Tag: camping

Black Rock Mtn St Park Kilo #7

This weekend I went back up to Black Rock Mtn State park to finish my kilo. My last trip was cut short by a power outage on the mountain. This time I brought a battery which fortunately, I didn’t need. During this trip, I brought some new items with me. A new radio, a new antenna and a new fan.

The radio. I did some trading and ended up with an IC-7200. I always wanted one of these. I am a Veteran and I like its military vibe. The radio worked well.

The weekend was an FT8 weekend as the bands were not in good shape. I did notice that the radio got warn running FT8 at 20 watts. It felt about the same as an IC-7000 did back in the day. The radio performed well and no hiccups were noted. Also new was my battery powered Hercules fan.

I used it to cool the camper without running the A/C and it had plenty of volume. I turned it slightly toward the IC-7200 to help keep it cool. It ran for over 8 hours on the 5 amp/hr battery and would probably go much longer.

My antenna for this trip was a Chameleon TDL (tactical delta loop). I had some of the pieces already and only had to add another whip, a hub, and wire that goes between the whips. I used the ground spike to to secure the antenna to the ground. It made it easily to turn the antenna. Above 10 MHz the antenna is slightly directional and I found this to be true. Pointing the antenna east-northeast got me further into Europe than I normally get with my verticals. In the evening I pointed the antenna slightly northwest and you can see in the QSOMap, the antenna shows a little directivity. All in all, I was pleased with the antenna. I sets up really fast and there are no wires in the trees. My campsite had power lines nearby and the loop was well below them. Putting up and taking down the antenna was done by extending and retracting the whips so there was no danger in contacting the overhead wires. Through the whole activation, I only ran 20 watts and I felt the antenna helped in that success.

I made 200 contacts which covered 33 States and 10 countries. Furthest State being California and the furthest country being New Macedonia. Considering the band conditions, I was pleased with the results.

It was a nice trip. the weather was great, I did not have to run the A/C or the heater. I finished up Kilo #7 but I will return to this park as it is one of my favorites. This may be one of my last campouts of the season, I have a lot of work to do around the home and property. 73 de Scott

Hurricane Prep Update

Update. I got the cupholder for the desk. It’s important to have because I often use tall coffee cups or soda bottles in the field. They can tip over easily and make a mess. The cup holder prevents that. Here is a view of the table and chair inside the truck bed.

I have a couple of L-track cargo straps on order that will tie the desk to the bed floor. This is a pretty comfortable setup when I am not in the camper.

Speaking of the camper, the table fits nicely in there too. I will be taking the folding table I was using out and replacing it with this. The other table was too large. You will see the table in action on my next camping trip.

I received all of the pieces for the Chameleon TDL (Tactical Delta Loop). I plan on using it my next trip. What is nice about the TDL is it has a lower vertical height and will be safe to use around power lines.

Here in Georgia it can get pretty warm. At the time of this writing Fall is approaching and temperatures are moderating. I added a battery operated fan to my kit. I recently discovered Harbor Freight Hercules brand battery power tools. I needed a small trim router and decided to try Hercules. The router was $69 vs $219 (Dewalt at Home Depot). Since I no longer work out of a tool box, I felt the Hercules brand would have me covered. I really like that little router. I decided to try their fan at $25.

It runs off of 120 VAC and 20V Hercules batteries.

The Dewalt version runs about $125. I can buy 5 of these for one of Dewalt. The fan comes with a 5 year warranty and the batteries – 3 year. From what the folks at the store tell me, it’s no questions asked, any Harbor Freight Store, anywhere. I turned the fan on and it moves air pretty good. Certainly enough for inside the camper or the truck bed.

So far this year, the hurricane season has been quiet and we have only had glancing blows. I check my gear on a regular basis. I have been doing this enough that my annual improvements are incremental. I use my camping trips to check gear and my skill set. I feel that if a call came, I could be ready to go in about 4 hrs give or take.

For those that practice FunComm, good on you and for those that practice Fun, have more of it. Let’s hope for a quiet remainder of the season and that FunComm was only for fun this year. 73 de Scott

FTX-1 vs IC-705 Physicality

I decided to take a look at the FTX-1 and see how it compares to the IC-705. I now have both (I own both) so I can take a good look at each in comparison. My intention is to treat this in a similar fashion as I did for the FT-710/IC-7300. My take is not an in depth technical review but how the radios are perceived through the eyes of a user/operator. First up is the physicality of the radios.

The screens are the same size on both radios. The FTX-1 is a little wider and the IC-705 is a little thicker.

Adding the batteries seems to equalize this as the Icom’s battery is set into the radio and the Yaesu’s sticks out.

One is wider, one is thicker, handling the two radios, I would say it’s a wash.

Weight
Here there is a difference. The Yaesu weighs more. Handling the radios, the Yaesu feels heavier than it actually is. It feels like a brick.

The FTX-1 is 6.3 ounces or 17% heavier than the IC-705. with out the batteries. Adding in the batteries.

