I called my friend Larry up on Thursday ...and ask him to join me on a short hike in the Birkhead Wilderness Area on Friday morning. First let me say... it's beautiful in North Carolina right now ... the leaves just passed peak color a couple of days ago, so the colors are spectacular.... plus hiking is loads of fun & great exercise.We decided we would take a couple of HF rigs for some portable ops as well. It doesn't get much better than this. My 2 favorite hobbies .. Ham Radio and Backpacking, in the same day !! I took my Yaesu FT-857D & A123 battery pack plus a 17 meter Par End Fedz antenna for SSB ... Larry took his little ATS4 (qrp rig) & straight key, a gell cell battery... plus a 40 meter Par End Fedz for CW.
When I do portable ops ...I usually try to fill up a log page( which is 15 entries) before I quit. Propagation usually decides if I make my goal of 15 contacts and how long it will take. Most of the time it takes a couple of hours at least... even with 50 to 100 watts output. But I guess the propagation gods were smiling on me today... I made my goal of 15 contacts in 53 minutes.... I even worked Budd (W3FF) on bicycle mobile using 50 watts ... and Paul (W0RW)while operating pedestrian mobile using 5 watts .... Plus I worked 3 European stations as well ....Thanks for all the Q's !!!
All contacts were made on the 17 meter / HF Pack / calling frequency ... 18157.5
Log Start ... 1542Z
Log End ... 1635Z
N4LA Log on Nov/12/2010 ...... HF Portable Ops
CALL ......My Signal .....QTH
1. VE5WX ... 53 ... W Canada
2. K9DIG ... 59 ... North Dakota
3. F6EZR ... 54 ... France
4. DL8ZT ... 55 ... Germany
5. W0RW ... 59 ... Colarado (Base & Backpack Mobile)
6. 6Y5WE ... 55 ... Jamaica (Mobile)
7. VE5CAT ... 59 ... W Canada
8. SV2CXI ... 57 ... Greece
9. N0EVH ... 57 ... Missouri
10. WM6Z ... 57 ... California
11. KD0CRI ... 55 ... Missouri
12. W3FF ... 59 ... California (Base & Bicycle Mobile)
13. KI0AJ ... 59 ... South Dakota
14. K7MCX ... 58 ... Washington
15. W9BWR ... 59 ... Minnesota
For more pics ... Click Here
A special thanks to Paul / W0RW who spotted me on QRP Spots and HF NOW .... this certainly helped me fill my log in record time !!
1 comment:
Good evening Todd, it's a nice challenge to get out of the shack and into the outdoors with ham radio. I too have done it and been surprised at the contacts. Great pictures of the day as well.
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