[Elecraft] KX3 with dual whips (HF and VHF), hammock mobile

[Wayne Burdick]

It was perfect hammock weather today, so I took the latest Jack Reacher novel and the KX3 out to the back-hard hammock. I connected both a Maldol AH-C28 10-meter whip and a Diamond SRH77CA 2-meter whip to the rig. The two antennas are just 1" apart, but this doesn't impact their performance.

During a break in the action (in the book), and rocking side-to-side at about 0.5 Hz, I fired up the KX3 and found lots of activity on 10 meters. Tried a few calls, but the stations were mostly EU and Africa, and 3 watts from the internal battery wasn't quite cutting it. So I dropped down to 15 meters, using the internal ATU to tune the 10-m whip on 15. This isn't the most efficient 15-meter antenna, but there was a loud VE3 calling CQ, and I got him on the first call. That's about 2000 miles at 3 watts with a base-loaded 4' whip tuned to the wrong band. I highly recommend this sort of activity. It's a nice break from your KW and stacked monobanders.

Then I dropped in on the local repeater using the internal 2-m module. 

If nothing else, this proves you can get away with both HF and VHF antennas on your KX3. (Maybe we should also offer hammocks as an accessory.)

Anyway, the bands are open, all. Have fun!

Wayne
N6KR