sure all was packed (Murphy decided to participate in those plans). It was off to Starbuck to have a coffee and get the laptop out (Starbucks has free wifi) and look up the contests that are on and get the exchange's they are using. I was going to be a "point giver" in as many contests as I could. So once at Starbucks Murphy kicked in.....I had all I needed for my portable operation but forgot my laptop!!!! Well the Iphone came to the rescue and I was able to get the contest info from there. So it was off to the park and I did find the perfect spot to setup at around 10 am. It was still cool but just to make sure this spot was under a large tree with
 |
| Elecraft AF1 |
lots of shade right beside the river. It was time to take a picture of the setup. Got the camera out and it just would not take a picture...I charged the battery last night....hmmm...upon further investigation I forgot to put a memory card for the camera.....another Murphy moment....Well the Iphone came to the rescue once again so the pic's in this post are done with my Iphone. I camped out on 20 meters and it seemed to be more alive with the IOTA contest than the QSO party contest. The noise level was amazing at almost "0" . So how did the AF1 work out...I found the connecting cable between the KX1 and AF1 being not shielded was picking up the RF from the
 |
| The park patrol |
Contacts at the River location
VC1Z 14.024mhz 830 miles with 1 watt.
AA4XX 14.024mhz 545 miles with 1 watt.
N4LN 14.082mhz 400 miles with 1 watt.
So that was the extent of my contacts as it seemed even though 20 meters had a very low noise floor the band seemed to be not favoring my location and low power. The strong signals had large pileups and the stations close to the noise floor were just not hearing me. So it was time to head home around noon and get the jumper cable sorted out and get this blog post up and live.
6 comments:
Mike, I wish you had forgottent to take that Miracal Whip antenna with you but had 34' of wire instead. A quickly-assembled 20m inverted V could have been hoisted 15 feet and would have out-performed the MWhip by miles, at a fraction of the price.
You would have come home and thrown rocks at the miracal whip.
Good evening John yes I agree and I do have the wire to just that but I am both lazy as well there was not to many places to put up such an antenna. It's true the V would had out preformed the Miracle whip for sure. Now having said that this is a long weekend up there in Canada so maybe I will get out again and do just as you suggested and if I do I will post with the results. Thanks for stopping by John
Great riverside report Mike, that miracle whip is doing the job nicely, which is more than I can say for my walkabout ATX.....next time I go portable I'm going to take along some wet string, it will surely out perform my ATX .. HI
73, Mark
Yes Mark I am very surprised at times how well the antenna does. I am going to add a counter poise to it next time and see if that solves some of the issues I have been having with it along side the AF1.
Mike, thank you for the nice report on your riverside activities. It looks very warm over there. Nice you took the AF1 for a test and it works. Next time you better make a list of items that you should take with you...;-) 73, Bas
Good evening Bas, yes gone are the days when all that has to be taken is just a mental list. I was very happy with the AF1 just some feedback but I have that sorted out now. Seems what I needed was a counterpoise to fix the problem.
Post a Comment