Brew and Activate

About Brew and Activate

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!

Publisher

Brew & Activate - N1JUR

Category

leisure · technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

2 Dec 2025

Latest episode

10 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

59 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   10 Oct 2026

   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 (https://n1jur.com) 📬 Join the free Field Notes Newsletter https://n1jur.com/newsletter (https://n1jur.com/newsletter) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🤝 GET MORE INVOLVED ⭐ Become a YouTube Channel Member https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBBAnDZb9q0hDFNEIUuOVDQ/join (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBBAnDZb9q0hDFNEIUuOVDQ/join) 🛠️ Follow exclusive builds, projects, and mentoring on Patreon https://patreon.com/cw/n1jur (https://patreon.com/cw/n1jur) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎒 GEAR, PARTNERS & DISCOUNTS See the radios, antennas, batteries, accessories, and production equipment I use: https://n1jur.com/gear (https://n1jur.com/gear) Find available partner discounts and special offers: https://n1jur.com/discounts (https://n1jur.com/discounts) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 👕 WEAR SOMETHING WEIRD N1JUR, POTA, and ham radio shirts, mugs, stickers, and more: https://makerfweird.com (https://makerfweird.com)

2. 

   5 Oct 2026

   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 (https://n1jur.com) 📬 Join the free Field Notes Newsletter https://n1jur.com/newsletter (https://n1jur.com/newsletter) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🤝 GET MORE INVOLVED ⭐ Become a YouTube Channel Member https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBBAnDZb9q0hDFNEIUuOVDQ/join (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBBAnDZb9q0hDFNEIUuOVDQ/join) 🛠️ Follow exclusive builds, projects, and mentoring on Patreon https://patreon.com/cw/n1jur (https://patreon.com/cw/n1jur) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎒 GEAR, PARTNERS & DISCOUNTS See the radios, antennas, batteries, accessories, and production equipment I use: https://n1jur.com/gear (https://n1jur.com/gear) Find available partner discounts and special offers: https://n1jur.com/discounts (https://n1jur.com/discounts) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 👕 WEAR SOMETHING WEIRD N1JUR, POTA, and ham radio shirts, mugs, stickers, and more: https://makerfweird.com (https://makerfweird.com)

3. 

   18 Sept 2026

   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 (https://n1jur.com) 📬 Join the free Field Notes Newsletter https://n1jur.com/newsletter (https://n1jur.com/newsletter) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🤝 GET MORE INVOLVED ⭐ Become a YouTube Channel Member https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBBAnDZb9q0hDFNEIUuOVDQ/join (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBBAnDZb9q0hDFNEIUuOVDQ/join) 🛠️ Follow exclusive builds, projects, and mentoring on Patreon https://patreon.com/cw/n1jur (https://patreon.com/cw/n1jur) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎒 GEAR, PARTNERS & DISCOUNTS See the radios, antennas, batteries, accessories, and production equipment I use: https://n1jur.com/gear (https://n1jur.com/gear) Find available partner discounts and special offers: https://n1jur.com/discounts (https://n1jur.com/discounts) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 👕 WEAR SOMETHING WEIRD N1JUR, POTA, and ham radio shirts, mugs, stickers, and more: https://makerfweird.com (https://makerfweird.com)

Contact Brew and Activate

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.