Vacation Time!
The kids hit Spring Break for the last week of March and I took the week off to hang out with them. Of course, that means a little bit of camping because as a family that’s what we do. This time around, my wife, daughter, rottie, and I were the attendees for the camping portion of the week off. My son wasn’t feeling it and if he was going to be home, it made sense to leave the Old Man Dog aka Nacho home as well given that it was going to get cold and he’d likely not have a great time with it.
We packed up our camper and headed out into the far flung reaches of…Ohio?
We picked a private campground near Hocking Hills State Park – US-1958. Our plan was to set up and hang out and get over to the park to do some hiking as weather and mood permitted.
This trip was less about radio and more about learning bits and pieces about our camper. We used the heater for the first time and it was amazing! I had a lot of doubts, but the team at Opus has really thought it through. Well, that was until we turned on the water and the water heater started spewing water into the back compartment of the camper. This required some field maintenance which turned out to be field discovery of the comings and goings of the plumbing. Let’s just say I learned a lot and we’ll have water for our next trip, but we were using a kettle to pour water from the Jerry Cans for this trip. Live and learn, right?
The Park
Hocking Hills is known as one of the most scenic parks in Ohio. There are massive caves and waterfalls. It’s all very carefully laid out as to be accessible for everyone (in most places) and that’s great! This does attract crowds and I find that it’s harder for me to relax in nature with 300 of my closest friends.
The crew hiked to Ash Cave and then split up. The ladies and pup went onward and I headed back to the parking lot to attempt an activation.
Super Stealthy Ham Guy
This parking lot was loaded. I didn’t take any pictures because there were constantly people coming and going. I didn’t want to creep anyone out, so I only snapped a quick shot of my setup. It’s the stealth combo of the IC-705 and AX1.
I picked a picnic table that was off in the mud so that it wouldn’t be Prime Real Estate and got set up. It was interesting in that there was a tree to blind it from cars turning into the parking lot, but otherwise, I was in plain sight about 20 yards from the lot. No one even so much as looked at me. The low profile of the AX1 was doing its thing. I had my headset, so I was silent. I was sure someone would say something, but no one did. Weird!
I got to work an put 27 CW contacts in the log before I was rejoined by the ladies and the pup.
QSO Map
Propagation was good to me on 20-meters with my meager 5 watts. Here’s what the QSO Map looks like.
Final
That was the only radio I was able to work in while we were camping. But more happened later in the week when we returned home. Stay tuned for more excitement and thanks for reading along! 72!
