Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, my partner Bonnie and I decided that neither air travel nor staying in motels would be safe for a while, so we bought a small travel trailer. We left Wisconsin in early October on a six week trip through the west. I brought along the portable radio setup I use when traveling by car. Bonnie's blog for the trip can be found at:
During the first part of the trip, all our stops were either too short to set up the station, or in the bottom of a deep canyon. When we got to Zion National Park, the canyon looked wide enough that at least a little RF might escape, so I set up for the October 28-29 CWT's.
The antenna, as usual, was an end fed 40 meter half wave, supported about a quarter of the way from the far end by a 12 meter fiberglass pole. For 80 meters, I add two quarter wave radials, and feed it like a quarter wave vertical.
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| Zion Antenna |
The station consists of a KX2, KXPA100 amplifier, a laptop, and a small antenna tuner. Power comes from a 35 Ah lead-acid battery and battery voltage booster. Solar panels were used to recharge the battery and laptop via the charging system in the trailer.
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| 100 W Station |
I tried it out on Tuesday afternoon, and indeed a little RF was getting out of the canyon.
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| Zion RBN Reports |
It was too windy to leave the antenna up all night, and pitch dark at 13Z, so I skipped the first CWT session and started at 19Z.
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| Zion Operation |
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| Zion Operation |
I made just 32 contacts in the 19Z session, poorer than I've done at other QTH's with only 5 W, but conditions were poor, and there WAS a lot of rock in the way. The 03Z session was a bit better, with 44 contacts, including 14 on 80, which was much better than I expected.
It was almost two weeks before I was in a good place to put up the antenna again, this time at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, just north of the border in southern Arizona. I've operated there several times before, but only QRP. The campground is out in the open, for a change, with hardly any rock in the way of signals, so I've had pretty good results.
The campsite where we parked the trailer turned out to not be a great place for the antenna, so I rented one of the tent sites for radio operation.
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| Organ Pipe Antenna |
CW Sweepstakes was the weekend we arrived, so I got on for a while on Sunday as K9MA/7. (I'm sure the call history file tripped up a lot of folks.) I operated almost 4 hours, but had to take a break in the middle to recharge the laptop. (The radio battery was fine.) I ended up with 186 contacts and 66 mults.
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| Organ Pipe Operation |
By the following Tuesday, the wind had picked up, so I once again had to skip the 13Z CWT. When I tried to put up the antenna Wednesday, the pole collapsed several times before I finally got it to stay up. Untangling the wire from the cacti was a pain. The 19Z session didn't go well, with only 40 contacts, most on 20. Apparently, there were actually too many sunspots for daytime operation on 40. It's been a while since that has happened. The 03Z session was much better, with 62, including 4 on 80 meters. Both sessions were slow speed ones. Unlike some of the other regulars, I strictly kept it at 20 wpm or below.
The following week, the winds had died down, so I could leave the antenna up overnight. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to borrow Bonnie's wireless mouse for the 13Z session, and the RF getting into the wired one totally scrambled the laptop. The result was just 53 contacts, and, I'm sure, a lot of frustrated operators at the other end. Lesson learned (again!), the other sessions went much better. At 19Z, the total was 77 contacts and mults, for my best score so far from this QTH. I had one more contact at 03Z, but fewer mults, but still great fun.
It was a calm night, so I took the antenna down in the morning, when avoiding cactus snarls was a lot easier.
Thus ends another series of radio operations on the road. A couple days later, we packed everything up and started the long drive home.
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