[Elecraft] Amazing!

[Gary D Krause]

I thought I would share my story of what happened over the holidays.  I live 
in Cheyenne, Wyoming but, spent most of the week before the new year in Fort 
Collins, CO.  My girlfriend lives there.  We have been dating for about seven 
years now and she suggested that I bring one of my HF rigs and operate from 
her house.  I don't know why I had never thought of that before.

I took my K2 and a home brewed magnetic loop antenna.  The mag loop is about 
three feet in diameter and sits three feet off the ground.  I set it up in her 
back yard which is pretty much surrounded east and west by her house and the 
neighbors house.  I operated mostly 15 meters and some 17 meters at 5 watts 
QRP.

One morning I fired up the K2, set it for 5 watts and started calling CQ.  A 
faint signal came back.  It was a ham in Scotland!!!  For those of you that 
have beams, it's probably no big deal.  We were both running 5w and he was 
using a K1.  I also worked two French stations that morning, all QRP with a 
mag loop three feet off the ground.

I know that most of it has to do with propagation and the antenna.  In this 
case mostly propagation.  At least that's what all the books say.  Theory, 
theory, theory.  I say to heck with theory!  I experienced something beyond 
theory!  It was MOJO!!!  So stick that in your theory pipe and smoke it. ;-)

Why is it that when I'm working with my K2 or K3, most of the responding 
stations are also using an Elecraft rig?  MOJO! MOJO! MOJO!  That's my theory.

Gary, N7HTS