Sunday, August 29, 2010

HF Ops ..From The Birkhead Wilderness Area


Yesterday I visited the Birkhead Wilderness Area and took my portable HF gear with me.... here is a picture of my setup.
My portable HF setup includes ... Yaesu FT-857D / LDG Z-11 Tuner / A123 Battery
Antenna used was a Mini-Buddipole ... set up as a dual-band vertical.
For VHF ... I used a Yaesu VX-5 handheld and a 2 meter (roll-up) J-pole
I operated on 20 meters and 17 meters.... and locally on 2 meters via area repeaters
Propagation was very poor on HF ... but still had fun and operated for 3 hours !!
Contacts on 20 meters were :
K0WA / Kansas
K0WJ / Kansas
W3FF / California
K4MK/ North Carolina
WA0TKF / Minnesota
K0OWL / Minnesota
KB0CH / Minnesota
NJ3D /Mobile / Oklahoma
Contacts on 17 meters were:
W3FF / California
HK4CZE / Columbia, SA
The A123 battery was very impressive ... as I operated just over 3 hours with 50 to 100 watts and still had battery power left when I packed up to leave !!
Best part is... the battery pack I used fits in the palm of your hand, and weighs just over 2 lbs ... perfect for hiking and backpacking into remote areas
My entire set-up including backpack weighed in at 25 lbs
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Tuesday, August 24, 2010

N7UN / Guy ..Maiden Peak, Oregon .. SOTA Activation !!

N7UN SOTA Activation: Maiden Peak Ore

Posted by: "Guy" n7un.guy@gmail.com   n7un

Mon Aug 23, 2010 8:54 am (PDT)

On Wed Aug 25 about 2100 utc I will climb to activate Maiden Peak (7,820'/2383m)in central Oregon. See http://www.sotawatch.org/summits.php?summit=W7/CM-009 for more information about this mountain in the central Oregon cascades. I plan to be on 14060 +/- other stations with my K1 and lightweight Buddipole vertical. Providing the wx cooperates of course. Watch www.qrpspots.com for exact updates
as I plan to TweetSpot my start times. Hope I can work you!

72, Guy
N7UN/p