I set up a field station on the veranda of our highlands
retreat log cabin, situated in the magnificent Golden Gate National Park
some 4 hours drive from my home
. The views to the east and north were awesome.
I used a telescopic fibre glass mast and erected a link
dipole for 15, 20 and 40m. I used my trusty Elecraft K2 transceiver and Begali HST
paddle.
I started calling CQ on 40m CW, after 20 minutes I gave up
in disgust, I did not have a single reply. IMHO CW is in danger of becoming obsolete in South Africa.
I tried my luck on 20 and 15m, but the propagation was
simply too poor to enable any QSOs with my QRP setup.
I had no option, but to revert to using the ‘muggle’ mode. I really don’t
enjoy using SSB…..
I was looking really looking forward to the field day event
and I had high hopes that the event would be well supported, but alas that was
not to be.
All this effort to end up with only 22 QSOs in the log :-(
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| Overlooking the log cabins |
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| Mast errected even befor we were unpacked |
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| Shack with a view...... |
