Fun QSO: 3000 miles, 1.5 watts, 4' whip, elevation delta 9998 feet

[wayne burdick]

We had great beach weather over the weekend, so we went for a walk on
San Gregorio state beach. While the family was having a snack, I sat on
a piece of driftwood and pulled out the KX1. No antenna supports, so I
connected the Maldol 4' whip, then tossed out one counterpoise wire.

A few seconds into a scan of 20 meters I found WH7N calling CQ on
14060. I answered, and we had a solid QSO. Art was on top of Mount
Haleakala, Hawaii, at 10000 feet; my elevation was about 2 feet. Art
was using a K1, running 5 watts to an MP1.

In case I didn't mention this earlier, here's a tip for those using a
Maldol 4' whip on 20 meters with a KX1: clip an extra 1' of wire on at
the top. The whip was designed for the SSB part of the band, and the
extra wire greatly improves the match in the CW segment. With the extra
wire installed, the internal ATU found a 1.0:1 match very quickly.

The extra foot of wire also improves the transmitted signal by better
than a dB in far-field tests.

73,
Wayne
N6KR


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[Vic K2VCO]

wayne burdick wrote:

> We had great beach weather over the weekend, so we went for a walk on
> San Gregorio state beach. While the family was having a snack, I sat on
> a piece of driftwood and pulled out the KX1. No antenna supports, so I
> connected the Maldol 4' whip, then tossed out one counterpoise wire.

How far were you from the water, Wayne?  Something worth mentioning is that
performance of vertical antennas improves quite rapidly as you get very close to
salt water -- even few meters makes a difference.  The last time I went to a
saltwater location (near Morro Bay, I think) I set up a card table with my K2 on
it with its legs actually in a couple of inches of water!  I had a 16' vertical
bungee-strapped to one of the legs.  Conditions that day were absolutely
atrocious, but I did work a JA.

--
73,
Vic, K2VCO
Fresno CA
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco

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[wayne burdick]

On Sep 28, 2004, at 10:20 AM, Vic Rosenthal wrote:

> How far were you from the water, Wayne?  Something worth mentioning is
> that performance of vertical antennas improves quite rapidly as you
> get very close to salt water -- even few meters makes a difference.  
> The last time I went to a saltwater location (near Morro Bay, I think)
> I set up a card table with my K2 on it with its legs actually in a
> couple of inches of water!  I had a 16' vertical bungee-strapped to
> one of the legs.  Conditions that day were absolutely atrocious, but I
> did work a JA.

Good point, Vic. I thought about moving closer to the water, but "home
base" (i.e., the family and beach blanket) were 100' from the water and
that seemed like the place to be.

Wayne


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