Park to Park

  - U

POTA US-3407 Benicia State Recreation Area

Benicia SRA is beautiful after some rain. There's also little parking lots along the waterfront trail that give you really close access to picnic benches.

This would have been one of my more frequented spots if it hadn't been on the other side of a very busy bridge.

The partially-connected 891 go-box setup worked great! Setup and breakdown took a couple of minutes, once the antenna was squared.

Speaking of the antenna, I really need to get off my rear end and get that multiband project done. Adjusting the whip every time was not the most convenient thing. 10m didn't play well either. It might be the counterpoise or some weirdness with the whip and how close it is to the truck :shrug:

FT891 @ 100W; 1/4 wave vertical; N0SA SP4

35 QSOs in 1hr 39min, 10-20m band sweep

DX callsigns, with numbers in more than one place, are brain boilers.

Also, thank you David in Portugal for hanging in there to complete a 22n QSO :)

 - U

Antenna experiment shenanigans at POTA US-4571

Headed out for a quick activation before the week of rain.

I decided to try out a new 1/4 wave vertical antenna. I thought I had tuned it but turns out I hadn't :facepalm:

I couldn't get the Z-Tuner to find a match so bailed out with the KX2.

The CMC choke seemed to do its job too.

The wind played havoc :/ I had a loose connection somewhere and kept getting blips during QSOs until the antenna keeled over.

KX2 @ 10W; 1/4 wave vertical; BamaTech TP-III
10 QSOs in 40min

More work needed tuning the vertical and then working on the multiband prototype.

Lesson learned - don't try a new setup in the field before I've tested it at home.

 - U

Oasis at Uinta-Wasatch-Cache

Go Forrest!

 - U

Bear Cave at Chalco Hills

WB0RLJ continues.

 - U

Dinner, a kneeboard, and POTA US-4578

First attempt with a cobbled together kneeboard. It works :)

I was trying to get a quick activation after dinner but conditions were not great.

This was not the day to try the 40m AX1 extension. I managed 3 QSOs from CA and OR. 20m was slightly better but I only managed 6 before needing to pack up.

Cleaned up the activation on the way back from golf. P2P for the remaining.

KX2 @ 10W; AX1; BamaTech TP-III; QRPWorks MagPi

10 QSOs

2 windows - 1hr for 6, 10min for 4

 - U

Pixie

Biggest build so far - the venerable Pixie.
This was mainly for soldering practice more than anything else.

Laying out the components.

This took a little while but made things insanely easy during the build.

Capacitors done.

Passive components done.

Completed build.

A pencil tip and higher iron temps worked out pretty well. Solder joints are a mix of decent ones and some that are in shambles.

The Pixie passed the smoke test but receive was a no-go. Something is happening as the buzz reduces substantially when a crystal is put in the socket but I couldn't here W1AW.

Transmit worked! It was dirty as hell but it did work :)

Onwards and upwards.

 - U

Dummy Load

20W Dummy Load kit from Pacific Antennas.

Easy build but I made a mess by starting off with the wrong tips - hoof tip and knife tip were waaay too big for the through-hole kit.

I think I had the iron temp too low as well.

I was trying under 400C since I had new tips - lead-free definitely needs 410-420C.

Not pretty but it works.

Learned a few things for the next build.

 - U