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.