[Elecraft] Camping Radio Ops: Then and Now

[Dauer, Edward]

I don’t recall anything particularly interesting from my hamming youth;  but the most vivid memory of portable ops came in 1973 in a Fiat 124 where I had mounted an HW-101 and its power supply in the already-cramped passenger footwell.  As part of the effort to squelch the awful ignition noise, I decided I would put ordinary coax braid around all of the plug wires and ground it to the engine block and the frame.  

About a month in I had a chance to meet a prospective client – the senior VP of a California bank -- and drive him to a meeting of his trade association.  

He found the HW-101 hitting his legs somewhere between amusing and annoying.  And then the car stopped.  In the center lane of the Hollywood Freeway where, if I remember it right, it narrows and goes through Cahuenga pass.  We alone were keeping 300,000 other drivers from getting home to the Valley in time for dinner.  The prospective client sat in the car with his feet hitting the HW-101 as I tore all the braid off the plug wires trying to restore the shorted distributor.  He was no longer amused.  He was, from a business point of view, fatally annoyed.

A KX2 if available at the time could have effected a career-altering change.

Ted, KN1CBR

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    Message: 22
    Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2016 09:36:32 -0700
    From: Wayne Burdick <n6kr at elecraft.com>
    To: Elecraft <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>, KX3 <KX3 at yahoogroups.com>
    Subject: [Elecraft] Camping radio ops: then and now
    Message-ID: <4388601D-067D-44AA-987D-C32536104310 at elecraft.com>
    Content-Type: text/plain;	charset=us-ascii
    
    My first attempt to operate from a campsite was in 1972, when I was 14. My dad chuckled as I hefted my box of gear into the camper. At the time I had no battery powered radios. The receiver was a Heathkit HR-10B. The transmitter was a 3-tube, 10-watt, WW2 CW monstrosity I borrowed from someone in the El Cajon ARC. I also didn't have an antenna tuner, so I brought a full-size 40-m dipole with #18 wire and 100' of RG58. Keyer was a Heath HD-10. 
    
    Our campsite in Utah didn't have an electrical outlet. Fortunately I had a very long extension cord that I routed through the window of the  men's room, two campsites down. I had to apologize to hostile strangers as I wove the cord through bushes and around cars. 
    
    Getting the heavy dipole up into the ponderosas required rope, rocks, and a few swear words I hadn't used in front of my parents prior to that time. 
    
    Finally, I was on the air. Unfortunately the band wasn't particularly open that day, and I think I ended up making three contacts. Still, I got The Bug.
    
    These days, I use a KX2, two lengths of #26 wire, an earbud/mic, and a KXPD2 paddle. Total station weight: 2 lbs, counting the CS40 bag. Setup time: 2 or 3 minutes, depending on how many times it takes to hit just the right branch with a 1 ounce stainless steel weight. Or 1 minute if I'm using a whip. 
    
    It's been a wild journey that I suppose could be graphed in terms of miles per watt per pound over 40 years.
    
    I bet there a few other variations on this theme....
    
    73,
    Wayne
    N6KR