Many thanks to Brian K3ES who submits this awesome report.
As I write this report, we are currently visiting with my parents at their home near San Francisco, CA. Getting here from our Pennsylvania home and back again is a continuing great adventure for my wife Becky, POTA Pup Molly, and me. You see, this is a grand road trip, complete with sight seeing, activating POTA parks in new-to-me states, and lots of driving. While much of the trip has been planned, there have been frequent changes to the route and schedule, as better opportunities presented themselves. One such opportunity was to deviate from interstate highway travel between Montana and Idaho, and divert to lesser-traveled highways. This detour enabled us to fit in a drive through Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Sadly, we were only able to take the time to see a small fraction of the natural splendor. We did see enough to create the resolve to return for a proper exploration of the wonders that we had to miss.
We made a handful of stops on our drive through Yellowstone, including a couple of hours at the Old Faithful geyser. One challenge of traveling with Molly, is that dogs are not always welcome in interesting areas. Another challenge is that, having been rescued from an abusive situation, she can respond unpredictably to other dogs. So, Becky and I have often taken turns with one of us exploring the sights, while the other remained in the truck with Molly. At this stop, Becky was the designated sight-seer for an impending eruption of Old Faithful (she takes better pictures), and I stayed in the truck with Molly.
ACTIVATING YELLOWSTONE
After getting settled in one of the few shaded parking spaces in the lot, it occurred to me that I would have time to do a quick activation of US-0070 while Becky was away. This particular parking lot was a busy place, so I needed to be quite stealthy in my radio set up. I elected to use my Elecraft AX1 antenna, and attached it to a clamp-on mount secured to the base of the VHF/UHF mobile antenna on the front fender of the truck. I had used this configuration for previous activations during the trip, and had been pleasantly surprised with spectacular performance. I had expected having the AX1 whip parallel to (and only a couple of inches away from) the VHF/UHF whip to cause detuning or worse, but this did not materialize.
With the whip installed, I ran the counterpoise wire over the hood, and tossed the remainder of its 13 ft length onto the pavement directly under the truck. I also connected my feedline to the antenna base, and ran it in through the open driver-side window to my KX2 positioned on the center console. It tuned up beautifully, so I was able to quickly confirm a clear frequency and start calling CQ POTA.
It took just few minutes to get my first contact running CW mode with 5 watts to the AX1 on the 20m band. It took even less time after that first contact for me to realize my mistake in parking in a rare bit of shade. That happened when a 10-foot-high RV pulled into the space next to my truck. It was longer than my truck, higher than my antenna whip, and almost certainly sided with sheet metal. Shortly after that, a car towing a smaller travel trailer pulled into a space on the other side of the truck. My heart sank as I contemplated a failed activation, but I was determined to continue the attempt. It was a pleasant surprise when more contacts started coming in. The pace was slow, but the contacts kept coming. Despite the Faraday cage that had assembled itself around my station, I ended up with 11 contacts in the log after 45 minutes on the air.
So there are detractors who call the AX1 a dummy load, and certainly it is a compromised antenna. A four-foot whip is far from the ideal resonant length for the 20m band. It is definitely not the right antenna for every situation, but when HF propagation conditions permit, the AX1 can give amazing results with a very small and unobtrusive footprint.
GEAR
- Elecraft KX2
- SideKX end-panels and cover for the KX2
- Bioenno 3 Ah LiFePO4 battery
- Elecraft AX1 antenna
- ProAudio Engineering AM1-2 clamp-on antenna mount
- Maxpedition Fatty organizer pouch
- 15 ft RG316 feedline with BNC male connectors at each end
- Homebrew VK3IL-designed, pressure paddles
- Generic earbuds
- Rite in the Rain No. 946 notepads
- Pentel Twist-Erase mechanical pencil in 0.9mm
CONTINUING TRAVELS
The westward leg of our trip took us over 3800 miles through the northern tier states, and we plan to return by way of the southern tier. So far, propagation has favored me with successful park activations in each of the states that we visited. As I have the opportunity to do more writing, I will share more details of our trip and the portable POTA operations along the way. Meanwhile,
Best 73 de Brian – K3ES/6
FUN times, Brian! We always have to remember that being on the air is always a compromise, as nothing is perfect. Nice to see you going with the flow and successfully activating Yellowstone.
Safe travels!
73 de KC1FUU
Jon
Thanks Jon! I hope to activate more parks on the homeward leg of the trip next week.
I enjoyed your report! Yellowstone is one of my favorite places. We have lived in Idaho twice in the past many decades and have visited the park many times. If you are able to go back I recommend spring, as the animals are much more plentiful at the lower elevations because of snow still at the higher elevations (fewer people, too).
The AX1 does an amazing job. I always laugh at the comments such as “It’s no good, you should use a dipole”. Well, I can’t walk around with a dipole, and I can’t go from everything in the bag to on the air in four minutes with a dipole. (Although I do sometime use either a “random” wire or an end fed half wavelength wire for picnic table portable.) Now that I have a KH1 I’m even more impressed with the little whip. I’ve had many pleasant and lengthy rag-chew QSOs while walking around with a four foot antenna.
Enjoy your travels!
Thanks, Bill. We thoroughly enjoyed Yellowstone, and we will remember your recommendation to visit in the spring.
Coming from the land of Penn’s Woods, I usually have a tree to support my wire antennas. In other parks, I really like how stealthy I can be with the AX1. EFRWs are frequent companions with the KX2, but the AX1 has been an awesome addition to the kit! That AH1 seems like a great radio!
Best 73 de Brian – K3ES
I thought I should add that “spring” is a relative term at that latitude and elevation! I don’t recall exactly when we made our first of many visits, but it may have been June. There were lots of baby animals at the lower elevations and even the highest elevations were passable, although there was still snow. As that first year progressed there were fewer and fewer animals down low and more people, but it was still a great adventure. Going via snow coach in the winter is a great experience, too, just be prepared for sub-zero temperatures.
Brian,
Before you head back, I hope you get an opportunity to activate some of the parks here around the Bay Area.
I can’t wait to hear more of your QRP stories from this epic road trip.
72
Thanks Matt! Things have been busy here. I already did Mt Diablo SP and John Muir NHS during a previous airline trip. I do need to plan an activation for Support Your Parks weekend, so probably one Bay Area activation before heading eastward.
Great report and pics. Yellowstone is on my bucket list but probably will not ever make it. Seems like this “once around the sun” is going pretty quick. Again thanks for the pics.
W0HL
Thanks Dennis! I wish you many more trips around the sun. Yellowstone is an awesome place, and I hope for a chance to do it right!
I was very interested in your experience at YNP. I was there about three weeks ago and operated from two turn out areas in the park using the KH1 and the whip. The altitude really helped but I was really bothered by the noise that was coming from the cars pulling into and cutoff the turn outs. I was still able to make 4 contacts or so at each pullout with several east coast stations and a couple of Canadian stations. As you said, shade was at a premium and the parking lots were pretty full. I had much better luck outside the park were there was no parking issues. I had a great time and it sounds like you did to. 73 Joy
Thanks, Joy. The little AX1 continues to amaze me with the contacts it can make. I suspect the KH1 does the same for you. YNP was an awesome place to visit and activate. Best 73 de Brian – K3ES