norris K5UZ

On a regular Saturday-morning Zoom meeting of hams a few months ago, a participant in Los Angeles asked the group, “Why can’t I activate one of my local parks and have it count in POTA?” Some of those in attendance echoed the sentiment. Based on that question, I asked myself what does POTA as a program look like? I recently published a snapshot of POTA sites, activations, and activators on this blog. There were several findings that we did not know before I published these results.

We often read that POTA is the “fastest-growing activity in U.S. amateur radio.” I’ve said it, too. Several times. I think satellite operations are a distant second growth activity. But do we actually know much about POTA activity growth through empirical data? My impressions are based on guesstimates from data on Canada where I analyzed a national survey of hams conducted originally by RAC. In 2001, some 37% of those Canadian hams said they engaged in portable operations, including POTA, SOTA and the like. It ranked 9th among 37 common ham activities in the survey. They reported to the tune of 15.7% participating in satellite operations. Alas, we do not have parallel data on U.S. hams so these are inferences made from comparative data. But data nonetheless.

Listeners to the ICQ Podcast where I appear monthly as a Presenter probably heard me say that I was successfully treated for a highly aggressive prostate cancer (adenocarcinoma, Gleason 8) almost two years ago at the Mayo Clinic. While in Rochester for two weeks, I had a lot of time in bed recovering from the surgery before being released for home back in Mississippi. For me, I tried to keep my mind on things besides the cancer treatment as I had the top prostate cancer hospital in the U.S. treating me and the top robotic surgeon, Dr. Igor Frank, at the helm. So what does a ham think about in this circumstance? Let me tell you…

My friends in political science used to talk a lot about “roll call voting” analysis over lunch in Perry Cafeteria at Mississippi State University. I was a member of the Faculty Forum who held a reserved anteroom for lunch in this beautiful arched building. I learned a lot from experts in other disciplines that a situation to discuss them might have not presented itself otherwise. On roll call voting in Congress, unless the body excuses itself from such an explicit vote, the Clerk records how each House or Senate member voted on a piece of legislation or rule change or other formal matter before the body. The results of such studies reveal how patterns of block-voting occur, whether on all issues or on certain ones.

The pending death of AM broadcasting is a common refrain these days.

Claims based on highly publicized station closings (e.g., author Stephen King), over-generalized personal experiences, the uncertainty of AM’s presence in automobiles, sentiment surrounding the medium and miscellaneous random events have fed this narrative.

But as in the infamous obituary for Mark Twain, this corpse can still fog a mirror. Here is why I say that.

The famous Southern comedian, Lewis Grizzard, had many, many funny sayings. Some got Baptist churches riled up at times. One of those was the title to a comedy album released in 1985, “I’ve Seen England, I’ve Seen France, I’ve Seen Miss America Without Her Underpants.” Well, Lewis didn’t make an appearance at the 2025 Huntsville Hamfest. Neither did that particular Miss America. But this line came to mind as I sat among about 30 or so hams in the ARRL Forum. It was hosted by Mikey Baker, N4MB, ARRL Director, Southeastern Division. This Division covers Alabama, Georgia, Northern Florida, Southern Florida, West Central Florida, Puerto Rico, and US Virgin Islands sections of the League. They claim to be the largest Division in the ARRL. There are a lot of licensed hams in those states but far fewer members.

My bespoke portable HF antenna, called the EiffelTenna, is featured in the October issue of Practical Wireless. I was inspired by a video of Jim W6LG on his Youtube Channel as well as the further work of Jason VE5REV via Twitter (X). It’s a fun build, inexpensive, is very portable, and works 40, 20, 15 and 10 meters. I use Faraday Cloth for the counterpoise and place the tripod directly on it.

Here in the U.S., Churches and Chapels on the Air is a new concept. I was fortunate to play a leading role a couple of years ago in herding a few cats on this side of the pond to get on the air in this very special event. It’s led, for over a half century now, by WACRAL, The World Association of Christian Amateurs and Listeners.