Riverside with the KX1

A view of the river from my operating spot.

 Saturday was not turning out the way the weather guy predicted....what else is new. It was supposed to be a sunny day but rain was threatening all day. My plans for the day was to get some painting done around the house. Then in the afternoon get the KX1 and do some outdoor operating. During the week I was scouting out some spots as I drove around town, found one that seemed just great. It had a little table to set up on, there was also a tree to toss the long wire over. It was right beside the river that runs through town as well.

The table in the background in my spot.

 Around 1:30 I had gone as far as I could with the painting and the KX1 was calling my name!!!!! The weather broke and the sun came out the temperature was around 22C. For this time of year that is just great. I  made my way down to the riverside spot and began to setup. The long wire was tossed over a tree right beside me about 10 feet tall. The counter poise was just laid across the ground under the tree. Turned on the rig and engaged the built in antenna tuner, all was well SWR of 1.3.1 and the output was a whopping 1.4 watts. Tuned in 14.060 at 2:25 local time found N4BP calling CQ. I gave it a go and he came back to me right away.  He gave me a fast exchange and then I realized he was in a contest, giving me an exchange and now waiting for mine. I gave him  a 599 report (which he was) and my province as he gave me his state of Florida. He then came back to me wanting my output power, I sent him that and the contacted ended as fast as it started. I was happy that my little setup made it into Florida. I was calling CQ for a bit then decided to search 20 meters and find someone who was calling CQ.
Well that never worked out so I called CQ again around 14.059. At around 3:45 local time K4AHO James came back to me  I had some trouble keeping up with the code. I was excited he came back to me and on top of that copying the code just was not working out all that well. I did get his report and I sent him mine. James too was in Florida I believe his RST to me was 559. Conditions changed and our QSO ended

The setup with the long wire going into the tree

with us both fading.  I am used to contesting at around 30 to 35wpm. In a contest you know what is coming at you so you know what to expect. In a QSO...not so. I was planning on spending about 2 hours from this location, after close to an hour I had a lady approach me asking if I could move. She was a photographer and a wedding party was on it's way for pictures. I had no problem with that as the weather was once again changing so I quickly got some more pictures of the spot and went home. I will  go back to this spot maybe even next weekend for some more riverside operation. One thing this outing told me was I have to get on the radio more at home and work at my conversation CW as opposed me my contest CW. Over all it was a short time but I had a great time, it was cool seeing what the KX1 could do with just over 1 watt of power.