[Elecraft] Catalina island with KX2: spoiled by super-low noise floor

[Ken Arck]

When we lived in SoCal, we used to spend just 
about every summer weekend at the Isthmus or 
Emerald Bay (we had a Catalina 36 sailboat and 
did the backstay antenna thing).

Wish Elecraft was around back then <g>

Ken


At 10:21 AM 7/28/2018, Wayne Burdick wrote:
>Last week my family and I went to Avalon, 
>Catalina Island, off the coast of southern 
>California. What an awesome place! It feels like 
>a coastal tourist paradise in another country, 
>except that it’s just 26 miles from Long 
>Beach. Definitely a bucket-list item. To recover 
>from two days of gawking at beach scenery and 
>tapping generous libations, I set off on a 6 
>mile solo hike to take in the view from 1500 
>feet. And to sneak in a little stealth radio op. 
> From downtown Avalon I walked to the Wrigley 
>Memorial, then zig-zagged up the Garden to Sky 
>trail for 1.2 miles, where I was rewarded with a 
>vista to the north that includes another of the 
>Channel Islands. At this point I picked up the 
>jeep road for another half mile, heading east, 
>ascending even further to a gazebo overlooking 
>the Hermit Gulch campground far below. (The 
>trail down from here is very steep; if I ever do 
>it again, I’ll go the opposite direction.) 
>This gazebo was the perfect spot to break the 
>KX2 out of its tiny ES40 bag and deploy the 
>whip, which took all of 30 seconds. Aside from 
>the obvious (gorgeous WX, killer view, and the 
>joy of running 10 watts hand-held to an AX1 whip 
>on 15/17/20), I was blessed with both acoustic 
>and RF noise floors so low that I was reminded 
>of a minor tinnitus condition. No wind, no other 
>humans, the occasional cry of a hawk, and the 
>radio equivalent of a peaceful, easy feeling. I 
>could hear stations that were merely thinking 
>about transmitting. It would be tempting to 
>weave a tall tale about DX worked from this 
>idyllic overlook. Truth is I just listened for 
>awhile, marveling at how sparkling clean 
>everything sounded without the usual three coats 
>of RF grunge we often suffer at home. The noise 
>drops with any trip away from civilization, of 
>course, but this was exceptional. It’s yet 
>another reason to get out of the shack. And why 
>we keep designing rigs like the KX2. 73, Wayne 
>N6KR 
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