March 3, 2022 — POTA K-4143

70 degrees yesterday at Mermet Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area (K-4143).  24 contacts (40 CW = 1; 20 CW = 20; 20 SSB = 3) while running 10 watts to an EFHW wire.  I wanted to highlight some of the techniques I’ve developed: 1. I put my QRPGuys mini 49:1 transformer at the TOP of my Spiderbeam 23 foot mast, with 25 feet of RG174 running down the mast.  I have a piece of paracord that runs through the top element that I use to attach the transformer.  2. The mast can be ground-mounted with guys, or fastened to a modified bicycle rack on my truck.  A 3 inch PVC pipe cap is wired to the rack to stabilize the bottom of the mast.  3. I got this idea from Peter Stanton on the Waters & Stanton YouTube channel — at the end of my 20m EFHW I clip on a 34 microhenry coil and additional wire (mine is 68 inches) making this a three band antenna (10/20/40).  Ten watts and this simple antenna netted contacts literally covering the entire country!