Camping and QRP from Joshua Tree National Park
Thursday 02/27/03 to Sunday 03/02/03
Here are some pictures of our latest outing to Joshua Tree National Park, CA. We camp here a couple of times a year and a QRP rig always comes along for some CW fun. Camping in the high desert is fun, but can also be very inclimate. In the Winter, be prepared for VERY cold and windy days and nights with rain or snow. We were very lucky on this outing, as we had very little rain and the weather was fairly mild for this time of year. Temps in the day were around the mid 40's F and the wind was anywhere from very calm to very strong gusts (~40 MPH).
The rig on this trip was an Elecraft K1. I built it as a 4 band (40, 30, 20 and 15 meters) rig, with the Noise Blanker (not needed in the desert due to NO man made noise!), the Internal ATU, and Internal Battery Pack. The rig is contained in a Mountain Ops K1 Tac Pack which also contains the Antenna Wire, a set of Palm Paddles, a BNC to Banana Plug Adapter (to directly connect the antenna), an ARRL Mini Log Book, a set of Ear Buds (Sony), and some pens. The only thing that didn't fit in the Tac Pack, was a big note pad, the Black Widow 20' Fishing Pole, and a spool of 40 Lbs test fishing line. BTW I got a set of Maha 2000 mAH AA cells right before the trip, and they work great! I got 3 hours of operating time in and the voltage only dropped .2 volts the entire time - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!
I got on the air on Friday after setting up the 50' long wire and 4 30' radials around one of the picnic tables. The K1's internal ATU had no problem matching the antenna on all bands. Only one contact on Friday though as it was getting cold. Had a very nice QSO with Bill K6MGO in the Los Angeles area. Bill told me about a QRP Net that takes part around the 40 meter QRP frequency at 9 AM on Saturday mornings. I had planned on checking in from the camp site, but didn't get going in time. I'll listen next weekend Bill.
I got started Saturday around noon local time and had several very nice QSO's with the following stations:
15 Meter QSO's
K4IA Buck - Fredericksburg, VA
WA7NCC Bill - near Seattle, WA
WB5KHC Tom - Dallas, TX
20 Meter QSO's
AK7D Fred - Portland, OR
AC7QT Earl - Redmond, WA (also portable in a park with Yaesu FT-817 and mobile antenna)
K7JHM John - Salt Lake City, UT
I almost worked Nao JA6PA on 15 Meters, but he got the G as a C in my call and signals faded after the first exchange. Next time we'll get it Nao. I've worked Nao several other times, and he always has a great QRP signal into Southern CA!
Just a quick note on the K1, it performed wonderfully, exactly as advertised! If you are looking for a nice kit to put together and want a top notch performer that you can easily take to portable locations, the K1 will fit the bill. Plus the guys and gals at Elecraft are top notch and a joy to talk to over the phone.
So here are the pictures:
Here's a wide shot of the camp site. It's located in loop F in Jumbo Rock. You can see part of the antenna in the upper left...
Here are some of my die-hard fellow campers! In the foreground from left to right is Jen and Tanya playing Scrabble. In the background left to right cooking a meal is Fabris, Elena, and Hugh. Good friends to camp with!
Here's a wide view of the portable setup...
Here's a close up of the station. The "Coke" can gives you an idea of the size. The Palm Paddles look small, but they have a great feel! I situated myself between some big rocks and some bushes to try and cut the wind down a bit and it did seem to help.
Another closeup of the rig...notice the mug of hot "Earl Grey"!!! By the way, anyone who owns a K1 needs to get a Tac Pack from Mountain Ops! It make a great little portable station. The pack shown to the left of the rig attaches to the top of the K1 and wraps around it to completely seal it up nicely! Thanks to Paul WA9PWP for showing this setup to me in January 2003 in Middleton, WI when I was on a business trip! It's the best portable setup I've ever had the pleasure of operating. Very simple yet effective...
Here's a close up of the antenna. It's the Black Widow collapsible 20' fishing pole mounted up on a big rock boulder with 50' of wire going down to the rig...
Here are a few pictures of the terrain at the park...
On the way up to the park it rained a bit...
...but I got a great shot of this rainbow, plus check out the mountains in the rear view mirror of Elena's new Trail Blazer...
And that's it folks. Another fun Camping/QRP outing in the bag and looking forward to the next one! Stay tuned for more portable events this Spring and Summer. Check the QRP-L and Elecraft mailing lists for times that we'll be "To The Field"...