Many because of Brian K3ES who submits this superior report.
As I write this report, we’re at present visiting with my dad and mom at their house close to San Francisco, CA. Getting right here from our Pennsylvania house and again once more is a unbroken nice journey for my spouse Becky, POTA Pup Molly, and me. You see, it is a grand highway journey, full with sight seeing, activating POTA parks in new-to-me states, and many driving. Whereas a lot of the journey has been deliberate, there have been frequent adjustments to the route and schedule, as higher alternatives offered themselves. One such alternative was to deviate from interstate freeway journey between Montana and Idaho, and divert to lesser-traveled highways. This detour enabled us to slot in a drive by way of Yellowstone and Grand Teton Nationwide Parks. Sadly, we had been solely in a position to take the time to see a small fraction of the pure splendor. We did see sufficient to create the resolve to return for a correct exploration of the wonders that we needed to miss.
We made a handful of stops on our drive by way of Yellowstone, together with a few hours on the Outdated Devoted geyser. One problem of touring with Molly, is that canines should not at all times welcome in attention-grabbing areas. One other problem is that, having been rescued from an abusive scenario, she will be able to reply unpredictably to different canines. So, Becky and I’ve typically taken turns with certainly one of us exploring the sights, whereas the opposite remained within the truck with Molly. At this cease, Becky was the designated sight-seer for an impending eruption of Outdated Devoted (she takes higher photos), and I stayed within the truck with Molly.
ACTIVATING YELLOWSTONE
After getting settled in one of many few shaded parking areas within the lot, it occurred to me that I’d have time to do a fast activation of US-0070 whereas Becky was away. This specific parking zone was a busy place, so I wanted to be fairly stealthy in my radio arrange. I elected to make use of my Elecraft AX1 antenna, and connected it to a clamp-on mount secured to the bottom of the VHF/UHF cellular antenna on the entrance fender of the truck. I had used this configuration for earlier activations throughout the journey, and had been pleasantly shocked with spectacular efficiency. I had anticipated having the AX1 whip parallel to (and solely a few inches away from) the VHF/UHF whip to trigger detuning or worse, however this didn’t materialize.
With the whip put in, I ran the counterpoise wire over the hood, and tossed the rest of its 13 ft size onto the pavement instantly beneath the truck. I additionally linked my feedline to the antenna base, and ran it in by way of the open driver-side window to my KX2 positioned on the middle console. It tuned up fantastically, so I used to be in a position to rapidly verify a transparent frequency and begin calling CQ POTA.
It took simply couple of minutes to get my first contact operating CW mode with 5 watts to the AX1 on the 20m band. It took even much less time after that first contact for me to understand my mistake in parking in a uncommon little bit of shade. That occurred when a 10-foot-high RV pulled into the house subsequent to my truck. It was longer than my truck, greater than my antenna whip, and nearly actually sided with sheet steel. Shortly after that, a automobile towing a smaller journey trailer pulled into an area on the opposite facet of the truck. My coronary heart sank as I contemplated a failed activation, however I used to be decided to proceed the try. It was a pleasing shock when extra contacts began coming in. The tempo was gradual, however the contacts stored coming. Regardless of the Faraday cage that had assembled itself round my station, I ended up with 11 contacts within the log after 45 minutes on the air.
So there are detractors who name the AX1 a dummy load, and definitely it’s a compromised antenna. A four-foot whip is much from the best resonant size for the 20m band. It’s undoubtedly not the best antenna for each scenario, however when HF propagation situations allow, the AX1 may give superb outcomes with a really small and unobtrusive footprint.
GEAR
CONTINUING TRAVELS
The westward leg of our journey took us over 3800 miles by way of the northern tier states, and we plan to return by the use of the southern tier. Thus far, propagation has favored me with profitable park activations in every of the states that we visited. As I’ve the chance to do extra writing, I’ll share extra particulars of our journey and the moveable POTA operations alongside the best way. In the meantime,
Greatest 73 de Brian – K3ES/6
