[Elecraft] KXPA100 Mobile Operations

[Bill Frantz]

The 706 that was displaced by when my K3 arrived ended up in our 
1999 4Runner with a Little Tarheel screwdriver antenna. The 
combination works reasonably well. I have the antenna mounted 
high on the rear lift gate with due attention to bonding between 
the antenna, the lift gate, and the car body. Some of the 
highlights are a QSO with Denmark on 15M while my wife drove on 
I40 east of Barstow, and using the antenna with the K3 for 80M 
during the California QSO party (CQP).

I tune the antenna with a combination of a scale I made on the 
side of the coil cover which shows approximately where the coil 
should be for each band and the SWR meter in the radio. Note 
that 80/75M covers 2 centimeters. If I am operating mobile, 
tuning the antenna for maximum noise and then using the SWR 
meter on the radio works reasonably well.

At higher frequencies, the antenna works quite well. On the 
lower frequencies, the bandwidth is quite narrow and frequent 
tuning is a must. During CQP, I was operating search and pounce 
tuning up and down the 75M band. With this pattern, I always 
knew the direction to move the antenna so when I answered a CQ 
with "Whisky Six Zulu Zulu Zulu", I could also retune the antenna.

As for efficiency, I managed to contact 12 stations, all in 
California on 75M during CQP using the K3/10 at 12 watts. Every 
one of them said, "You're down in the noise, but we'll make it 
work." Thanks to all of them for making the effort.

As a side note, I now have some tuned radials for 40M and 80M I 
can use in portable operations. I also have a mast extension I 
haven't played with very much. The real high point is I had my 
wife logging during CQP. Having seen how things went on 80M, she 
got me a KPA3 100 watt module for Christmas.

Cheers - Bill, AE6JV

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Frantz        |The nice thing about standards| Periwinkle
(408)356-8506      |is there are so many to choose| 16345 
Englewood Ave
www.pwpconsult.com |from.   - Andrew Tanenbaum    | Los Gatos, 
CA 95032