Brew and Activate

Brew & Activate - N1JUR
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Welcome to Brew & Activate, the podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of Parks on the Air (POTA) every Friday morning! Join us for lively discussions that cover everything you need to know—from gear and antennas to optimal setups. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting out, we’ll explore every aspect of outdoor ham radio operations, including those topics that might initially seem less exciting. Grab your favorite beverage and tune in for a great conversation!

  1. 5d ago

    Why Does Nobody Activate This POTA Park

    Why do some POTA parks get activated CONSTANTLY... while another reference 20 miles away barely gets touched? This week on Brew & Activate, we're investigating THE POTA PARK NOBODY WANTS. What makes us choose one park over another? Easy parking? Bathrooms? Cell service? A picnic table? Good antenna space? A short drive? Knowing somebody else has already activated it? And what happens when a park has NONE of those things? We're looking at why certain POTA references become favorites, why others get forgotten, and whether we've gotten so good at optimizing our activations that we're missing some of the adventure. We'll play WOULD YOU ACTIVATE IT? We'll attempt some questionable POTA real estate evaluations. And then we're giving the Brew Crew a new challenge: THE FORGOTTEN PARK CHALLENGE. Find the POTA reference near you that gets almost no love... and go find out WHY. LIVE Friday at 10 AM Eastern with Eric N1JUR and Shannon KC1OHT. QUESTION FOR THE BREW CREW: What makes you SKIP a POTA park? #POTA #ParksOnTheAir #HamRadio #AmateurRadio #PortableRadio ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📡 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

    Why Does Nobody Activate This POTA Park

  2. Oct 5

    We Found the Weirdest Ham Radio Gear at NEAR-Fest

    What’s the WEIRDEST piece of ham radio gear hiding at NEAR-Fest? This week Brew & Activate is doing something a little different. Eric – N1JUR is back at Mission Control with the Brew Crew while Shannon – KC1OHT is LIVE on the ground at NEAR-Fest with one mission: FIND THE WEIRDEST HAM RADIO GEAR SHE CAN. We’re not looking for the newest radio. We’re not looking for the most expensive radio. And we’re definitely not looking for another perfectly normal black box. We want the homemade contraptions, mystery boxes, strange antennas, vintage equipment, questionable modifications, and those pieces of gear that make you stop and ask: “WHAT IS THAT?!” As Shannon explores NEAR-Fest, Eric and the Brew Crew will be calling the shots from Mission Control. Every contender goes on the WEIRD-O-METER: NORMAL QUESTIONABLE MAD SCIENTIST MAKE RF WEIRD Along the way, we’ll meet the hams behind this stuff and ask the important questions: What is it? What does it do? Does it still work? Why did somebody build it? And most importantly… WHY DO YOU STILL HAVE IT? Then the Brew Crew gets the final vote. 🏆 What deserves the title of NEAR-Fest’s WEIRDEST HAM RADIO GEAR? And remember — weird doesn’t mean useless. Some of amateur radio’s best ideas started because somebody looked at a problem and said: “I bet I can build something for that.” Join Eric, Shannon and the Brew Crew LIVE for OPERATION: MAKE RF WEIRD. ☕ Join the conversation in the Brew Crew Discord 📻 Subscribe for more POTA, portable radio, gear, experiments and questionable RF decisions 👕 Make RF Weird and support N1JUR through the merch store ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📡 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

    We Found the Weirdest Ham Radio Gear at NEAR-Fest

  3. Sep 18

    What Actually Qualifies as a POTA Park

    You pull up the POTA map. There's a state park. There's a wildlife refuge. There's a historic site. There's a giant public county park... Wait. Why doesn't THAT one count? This week on Brew & Activate, Eric N1JUR and Shannon KC1OHT are asking a question that sounds ridiculously simple: WHAT ACTUALLY MAKES A PARK A POTA PARK? Parks on the Air needs rules for deciding which locations become references—and once you start looking at the edge cases, things get complicated fast. National parks. State parks. County parks. City parks. Trails. Historic sites. Protected areas. Parks inside other parks. Locations that are technically public but almost impossible to reach. Which should count? We're looking at POTA's current park qualification guidelines, why the program limits certain types of references, what happens when an existing reference no longer qualifies, and the recent debate involving French ZNIEFF references. Then we're putting the Brew Crew in charge. Welcome to POTA COURT. We'll give you the location. YOU decide: PARK... or NOT A PARK? And eventually we're going to attempt something even more dangerous: Let the Brew Crew write its own POTA eligibility rule. That should go well. This isn't about attacking POTA, its volunteers, or any particular group of operators. It's about understanding a surprisingly difficult problem: How do you create one manageable park-activation program for amateur radio operators around the world? Join us LIVE Friday at 10 AM Eastern for Brew & Activate. QUESTION: What should make a location eligible for POTA? ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📡 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