For the Icom, I added to additional batteries to bring the total storage up to 6.3 Ah similar to the Yaesu’s 6.1 Ah battery. Even so, the IC-705 weighs less than the FTX-1 by 9.4 ounces or 16.34%. Note: The Icom with a 3.3 Ah battery weighs about 1 pound less than the FTX-1 with a 6.1 Ah battery (see the next post about power).

Size wise, I feel the radios are comparable, they would both fit in a pack or box interchangeably. Weight could be an issue for some. For those doing a POTA activation carrying their radio from the car to a park bench 50 yds away, weigh will probably not be an issue. For those who like to pack it in or do SOTA, weight would be a more critical concern. For me, my days of over hill and dale are pretty much done. If I had to travel light I would turn to my Elecraft KX2.

Next up power with some more surprises de Scott

Surprises at Laura S Walker State Park

I decided to travel a little further this time and head toward the Okefenokee swamp. this time I tried the Laura S Walker State Park. It was a five hour drive and about 320 miles but fortunately I was able to stay off the interstates for all but about 30 miles of the trip. The park is near Waycross, GA which recently suffered from severe weather. Even though it has been a while there it still plenty of evidence to attest to natures fury. The park itself was in good shape and I had a nice campsite.

I would normally use my 28.5′ vertical antenna but I had a power line that passed almost directly over my truck and camper. I could have requested a better campsite but in the spirit of FunComm I decided to work with what I had. Instead of my usual antennas I deployed a new antenna. A Diamond RHM-12. This is a manual screw drive type antenna that is only about 7 feet tall and covers 40 meters to 440 MHz. With additional coils it also covers 80 and 160 meters. I set it up away from the power lines and used a Chameleon Spike to set it into the ground. I also had 2 counterpoises about 20-25′.

I was a little concerned about its performance. Inside the camper I had My Lenovo Laptop and Yaesu FT-710 with an LDG tuner.

I had a Rig Expert Pro Stick antenna analyzer with me and I was able to get the SWR down below 2:1. I guess I could have monkeyed with to get it lower but since I had the tuner…

I have really taken a liking to the FT-710. It has been performing well and since the last firmware updates, it has become a little champ. It is winning my heart. The radio, tuner, and computer all worked well together. I only ran 25 watts of power as that is about the limit on the antenna using FT-8. I was going to work some CW but the days I was at the park the temps were up around 90 degrees, far from the 43 degrees the morning I left my home QTH. I ran the air conditioning and when it is on I have trouble copying CW. Years in Army Aviation and other loud occupations have affected my hearing.

How did I do? Surprisingly well. In a 24 hour period which included sleep time, I made 400 contacts (7 dupes). I made contacts in 46 states (Not AK, HI, MT or RI) and 34 DX entities! I think that’s a new record for me during a POTA Activation. I got as far west as Australia and American Samoa, and as far east as Turkey, Bulgaria, and European Russia. The bands were up and down and I had to make a few trips out to the antenna to adjust it when I changed bands.

I never expected that little antenna to perform so well. The RHM-12 antenna has been assigned to permanent duty in my antenna kit.

It’s important to take your gear out and use it. Understand how it operates under various conditions. Know what your gear can and cannot do. This is good to know having fun but becomes critical when more is at stake.

Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome

The Marines got this right. When planning for a POTA/SOTA trip. It pays to plan for contingencies. I am not talking about going overboard with this. You should still try to carry only what you need. This past weekend I did a POTA camp-out at Ft. Mountain State Park in northwestern Georgia. I usually reserve campsites several months in advance, so everything may not be perfect by trip time. Part of my planning was considering band conditions. The week prior, propagation was unstable. In addition, I was not sure about the geography of the campsite. My planning was to bring two radios; my IC-7300 (QRO) and my IC-705 (QRP). I brought my Frankentenna with an extra EmComm II transformer to handle more power.

The planning paid off. My campsite was down in a hole and the bands were not good. The site was great for camping and only so-so for radio.

One of the POTA awards I am working on is the N1CC award which is operating on ten different bands at 10 different parks. I needed 2 more bands at this park to check this park off. I chose to use the IC-7300 for more power. Since I had shore power available, I wasn’t worried about running out of juice. Station setup looked like this.

Band conditions were less than optimal, so for this trip I decided to use FT8. There were times when the waterfall on the 7300 went completely black, even on the FT8 frequency. Normally I run about 25 watts, but this time I had to go as high as 50 watts. QRP would have been a tough row to hoe. The antenna was my Frankentenna and I ran the Chameleon EmComm II transformer instead of the Hybrid Micro so I could run a little more power.

I operated from Friday afternoon until somewhere around 0100 hrs Lcl, with a couple hour break due to a thunderstorm. The next day was beautiful, much cooler than the day before when we were under a heat advisory. I operated most of Saturday until early evening when I pulled the plug with another round of thunderstorms inbound.

I made 161 Q’s including DX from Alaska and South America.

I was trying for 200 Q’s, However, the propagation Gods were not with me, but I was satisfied with the results. I have a couple of YouTube videos.

I am former US Army, so a tip of my hat to all those who serve(d). God Bless, God Speed, and 73 de Scott KK4Z