AmateurRadio.com

The park setup

With the fall fast approaching which signals colder weather that is just around the corner and with that an end to outdoor op's for another year I decided to get outside today. It's a long weekend up this way with Monday being a holiday. I decided to use up some of my time off and took Thursday, Friday and Tuesday off as well. I went to our local park this afternoon and with it being a work day I did not find it too busy there I was able to get a nice spot under a shady willow tree. My first setup was an inverted "V" configuration. I was out last weekend and used the same configuration and was not spotted anywhere on 20m or 40m. I was reading this week that it's best to setup the inverted "V" with an angle greater than 90 degrees. I was not sure if that was my issue last weekend  but I decided to try again today but making sure my angle was greater than 90 degrees. I ended up having the same results with no spots. I then changed it up to a sloper configuration and I was able to contact K8DSS from Florida on 20m. Ed gave my 5 watt signal a 539 and I was happy with that but for the day that was all I had time for. It was soon time to pack things up and head home. While in a QSO with Ed his CW signal was in competition with practicing air show jets ( CF-18's and FA-18's) and the jets were

New power config

winning!  During the summer I have had on to many occasions battery issues. I have had AA cells in the KX3 not last more than a 1/2 even after a full charge. I have a Tracer lithium Polymer power pack that is an 8Ah pack. I decided to purchase the same item again and parallel the two 8Ah packs. This gives me a solid 16Ah's of power and a nice steady 12 volts. I have been using this arrangement for the summer and am very pleased with the performance.