Thursday, April 2, 2015

Out and about with my KX3 radio

The KX3 being used in my lap.
It's the Easter weekend and I normally get the Friday and Monday off work but this year I decided to also take the Thursday and Tuesday. Today was to be a great day with the temperature in around 17C the forecast was for sunny skies in the morning and early afternoon but then rain rolling in for later in the day. I decided early in the week that with the nice weather I was going to make today an outdoor radio day........well from the car just a bit muddy and wet to setup outside just yet. I took  my Elecraft KX3 and some mono band HF whip antennas that attach to a mount on my car. I set my sights on 15m and the conditions seemed great and the DX was rolling in. For the time I was on the DX contacts that I made were:
1. I1YRL from Italy and Luc was very strong and no fading what so ever. While talking to him I found out that in the summer of 2014 he and his wife visited Toronto. Luc gave my 5 watt QRP signal a report of 579. Luc was very surprised I was QRP 5 watts using a mobile whip from my car. 
2. EG90IARU/5 this was a special event  again they were booming in and I was able to make the contact on my first call. This was a very fast contact with the usual 599 report.
3. IT9NJE and Gene again from Italy gave me a 549 signal report.
Over all I was very pleased with my hour on the radio from the car out in the park. I was happy I did not have any Murphy moments but I did have an "old age" moment..................I installed the 15m mono band whip antenna on the car. For some reason (old age) I set the KX3 to 20m and could not understand why the antenna tuner was needed everywhere on the band! Then in occurred to me I was on 20m using my 15m antenna. Once that was sorted out the morning went very well.

2 comments:

PE4BAS, Bas said...

The KX3 is a great looking radio the way you have it. Nice contacts from the mobile. I hope the nice weather will get here now too! 73, Bas

VE9KK said...

Very nice to hear from you Bas, yes the KX3 to me is a very nice all in one radio. This rig was one of the best purchases I made and it sure does get lots of use. The weather here is supposed to start to cool down for at least another week. Oh well the one nice day was great when it was here.
73, Mike