KX3 Pedestrian Mobile

Today, I used the Elecraft KX3 for pedestrian mobile. The outfitting included the KX3 in a LowePro bag with the lid cut off. I used the belt loops of the bag plus the strap over my shoulder. On my back was an alice pack frame. The frame had a 10 Ah  LiFePO4 battery tied to it which is very light. The frame also had a lap desk plastic sheet with the pillow removed strapped to it. Which in turn had a 13 foot crappie pole strapped to it.

My target band was 17 meters. The antenna was 13 foot of wire taped to the pole and a 9 to 1 balun with two foot of coax to the rig. I kind of knew better but I went with no drag wire. The rig tuned via internal tuner and the spots were good. However, a couple of times I had excessive tuning. It think I'll hang something off the counterpoise terminal next time. The rig and my body were most likely the other half of the antenna. However, the antenna performed better than a buddistick/drag wire arrangement I tested.

As you can see from the pictures it was a beautiful day and and I joined members of the Panama City ARC at a local park beside the bay for portable ops. I worked Pat F5MFO near Paris on CW and PJ2/DL5MFL Curacao on SSB. This was followed by another SSB contact with Bob K0WOJ in Missouri. Bob gave me an S8 and it was a good conversation.

Certainly the size, weight, internal tuner and multiple modes make the KX3 ideal for pedestrian mobile. Likewise for the LiFePO4 battery.

Post Outing Analysis: I found that hanging a 13 foot wire off the counterpoise terminal of the 9 to 1 balun is a good thing. There is about the same on the antenna side. The 9 to 1 balun tends to flatten SWR to a range the KX3 tuner can handle on 40 and up. So I will use that setup the next PM Outing..

de	dx	freq	cq/dx	snr	speed	time
WZ7I	N4KGL	18084.4	CW CQ	19 dB	14 wpm	1553z 10 Nov
N0TA	N4KGL	18084.4	CW CQ	14 dB	15 wpm	1553z 10 Nov
WA7LNW	N4KGL	18084.4	CW CQ	22 dB	15 wpm	1553z 10 Nov
W3LPL	N4KGL	18084.4	CW CQ	14 dB	15 wpm	1553z 10 Nov
N7TR	N4KGL	18084.4	CW CQ	9 dB	15 wpm	1553z 10 Nov
WA7LNW	N4KGL	18080.8	CW CQ	11 dB	13 wpm	1528z 10 Nov
PJ2T	N4KGL	18080.8	CW CQ	6 dB	13 wpm	1528z 10 Nov
KQ8M	N4KGL	18080.9	CW CQ	17 dB	13 wpm	1528z 10 Nov
WZ7I	N4KGL	18080.8	CW CQ	20 dB	13 wpm	1528z 10 Nov
KQ8M-98	N4KGL	18080.9	CW CQ	9 dB	13 wpm	1528z 10 Nov
W3LPL	N4KGL	18080.9	CW CQ	19 dB	13 wpm	1528z 10 Nov