Reservoir Park CWT

Just 1.5 km up the hill from my home QTH is a reservoir with a grassy clearing on top.  Ground level there is about 60 meters higher than the TOP of my tower, so it seemed an excellent place for the fishing pole and 40 meter half wave.

QTH

There's nothing up there except grass, a few trees around the edges, and an enormous number of mosquitoes. (It's been a wet summer.) So, I lashed a folding chair and table on the bike and rode up there.

Antenna

Neighboring Communications Tower

Also taking advantage of the altitude is a big communications tower.

Operating Position

This was the first bicycle portable CWT with the new KX2, a huge improvement over the KX1, albeit at the price of quite a bit more weight.  For this short trip, I also lugged a netbook up there for logging, though it won't do rig control or CW with the KX2.  (Probably due to its crippled version of Windows 7.)

Transport

While it would have been a lot easier to just throw everything in the car, I DID ride a bike up there!

RBN Reports

RBN reports looked pretty good, as I had hoped.  Conditions were also quite good, and there was lots of activity.  When the 13Z CWT was over, there were 58 contacts and 47 mults in the log, by a small margin my best QRP portable score so far. That was quite a bit better than a recent attempt with the KX2 from the home QTH.  Maybe I should put up a 20 meter dipole at home!

It was getting pretty toasty in the sun by 14Z, so I won't be doing 19Z from up there until it cools off.  I suppose I could drag a sun shade up there along with the furniture, but that's way too much trouble.

Governor Dodge State Park CWT 2017

It's been a busy spring, so I'm finally getting around to my first bicycle portable CWT of the season. Tuesday afternoon, I rode the 78 km west from Madison to Governor Dodge State Park. It's one of my favorite campsites, and last year proved to be an excellent spot to do the CWT's. There's a picnic area near the top of the ridge, some 120 meters above the Wisconsin River Valley to the north. Because it's such a good location, I decided to do both the 13Z and 19Z CWT's from there, and then hit the road for the short ride to Muscoda.  (MUSK'-o-day)

QTH

As usual, the fishing pole supported the end fed 40 meter half wave.

11 Meter Fishing Pole

Though its days are numbered, I'm still using the KX1.  The homebrew antenna tuner isn't going anywhere.

Still Logging on Paper!

Picnic Shelter

Conditions seemed quite good at 13Z, but some QLF moments resulted in just 50 QSO's and 42 mults. I'm out of practice for this kind of operation, and got a late start by underestimating the set-up time, and unsnarling the tangles left over from last fall. 19Z wasn't any better, with 50 QSO's and just 37 mults. And this from the site of my high QRP score last year!  While I heard F6HKA and F5IN, I couldn't get through to either.

After 20Z (1500 local), I packed everything up for the 50 km ride to Muscoda, on the Wisconsin River. It's downhill on the average, but there are a couple bumps along the way. (Pretty big climbs, actually.) But it's light until after 2100 (local) this time of year, so I arrived with a couple hours to spare. I decided to skip the 03Z CWT, as I knew the bugs would be terrible, and operating that one from the bottom of a river valley without 80 meters would have been frustrating. I was planning to take a couple days to get home, with another stop in Blanchardville, so racing home for the 03Z session wasn't an option.

The ride home was uneventful, and the weather was perfect all week.

While I've had a lot of fun with the KX1, and it was a fun project getting it set up the way I wanted it, I find the poor receiver frustrating. The selectivity is very poor, and the gain on 20 is so low there's very little AGC action, which is hard on my aging ears. So, I decided to put up with a little more weight, and ordered a KX2. I know from my car camping operations that I can make the 40 m half wave work on 80 by adding a couple 20 meter radials, so I may brave the bugs and try the 03Z session next time I'm on the road.