POTA / SOTA Field Ops

Parks On The Air and Summits On The Air are where RFWhisper earns its keep. You're usually operating QRP (5 W) into a compromise antenna, chasing weak stations, and you've dragged a laptop up the hill so every dB of improvement matters.

Typical field setup

Component	Example	Notes
Rig	IC-705 / KX3 / FT-891 / X6100	USB CODEC handles audio routing
Antenna	EFHW / vertical / loop	Compromise is the norm
Computer	Laptop or Raspberry Pi 5	RPi 5 with a small 7" screen is ideal
Power	10–20 Ah LiFePO4 + USB-PD bank	RPi 5 draws ~5 W running RFWhisper + WSJT-X
Virtual cable	PipeWire / BlackHole / VB-Cable	Per your OS
Model	deepfilternet3@int8 or rnnoise-ham	INT8 saves ~30% CPU
Profile	ssb or ft8	Auto-select with Hamlib in v0.3

Pi 5 field recipe

# POTA kit: RPi 5 + IC-705 USB + 7" screen + LiFePO4
rfwhisper denoise-live \
  --in  "USB Audio CODEC" \
  --out "loopback" \
  --model deepfilternet3 \
  --model-variant int8 \
  --profile auto       # reads rig mode via Hamlib (v0.3)

In WSJT-X: Audio → Input = loopback.

What to actually expect

• FT8 on 20m at midday — typically +1 to +3 marginal decodes per cycle, zero false decodes. Great day.
• 40m SSB evening contact — stations near your local S-meter noise floor become copyable. You'll notice the difference on a 599-vs-449 signal report.
• CW in the wild — RFWhisper is conservative on CW by default (profile cw). Crashes from distant storms come down; dits and dahs stay sharp.
• VHF FM simplex — scratchy signals ride up. Deemphasis runs before the NN so you don't amplify hiss into the NN's features.

Power budget (Pi 5 + RFWhisper + WSJT-X)

Load	Power
Pi 5 idle	~2.5 W
Pi 5 + WSJT-X	~3.5 W
Pi 5 + WSJT-X + RFWhisper (INT8)	~5.0 W
+ 7" HDMI touchscreen	+2–3 W

A 20 Ah 12 V LiFePO4 bank + a 12 V → USB-PD step-down runs the Pi for most of a typical POTA session even after powering the rig.

Field-tested kit list

This section is populated by community contributions. Submit your kit list via Discussions → Field Ops.

• [community slot] — POTA activator, rig, antenna, computer, result
• [community slot] — SOTA activator, rig, antenna, computer, result

Tips specific to field ops

1. Run on battery, not grid, if at all possible — portable QTHs are much quieter than home, and you want the NN learning what's real noise vs fake.
2. Set blocksize to 960 on slower SBCs to give yourself margin on uneven CPU frequency scaling outdoors.
3. Record before/after clips in the field (rfwhisper gui has a record button) — they're the best content for the community model hub.
4. Update rfwhisper models fetch before you leave — no internet in the park.

Heat

Raspberry Pi 5 will thermal-throttle in direct sun without airflow. Active cooling (Argon ONE, Pimoroni fan SHIM, or just a 5 V fan glued to a heatsink) is worth the weight.

73 and enjoy the quiet bands.