My First Attempt at QRP Portable

Now that I have everything necessary to operate QRP portable, I was anxious to give it a try.  The station consists of:

• Elecraft KX-1
• 7Ah gel-cell battery (too big and heavy, I know)
• Antenna: 20 ft collapsable crappie pole and some speaker wire configured as a 20M dipole.

The weakest link on this chain of course was the operator. The next weakest link was the antenna, so I wanted to try to operate from a spot that was elevated. I live in Phoenix, AZ and Shaw Butte is not far from my house.  I’ve been to the top of Shaw Butte several times.  There is a ton of commercial repeaters up there, plus it’s quite a hike.  I chose a small hilltop that was about a third of the way up the trail as my operating position  You can see it in the photo below:

It’s Arizona. It’s summertime. whatever I did had to be early in the morning.  The temperature was 84 degrees when I left the house at 6:30am.  By 7:30 I was set up and operating.  Here is a 270-degree panoramic view from my operating spot:

Lesson 1: Trying to operate QRP portable for the first time while an IOTA contest is in full swing is not a good idea. I heard lots of signals.  Lots.  All at blinding-fast CW speeds.  After about an hour it was clear that my measly 4 watts and 10WPM were not going to get me anywhere that day.

I also decided that I do not like the KX-1 paddles.  The KX-1 paddles are touchy.  And the rubber sleeves on the paddles themselves stick to my sweaty fingertips. I guess I am spoiled by the light-but-solid touch of my Bencher paddles. Used Bencher paddles are about $60 so I’m temped to use one for this rig even though they are heavy.

By 8:30am the sweat was running down my face. It was also running off the brim of my hat and landing on the KX-1. I had consumed nearly all of the half gallon of water I brought along.  Though I had not made a single contact I knew the better part of valor was to call it a day.  I packed up and walked back down the trail to my car.  By 9:30 I was back in the air-conditioned comfort of my ham shack.