Minimal 3-fer

This morning I saw a video by a German ham, DF1IW, who was doing a SOTA activation at DM/RP-397 with his KX2 and a simple wire antenna — and that’s about all! I was inspired! I decided that I’m hauling way too much stuff around and that I need to try an activation with minimal equipment. So, I went to Fort Massac State Park (K-0993) after lunch with two goals in mind: 1. Travel light and get on the air with a minimum of stuff, and 2. Put my throw line over a nice branch that I saw earlier in the week when we were at the park looking for red headed woodpeckers.

So, I pared down my pack to just the KX2 with internal battery and internal ATU, plus paddles, mic, and earbuds; my new Dyneema 1.75 mm throw line and 8 ounce weight; my compact random wire antenna plus counterpoise; and a folding chair. OK, out of respect for Murphy I also took my AX1 antenna, “just in case.” I won’t always go this light, but this was fun and a good test.

I got to the park and did a short walk to an absolutely ideal location right next to the Ohio River. Oh, did I forget to mention? Being that close to the river also counts for the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail (K-3791) and the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail (K-4572). 3-fer!

I uncoiled the line into a neat pile, made the throw, and got over the branch on the first try! When I bought that 180 foot line I was going to cut it in half. 90 feet should be plenty, right? Glad I didn’t, because almost the entire 120 feet payed out. (Yes, Spell Checker, “payed” is the word I want.) Going over the branch up at least 40 feet, plus coming down over smaller branches and leaves, plus the way the line keeps on feeding through after the weight hits the ground took almost the entire length. (It’s become my practice to slip a loop of the near end over my shoe just to make sure it doesn’t get away from me, should I somehow manage a really high throw.)

OK, conditions didn’t seem that good, and I barely squeaked out two CW contacts and one phone contact on 20 meters. But then I went up on 15 meters and managed a phone contact with VE7WJ in North Vancouver, BC. Good enough to accomplish my goals in 30 minutes time. Thanks to the compact random wire antenna, band changing is as simple as selecting a new band and hitting the ATU button.

Here are some deets on the antenna and counterpoise. Both are made from #26 stranded, insulated wire, terminated in a banana plug, as shown below. The antenna wire is 33 feet long with a ring tongue lug on the far end for easy attachment to a line. That 33 foot length is a formula that I’ve been using for portable operating for over 20 years, originally with my FT-817 and a homebrew L-network tuner. The counterpoise is about the third iteration of one that, again, I have been using for over 20 years. The full length is a quarter wavelength on 40 meters. But here’s the trick: I have inline connectors so that I can shorten it to a quarter wavelength on 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, or 10 meters. An earlier design used Molex connectors and then a second version used some crimp-on connectors that I found in a hardware store. This one uses tiny 2 mm banana plugs and sockets, insulated with heat shrink tubing. If you don’t think it’s worth the complication, try this: put the radio on some band but have the counterpoise not set to that band, get a match, note received signal levels. Now, adjust the counterpoise to the proper length for that particular band and notice the increase in signal level. I can’t say whether this is as effective as an EFHW or not, but at least it’s fast and easy. Not as fast or easy as my AX1, but probably more effective and covers more bands.