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| K8OI - Unpacking Gear at Beagle Gap, Skyline Drive, Virginia (FM08ob) |
Last year I made a trek to Beagle Gap overlook on the Skyline Drive, located just a few miles north of I-64 at Afton Mountain. Unfortunately, there was snow in the air and the National Park Ranger drove by and told me that Skyline Drive was being closed. That was very disappointing - BUT, that was LAST year!
I made my return visit to Beagle Gap, 2,500 ASL, on Saturday, April 12, 2014. This visit was MUCH nicer than a year ago; the temperature was 60*F with a nice breeze blowing - just a beautiful day.
I decided to try and work some different antennas this year: 6m dipole (a Buddipole Deluxe setup), 2m m2 HO Loop, and a 70cm m2 HO Loop. I also brought my Icom IC-7100. Gear from last year was 6m m2 3 element beam; 2m m2 7 element beam, 70cm Diamond beam, 23cm m2 beam, and my Icom IC-9100. This proved to be a VERY different operating environment.
Why change the gear and antennas? All those beams are just a big pain in the "rear" - I drive a Camry and while I can tow a small trailer, that doesn't mean that I really like the idea of driving down I-64 at 70+MPH with beams and other "implements of destruction" (references to Arlo Guthrie) bouncing around in the trailer. Instead of doing the trailer thing, the loops and buddipole are quite compact and easy to deploy.
I arrived at Beagle Gap around 09:30 and began unpacking the gear. I set up the buddipole as a horizontal dipole for 6m (50.125) and adjusted the whips to get a low SWR. Next, I got out the speaker stand and placed the 2 HO loops right on top. 15 minutes of installation and I was ready to get on the air.
I also brought a range of HTs. I had my Icom ID-51 (2m/70cm FM/DV), Kenwood TK-5210 (2m FM/P25), and EF Johnson 5100 (33cm FM/P25). I gave a CQ with a couple of watts and made contact with LOTS of folks during the day! I talked to Win Grant (WA4SSG) on 70cm with 100mw on D-Star - line of sight makes such a difference.
I hopped on 2m SSB and started calling CQ. I have to admit, I really one particular function of the IC-7100 - voice memory and auto-calling - I recorded my CQ (CQ CQ CQ de K8OI/P), set the timer interval (10 seconds) and just started working the band. I received a contact in just a few minutes and had a great QSO with a ham from Charlottesville - I was really pleased, the little m2 HO loop seemed to be doing it's job!
After some time, I switched over to 6m and made quite a few contacts during the day. Towards the afternoon, 6m even opened up to Florida. I tried unsuccessfully for 15 minutes to make contact, but unfortunately, I was in the midst of packing up my gear and had to leave.
Driving home, I realized that I really missed the performance of the beams. The loops did an OK job, but I wasn't able to make some of the contacts I'd made last year and the 2 biggest differences were beams and the transceiver. There is always something to work on in the hobby!
73 de K8OI
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