    What Actually Qualifies as a POTA Park

  4. Sep 14

    The K1C Expedition Chasing a POTA ATNO by Boat

    What does it take to activate a POTA park that nobody has ever activated before? This week on Brew & Activate, we're going behind the scenes of the K1C Cross Island Expedition. On September 5, four amateur radio operators headed by boat to Cross Island, Maine, to put Cross Island National Wildlife Refuge — POTA US-0338 — on the air as an ATNO. And we're getting the story directly from the operators who made it happen. Joining us: James — NV1U Adam — AA1N Max — N4ML Josh — AF5ID We're talking about how the expedition came together, getting people and radio equipment onto the island, station planning, antennas, power, operating multiple modes, pileups, problems, surprises and the moment they finally put an unactivated park on the air. More importantly, we're going to find out what the rest of us can learn from an activation where "I forgot an adapter" is considerably harder to solve than walking back to the truck. If you've ever wondered what separates a normal POTA activation from a real expedition, this is the episode. BREW & ACTIVATE Friday | 10:00 AM Eastern Grab the coffee. Bring your questions. Because apparently driving to the parking lot wasn't difficult enough. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📡 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

    The K1C Expedition Chasing a POTA ATNO by Boat

  5. Sep 4

    POTA vs SOTA vs Tiles — The OTA Wars

    POTA isn't the only game in town. Parks on the Air has exploded across amateur radio—but POTA is just one way hams are turning portable operating into a challenge. This week on Brew & Activate, Eric N1JUR and Shannon KC1OHT are entering THE OTA WARS. We're putting four different portable-radio programs on the board: POTA — Parks on the Air SOTA — Summits on the Air TILES — Tiles on the Air PARC — Protected Area Radio Community But this isn't about trashing one program or declaring that everybody should abandon POTA for the newest shiny thing. We're asking a much more interesting question: WHICH GAME FITS THE WAY YOU LIKE TO OPERATE? We'll look at what each program is trying to accomplish, what it rewards, how you participate, how activations differ, spotting and logging, scoring, awards, physical challenges, exploration and the communities developing around them. Then we're putting them through the Brew & Activate test. Which program fits the casual portable operator? Which one rewards adventure? Which one makes exploration part of the game? Which one would you recommend to a brand-new portable operator? And can you STACK multiple programs during the same activation? Because maybe the OTA Wars aren't actually a war. Maybe we've just been playing one game when there's an entire arcade sitting next door. Different games. Same radio. Join Eric N1JUR and Shannon KC1OHT LIVE on Brew & Activate. FRIDAY 10:00 AM EASTERN Come prepared to answer: WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO GET OUT OF PORTABLE RADIO? And which OTA are YOU choosing? ************************************************************* 📡 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 Cross Island Maine K1C Activation https://www.qrz.com/db/K1C

    POTA vs SOTA vs Tiles — The OTA Wars

  6. Aug 28

    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

    We Asked to See Your POTA Bags… BIG Mistake

  7. Aug 22

    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

    Can You Activate POTA With NO Internet?

  8. Aug 15

    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

    Are You Actually Getting Better at POTA
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About

Welcome to Brew & Activate, the podcast where we dive into the fascinating world of Parks on the Air (POTA) every Friday morning! Join us for lively discussions that cover everything you need to know—from gear and antennas to optimal setups. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting out, we’ll explore every aspect of outdoor ham radio operations, including those topics that might initially seem less exciting. Grab your favorite beverage and tune in for a great conversation!

Information

  • Creator
    Brew & Activate - N1JUR
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    59
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © N1JUR Amateur Radio
  • Show Website
    Brew and Activate