What a great week of amateur radio! It seems like I say that a lot on this blog. That’s because it just keeps getting better and better! I was so busy Monday through Wednesday with worky-work, I didn’t get much time in the shack. But I made up for it the rest of the week and through the weekend.
- A good amount of FT8. Plenty of DX, especially on 15m. Saturday night, FT4 was pretty hopping on 40m. It’s a great mode to help fill in some missing grids.
- My new Icom IC-705 arrived this week! I was so busy Monday through Wednesday that I barelyh had time to unbox it. Once that came, it was evident I would need the backpack made for it too. 😀 So between DX Engineering and Ham Radio Outlet, I now have a pretty complete portable rig, with the exception of a good antenna. (More on that later.)
- Saturday was the Crossroads hamfest. What a great time! It was basically a “hamily reunion”. There were great deals to be had and lots of fellowship. Truly one of my ham radio highlights so far this year.
On Sunday, I took my new 705 portable setup to the park across the street. Now, you need to understand something…the park is a major thorn in my side! I won’t get into the details, but I knew it was such a pain, I would not have bought this house. ANYWAYS…I decided today to rename the park to the “Outdoor Antenna Lab”. Yes, this is a major effort on my part to make lemonade out of lemons!
I went to the park to try out the portable rig, which worked…sort of. The weakest link was definitely the antenna. I was trying the Comet HFJ-350 vertical. I gotta say, even with a tuner, it did not work very well. I almost made two contacts, but both said I was just too far down in the noise.
Now one might say my foray into the park was a failure, but actually, it was a success! I learned that the antenna I thought I could use will not work. That is very valuable information to find out before I get out in the field at a park or travel with the portable rig. I’m thinking an end fed halfwave may work better, but I haven’t ruled out a DX Commander Expedition. We’ll see what the week brings!