Yesterday was a rainy day, and Marianne and I vegged out for most of the day. The skies started clearing out in the late afternoon:

And we were rewarded with yet another beautiful sunset a few hours later:

This morning dawned sunny, bright and a tad on the chilly side. After breakfast and a few stops, Marianne and I headed out to Kring Point State Park, US-2091 for the second activation of our wedding anniversary getaway.

This time, I did not bring the AlexLoop along, only the Elecraft AX1. I was impressed by its performance on Tuesday and I was not to be disappointed this time, either!

Here are some photos that Marianne took of me doing the POTA thing:

And here are some photos that I took of the setup:

We arrived at the park at about 11:00 (15:00 UTC) and stopped at the Park Ranger booth only to be told that the picnic area was closed for renovation and construction, but that we were free to drive around and look at the park. That's when Marianne noticed quite a few vacant campsites that sure enough had picnic tables! So we stopped at campsite #12 and I headed off to the picnic bench while Marianne did some exploring,

I was set up by15:25 UTC, spotted myself on the POTA app and after calling CQ POTA on 14.062 MHz, I was immediately greeted by Hunters. I didn't want to stay too long as today is actually our anniversary and I didn't think it was polite and proper for Marianne to be bored out of her skull.

I quickly racked up another 14 QSOs in just 32 minutes and I pulled the plug when my batteries started going wonky. More about that in a minute. QSOs were made with New Jersey (NY to NJ on 20 Meters - strange!), WI, a Park to Park with WA9LEY at US-7256 in IL, SC, CA, GA, OH, VA, NC and AR.

The performance from this little antenna just blows my mind. As Craig WB3GCK said to me, "It defies all logic.", but there you have it, the proof is in the pudding. The AX1 will be my go to whenever I activate picnic table portable, The RBN map wasn't as impressive as Tuesday's but the snr figures were very nice! There was not a single skimmer that picked me up with a single digit snr report.

Regarding the batteries. I made sure they were fully charged and they did not last at all. That's probably due to the fact that they've been sitting in the shack for years without being used. I'll have to go to eBay to pick up some fresh ones or perhaps something else that will last a bit longer, but is still small enough to fit in my QMX bag.

Thanks to all the Hunters who worked me this week! My activations were not long or filled with triple digit QSO numbers, but they are valid activations and I had a lot of fun!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

We made it up here! We arrived yesterday at Alexandria Bay, NY - the land (or water) of big ships and spectacular sunsets.

Those cargo ships travel up and down the St. Lawrence Seaway, carrying tonnage betwwen the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. And as you can see, the sunsets are breathtaking.

This afternoon, while Marianne took a nap, I set up the QMX and the AlexLoop on our balcony, overlooking the river. 20 Meters was a snap. I was able to get a good enough match quite easily, which kept the QMX happy. I even figured out how to get my pre-programmed messages to transmit, and I called CQ several times, just to see where the Reverse Beacon Network would pick me up, I was happy wiiith the result:

The locations of the spotters was great and the s/n db ratios were pretty darn good too. I had double digit s/n figures for a lot of the spots, indicating that I would have been heard by Hams near those skimmers.

On the other hand, 40 and 30 Meters were disappointments. I could not tune either band in well enough to keep the QMX happy. The procedure is to tune the Alex Loop's capacitor for loudest band noise. Once you do that, you're normally close enough for a decent match, No go on both 40 and 30 Meters, No matter what I did, the QMX's SWR circuitry kicked in and the unit refused to generate RF.

Luckily, the QMX is happy with the AX1, as I have previously successfully tried. That and the Buddistick will have to be the mainplayers for 40 Meters if I get the chance to do some POTAing later this week. Of course, if I decide to stick to 20 Meters solely, the Alex Loop is a more than viable alternative.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

After reading Craig WB3GCK's blog post, and reading comments from Brian KB9BVN on Facebook and his blog, I've decided I've got to spend more time getting used to (I was going to say "playing around with") my Elecraft AX1 antenna.

My results with it so far, the few times I've used it, have been 50/50. Sometimes it seems to work great, and other times I just end up with a whole bag of frustration.

Tom K4SWL had a great blog post and video of using the AX1 with the Emtech ZM-2 tuner. I'll have to give that a shot. I don't know .......I mentioned to Craig that I seem to have an innate "wire ... the higher, the better" antenna bias. I think the times the AX1 has disappointed me has caused me to consider it more of a last resort kind of thing. 

I think this calls for a few evenings of operating from the patio table in the backyard. Actual QSOs and perhaps a few sessions of calling CQ and seeing where the Reverse Beacon Network picks me up. I can kill two birds with one stone and use the time to also get even more familiar with the QMX. I have not even attempted programming the keyer messages yet. It took me long enough how to figure out changing bands and setting up the display and the VFO! I guess I just need to take baby steps.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!