I got up at oh-dark-30 a few days ago and drove, pre-sunrise, to Flagler Beach FL to video the morning's beginning with my drone.On the way home, a park presented itself and I had all the radio ingredients needed to put it on the air. The highest band open was 15m and many Europeans were worked.Here's a brief sampling:..

MFJ-1979 & eBay whipMy go-to antenna for portable operation has become the MFJ-1979 telescoping whip. It operates as a no-compromise 1/4-wave vertical on 10-20 meters, provided I have four elevated radials.In Lowband DXing, John ON4UN (SK) cites work done by many lowband DXers (confirmed by antenna modeling) that four elevated radials is equivalent to 120 on-the-ground radials in terms of

True Pacific-Northwest style SOTA fun!

Lots of fun summit-to-summit contacts made in the High Sierra.

A quick overnight trip to the Sierra foothills, with some exciting contacts made!

I'm always trying to combine radio fun with my various outdoor activities—including backpacking and camping. But for quite a while, I've wanted to do a camping/backpacking trip with the primary purpose being radio fun—on a summit! With the SOTA "Flavours" Challenge 2020 going on, I also needed to get some contacts made on 160 and/or 80 meters—bands that work best at night. So, without much planning, I decided to do a quick overnight trip!