[Elecraft] [KX3] Catalina island with KX2: spoiled by super-low noise floor

[rich hurd WC3T]

Awesome story.  Droolworthy to say the least.

I scribe this from my 2nd floor condo in Ocean City, MD that I've
whimsically (and perhaps accurately) renamed "QRM City."  We are setting up
for a week here. I am looking hopefully at the Nanuk case holding my KX3.
No AX1 to complement it, but here's hoping the wx holds at least partially
this week for a side trip to somewhere like Delaware Seashores State Park
for a bit of the Right Coast version of that kind of op.

On Sat, Jul 28, 2018 at 1:21 PM Wayne Burdick n6kr at elecraft.com [KX3] <
KX3-noreply at yahoogroups.com> 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
>
> __._,_.___
> ------------------------------
> Posted by: Wayne Burdick <n6kr at elecraft.com>
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-- 
72,
Rich Hurd / WC3T / DMR: 3142737
Northampton County RACES, EPA-ARRL Public Information Officer for Scouting
Latitude: 40.761621 Longitude: -75.288988  (40°45.68' N 75°17.33' W) Grid:
*FN20is*