I'm back! Hello everyone. And thanks again to Ray for being there for all those skeds! It was a great week. I have much to report about radio and camping.. Probably not all tonight though.. I do have photos and video. To make a long story short, and Ray already did a great job reporting, here is how it went: The hike to camp was hard, mostly because of my 83Lbs pack. That was dumb. Twenty years ago, sure.. These days, my lower back isn't cooperating anymore. Though, we got there, my friend Christine and I. She stayed two days, and it was nice to have someone with me in camp to ease into the rest of the week solo.
On the radio side, everything worked flawlessly, though my paddle was acting up at times, and other times, horse flies were pestering me and causing extra dits and dahs ::) Not to mention missed words while listening. I only used one set of AA NiMH cells for the whole week, and only got them down to 9.6V or so.. Unbelievable! I could have used them another week! The MTR draws very little curent. That included 26 QSOs and much listening. One problem, or more of an annoyance, was the fact that my station was composed of a few items connected by wires: MTR, paddle, battery, key, speaker. Moving the whole thing was troublesome. I plan on getting a clipboard and securing all these items to it so that I can move the station around easily, along with a notepad. The combination of the BetterQRP tuner and LNR wire/choke was perfect. It did give me an SWR indicator for the MTR. The antenna was fed at the bottom and sloped. The tuner was resting on the ground, held by a tent stake. I would take everyting down every time, except the antenna, which stayed up the tree. I admit, when the storm hit last night, it took me a while to find sleep, even though I had moved the dangling wire away from my tent, which was pretty close to the tree. I was hoping my thermarest pad would offer some insulation in case of lighting strike.. Wishful thinking probably..
The GoalZero solar panel proved useful to recharge my Veho360 speaker and Guide10, which I used for the light, reading at night. Again, I did not have to recharge batteries for the radio.
I learned a few new lessons about camping. The first one I can summarize in one word: Weight. I knew already how important it was, but knowing and experiencing are two different things. When your straps start bruising your shoulders, you really understand what that means. The target is no more than 20% body weight. I had more than 40%. I won't do that again. Fortunately it was only a few miles.
One item I absolutely need to get is a head-lamp. A must-have for radio operations and anything else for that matter.
Well, I am getting tired but will post more tomorrow. That bleu cheese burger I had earlier makes me sleepy ;)
This trip, I hope, is just a warm-up. The wild is calling me ::)
Gil.
On the radio side, everything worked flawlessly, though my paddle was acting up at times, and other times, horse flies were pestering me and causing extra dits and dahs ::) Not to mention missed words while listening. I only used one set of AA NiMH cells for the whole week, and only got them down to 9.6V or so.. Unbelievable! I could have used them another week! The MTR draws very little curent. That included 26 QSOs and much listening. One problem, or more of an annoyance, was the fact that my station was composed of a few items connected by wires: MTR, paddle, battery, key, speaker. Moving the whole thing was troublesome. I plan on getting a clipboard and securing all these items to it so that I can move the station around easily, along with a notepad. The combination of the BetterQRP tuner and LNR wire/choke was perfect. It did give me an SWR indicator for the MTR. The antenna was fed at the bottom and sloped. The tuner was resting on the ground, held by a tent stake. I would take everyting down every time, except the antenna, which stayed up the tree. I admit, when the storm hit last night, it took me a while to find sleep, even though I had moved the dangling wire away from my tent, which was pretty close to the tree. I was hoping my thermarest pad would offer some insulation in case of lighting strike.. Wishful thinking probably..
The GoalZero solar panel proved useful to recharge my Veho360 speaker and Guide10, which I used for the light, reading at night. Again, I did not have to recharge batteries for the radio.
I learned a few new lessons about camping. The first one I can summarize in one word: Weight. I knew already how important it was, but knowing and experiencing are two different things. When your straps start bruising your shoulders, you really understand what that means. The target is no more than 20% body weight. I had more than 40%. I won't do that again. Fortunately it was only a few miles.
One item I absolutely need to get is a head-lamp. A must-have for radio operations and anything else for that matter.
Well, I am getting tired but will post more tomorrow. That bleu cheese burger I had earlier makes me sleepy ;)
This trip, I hope, is just a warm-up. The wild is calling me ::)
Gil.