Each summer, my family tries to book a cabin in the middle of nowhere so we can go hiking, paddling, and fishing. In recent years, our favorite spot in central Pennsylvania was sold and we started trying other places. With our move, we decided to try out something new entirely. We headed for a cabin just outside of New River National Park, our nation’s newest National Park.
After a day on the New River shooting some class three rapids with the family, I grabbed a little time on the back porch to setup my IC-705 and see what I could hear from the mountains.
It was mostly 20m and 40m on FT8/FT4. The setup was my standard portable gear. The IC-705, the mAT-705, the MP1 Superantenna, and my MS Surface Go 2. I tossed in my Lightsaver Max to get my 10 Watts out.
I went with the Superantenna instead of my end-fed dipole because I didn’t much feel like sitting out in the grass. There was a touch of drizzle and tossing the antenna up into the tree was less attractive than sitting on a comfy chair with my coffee.
With the setup I was running, I got about 10 or so contacts before I quit. I was only on the air for about 2 hours and I did try my luck with SSB, but things were pretty quiet. There was a net out there on 20m and I couldn’t seem to get to any of those folks to join in, so I stuck to digital after calling CQ for a bit.
It is a very lightweight solution that, when I checked https://pskreporter.info showed me being heard in Finland as well as California. Not too bad on 10 watts and all factors considered. It also very light and packable. I’m more and more convinced that I will take my gear with me when I head out to the trail come August.
