Several times a year PAPA members meet to set up and demonstrate some of their favorite portable antennas and rig configurations.

If you’d like to learn about setups for POTA and/or SOTA, come on out and see the variety of HF, VHF, and UHF antennas that PAPA folks are using, along with their battery and rig configurations.

If you want to bring your own radio and antenna to setup, please do!

Pop-up canopies, chairs, and snacks to share are always welcome.

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Past PAPA Antenna Show & Tell Events:

05/24/2026 – McCambridge Park in Burbank

05/17/2026 – Camino Real Park in Tustin

Sunday morning, May 17 was an early morning for quite a few people in PAPA land.

The reason: another antenna show and tell was planned at the Camino Real Park in Tustin.

Logan KD6LLB came down from Malibu. Paul KN6RED and Scott K6SJZ made the trip from Redlands. Joe AK6MB rolled down from Manhattan Beach. Ed W6ONT came from Cypress. And RH NJ5X came from Costa Mesa.

I believe that the neighborhood is getting used to us since nobody stopped by to ask what we were doing, although they were watching our set ups from a distance.

Since pictures say more than words, I’ll try to summarize and let you drool over the pictures. We had 14 people on the sign in sheet. We had 9 antennas set up: verticals, BuddyPole, Tactical Delta Loop, End Fed Wire, and it wouldn’t be the PAPA system if there wasn’t a mag mount on a cookie sheet (or, in this case, a metal door taken off of an old barbeque). We did voice, and FT8. And of course, we checked SWR for each one of our antennas before we hooked it to the radio. From last year we remembered to bring band pass filters but we were spread out enough so they weren’t really needed.

There were a few people who are very interested in getting started with HF and I believe they got a little bit of the push they were looking for.

We had coffee, croissants, muffins and doughnuts to share. As you can see in the pictures, it was overcast and for the first time, I didn’t get a sunburn at the antenna event.

Thanks all for showing up, with or without radios and antennas. It’s your presence that makes this a success and a motivation to do it again next time.

05/25/2025 – Camino Real Park, Tustin, CA

Logan, KD6LLB, came down from Malibu. James, K0WDG and Justin, K3ENE made the trip from Solvang. That’s called dedication!!! And a lot of stuff to show. 

Before we had a chance to set up our station, people walking their dog stopped to ask what we were doing. Fortunately, they were interested and we didn’t have to deal with the omnipresent Karens. So interested that it resulted in me not being ready when people showed up. But it was fun to explain all the different facets of ham radio. I believe the feeling to be mutual since one lady returned an hour or so later with her grandson to show him around.

Since pictures say more than words, I’ll try to summarize and let you drool over the pictures. We had 18 people on the sign in sheet and we’re not sure if everyone did sign in.

We had 9 antennas set up: verticals, Tactical Delta Loops, End Fed Wire, and it wouldn’t be the PAPA system if there wasn’t a mag mount on a cookie sheet (or, in this case, a metal door taken off of an old barbeque). We did voice, FT8, Winlink. And of course, we checked SWR for each one of our antennas before we hooked it to the radio.

Bill, KE6NAA, brought his brand new Icom 7100 and End Fed antenna and he walked away with a lot of questions answered and a lot of questions to be answered. Lol, where did I hear that before?

Harold, KO6HRN brought doughnuts to share and the later it got, the more welcome they were. Double thumbs up to Harold!

We had planned to wrap things up by noon. At 2:38 we left the park, very satisfied but some not looking forward to the drive back home.

We’ll do this again in the fall.

10/20/2024 – Tustin, CA

Jason KG6HZZ set up a SuperAntenna and used a Yaesu FTDX10 to make (a lot) of contacts on FT8.

Ivo KO6BKX set up a Chameleon MPAS 2 vertical HF antenna (80m-10m) and used an Icom IC-7300 to make SSB voice contacts. Ivo also used an IC-705 to make QRP connections to RMS gateways via Vara HF Winlink.

Logan KD6LLB pretty much copied Ivo’s set up and operation.

05/18/2024 – Dos Vientos Community Park, Newbury Park, CA

James K0WDG, Justin K3ENE brought their Traveling Antenna Farm: a K0WDG “Cowdog” Commander (a homemade multi-band 1/4-wave vertical HF antenna based on the design of the DX Commander), a K3ENE Tactical Delta Loop (a homemade multi-band HF loop antenna with 5:1 unun based on the design of the Chameleon TDL), a K3ENE dual-band Log Periodic Directional Antenna (a homemade dual-band LPDA based on the design of the Elk 2m/440L antenna), and a homemade 40-meter EFHF set up in an inverted-V configuration using a telescoping mast and a tripod.

Victor W2AYZ demonstrated a Chameleon HF mag loop antenna, and impressed everyone by making contact with a station in Carson City, NV on 40 meters in the daytime using an IC-705 running at 5W.

Logan KD6LLB set up a Chameleon MPAS 2 Vertical HF antenna and used an Icom IC-7300 to make SSB voice contacts on 80m, 40m, and 20m, and made Vara HF Winlink connections on 40m, 30m, and 20m.

04/07/2024 – Tustin, CA

Eleven people came out and set up a variety of portable HF, VHF, and UHF stations.

Dave KO6BAF and his father, Vic KO6DYZ, set up a Chelegance JPC 12 vertical antenna (40m-6m) and used a Xiegu G90 to make contact with a station in Alaska.

Jason KG6HZZ set up a DX Engineering TW-2010-P HF antenna (20m-10m) and used a Yaesu FTDX10 to make (a lot) of contacts on FT8. Jason also demonstrated the Yaesu ATAS 120 HF antenna installed on his car.

Ivo KO6BKX set up a Chameleon MPAS 2 vertical HF antenna (80m-10m) and used an Icom IC-7300 to make SSB voice contacts. Ivo also set up a home-brew 70cm J-Pole antenna and used an Icom ID-5100 to monitor PAPA 3. And he used an Icom IC-705 with a mag mount antenna just to demonstrate that it doesn’t take much of an antenna or much power to hit a repeater.

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11/26/2023 – McCambridge Park, Burbank, CA

James K0WDG and Justin K3ENE set up their “Cowdog” Commander (a homemade multi-band 1/4-wave vertical HF antenna based on the design of the DX Commander, with a number of hardware improvements).

Logan KD6LLB set up Chameleon Tactical Delta Loop Antenna (mounted on a 5’ stick of 1/2” EMT driven into the ground) and used a Yaesu FT-891 Transceiver (together with an FC-50 Antenna Tuner and a SignaLink USB Sound Card) to make SSB voice contacts on 80m, 40m, and 20m. The rig was powered by a Powerwerx MEGAbox with 40Ah Bioenno LFP Battery.

RJ KM6AVH set up a Chameleon EmComm 2 End-Fed wire antenna in the trees and used an IC-7300 to make SSB voice contacts on 20m.

John W6TMI set up a SuperAntenna…

VHF/UHF Antennas in their Natural Habitat