AmateurRadio.com

View from the portable op's position.

It was another amazing day weather wise up this way and with winter soon coming I wanted to hit the trail again with the KX3. I was up and out around 10 am local time and off to search out on my bike a nice spot on the lake to operate. (Lake Ontario) The spot I found was right at the lake and I could see the police boats setting up their perimeter for the air show that would be happening around noon. I planned to be done my portable op's before the air show starts, the noise of the low flying jets (which is a very cool sound by the way) drowns out my CW coping skills. I set my endfed antenna in a sloper configuration as I found the inverted V was just not doing the trick. The CW open contest was in full swing and that sure was a bonus for making contacts. I checkout the Contest rules and they were looking for a serial number and name. I was able to make 8 contacts in the contest:
N4OX on 20m from FL
AF4RK on 20m from FL
K5WK on 20m from MS
N6ER on 20m from CA
KZ5D on 20m from LA
N5XZ on 20m from TX
W9ILY on 40m from IL
AA3B on 40m from PA
N8BJQ on 40m from OH
I found the contacts on 40m were no repeat backs and all the info was conveyed on the first try. As for 20m I was asked for repeats on my call, name and serial by most if not all the contacts. I raise the output of the KX3 to 10 watts and the external power supply seemed to handle it just fine.