These are specials days – days to notice and enjoy – before the heat sets in.  They won’t be here long.  They say Spring in North Texas is beautiful.  It is, especially when it lands on a weekend.

This activation is a new look at a regular park. A walking trail leads from the picnic area through a green tunnel of trees, opening on to nice little pond and a picnic bench. I’ve walked the trail a few times and always thought how nice it would be to activate from there.  But, in my FT8 days, two batteries, a QRO radio, a table, and a chair always seemed too much to lug down there.

CW has shrunken the footprint of my loadout and with everything fitting in a single backpack, I decided to take a hike – all 100 yards of it.  I didn’t accomplish much other than feeling the joy of breaking away from my hatchback.

The clearing with the bench allowed just enough room to raise a mast so I strung my Packtenna EFRW.  I use a Spiderbeam 10m mast and 4 guys.  The guy lines are simple, about 5 feet long, secured to the mast through loops on a band clamp.  Certainly less than elegant, but it works.  My EFRW doesn’t quite reach the ground so the length of my feedline decides where I put the mast.  It’s easier than my 40-10 EFHW where I have to carefully consider the length of the sloping wire when I pick a tree or raise a mast.

Gear

Rig

• Elecraft KX2

Antenna

• Packtenna EFRW

Setting up on the picnic bench and pointed towards the pond, I got to work.  I set up HAMRS, called QRL, hit the ATU, spotted on pota.app, and started calling on 20m with 5 watts at 12:35 central time.  I caught my first QSO, K7ZYV, two minutes later.

5 watts on 20 was a little slow.  I stuck with it until 13:04 finishing 20m with 14 contacts then moved up to 17m.  Now, I’d made my QRP activation with the 10th QSO and at about this point, I considered plugging in my external battery and flooring it (12 watts).  In my quest of a smaller radio loadout, I’d forgotten to pack my external battery and with the little KX2’s internal battery down to 11.4 V, there’s no chance I could goose the power with that alone.

So, with 5 watts, I caught one on 17m, two on 15m and one on 12m.  I knocked on the 10m door for about five minutes but there was nobody home.

All said and done, I left the park with 18 CW contacts and a reminder to always make sure I pack a spare battery. 

The real accomplishment, for me, was to venture away from the car – so try something new and see something green.  Not sure I’m ready for a backpacking chair and kneeboard, but I’m not far off.

CU AGN ES 73,

KA5TXN Mark
DitWit

PS – I found my backup battery in the car the next day. Fully charged, right where I left it.