With several consecutive rainy days and rain in the forecast, I was doubtful that the rains would let up enough to allow an outing to Falling Waters State Park near Chipley FL. But I arrived at 8 AM and the rains held off until 2PM. I would have been hiking with the gear but with the threat of rain I setup at a pavilion. The setup was the the usual KX3 and the Alexloop.
I started on 40 meters thinking I could catch the Central FL QRP Group on but I had the weekends mixed up. I did snag Jerry AB4ZB in Smithville TN. He was at the Fiddler's Jamboree. So on to 30 meters. I worked WW4DX John in Advance, NC. He was running 2 watts. Then Lee K5LY in New Hope TX. On to 20 meters CW, I worked John KG9HV in Lafayette IN. He gave me a 419 but we made a go of it. He commented on conditions not being very good. There was not much going on 20 CW.
Things got interesting on 17 SSB. I worked HH5/KC0W in Haiti with no problem. Then on to 15 meters. I had a good QSO with KE4RG in Gretna VA. He said it was his first CW QSO in 30 years. So that was a special QSO for both of us. Next I worked KX0R doing SOTA. Well what about 10 meters. There were some signals on SSB. I gave N9NUQ a call and he turned his big beam around for me. The KX3 only lets me load 5 watts into the Alexloop on 10 meters but it was enough for a nice SSB QSO.
Now what had I overlooked? Well on to 20 meters SSB. I was able to work three Colonies Special Event stations; K2K, K2J and K2F. One last shot on 20 meters CW yielded WW2SUB which is the Batfish submarine in OK. At 2PM the rains picked up, a crowd gathered under the pavillion and not having lunch yet, this made it time to go.
I'd say that this was above average outing. Once again I am pleased with the convenience and performance of the Alexloop. The pavillion had a metal roof and I was moving the loop under the pavillion when we had light sprinkles. But it still worked well.
The Rapid Deployment Amateur radio (RaDAR) program is a good way to exercise your portable operating skills and equipment. See this link for the RaDAR Program rules. In addition, there is a Google+ Community for sharing your RaDAR operations at this link You don't have to join the community to participate in RaDAR. The RaDAR program is administered by Markus KD0JKM. The RaDAR concept was originated by Eddie ZS6BNE.
