The day was just too nice. It was in the mid-50s and the skies were clear. There was a lot of wind, which isn’t always great, but staying inside simply wasn’t an option. Originally, I wasn’t going to play radio. This was going to be a day on the bike. But at the last minute, it didn’t seem like an awful idea to toss a radio in the pannier and ride.
The IC-705 was packed up with its gear for a road trip that was meant to start the next day. The X6100 was in its case. I grabbed a random wire antenna and throw line. Then I tossed the Surface in the bag because it was already in its Pelican case. Why not?
The ride was gorgeous. It was perfect. Just cool enough to be enjoyable. The headwinds were, well, headwinds but the ride was fantastic. As I made my way down the street, I made the call to head out toward the Cuyahoga Valley National Park – K-0020. I still wasn’t sure the radio would come out, but the place I usually go makes for about a 22 mile round trip on the bike.
As it turned out, the place I usually do my activations seemed like a great place to stop for a granola bar and some water. I pulled up to my regular picnic table and decided that a quick activation would be fun.
The ground was really, really muddy. It’s been raining quite a bit of late and it was so bad I had to lean the bike against the picnic table. With the sun out and a nice breeze, there were plenty of people wandering along but none of them really hike by where the picnic tables are.
After some water, I grabbed my throw line. I gave it a good toss and…the bag landed ON a branch about 30 feet up. And I do mean ON the branch. It sat there and I stared at it. I wish I’d had the presence of mind to grab a quick picture of it because I will never, ever, ever be able to do that again. With a good laugh I tugged it down and got a good branch on the next throw.
With the antenna deployed, I hooked up the X6100. I’d thought about doing some phone contacts, but it was windy enough and I didn’t have headphones in my kit. I felt like I’d be shouting into the mic over the wind and that I wouldn’t hear much coming back, so I went with FT8.
Given that my GPS unit was packed for the aforementioned road trip, I attached the Surface to my phone’s hotspot to sync the time. That’s a critical step for having any fun with FT8.
I made 11 contacts is pretty short order, but it was…stressful? When the X6100 is transmitting, I can’t use the trackpad on the Surface. It does have a touch screen and that still works but, that was weird. There’s also a lot of interference between the trackpad and the X6100 in general. I think I’m going to need to take a Bluetooth mouse with me in the future.
In truth, I’ve not done much digital work with the X6100 because the drivers were screwed up on the Surface. Since the reset, however, I managed to get things back to a stable state and things work again. But it’s reminding me of the quirks of using the Surface with the X6100 and life with cables.
Yes, the IC-705 has totally spoiled me for digital operations. I’m sure I’ll complain about that more another time.
All of that said, the operation was a success and the internal ATU made me smile again. I believe that thing can tune anything. The activation overall was short and sweet and I was back on the bike heading in the opposite direction with a gnarly tailwind!
Here’s what the QSO Map looks like.
