Christmas Eve QRP-Portable

For a variety of reasons, I’ve been pretty much missing in action, radio-wise, for the past few weeks. Today I took a brief break from the holiday preparations to scratch my QRP-portable itch.

I drove out to nearby Black Rock Sanctuary in Phoenixville, PA; a place I haven’t operated from in a while. Except for a few dog walkers, I had the place to my self. It was cloudy, windy, and cold, so I stayed in the relative warmth of my truck with my 19-foot vertical mounted on the back.

I fired up the KX3 on 40M and made a couple of quick SKCC contacts with K1NIE in Ohio and K1EDG up in Maine. I tuned down to 7.030 and answered W9KY’s CQs from Indiana. Our signals weren’t very strong but we had a nice ragchew.

Next, I called CQ on 20M a few times and N0KCJ in Minnesota gave me a call. He was using a 3-foot loop in his shack. Cool! We got in a couple of exchanges before the band started fading.

I tuned down to 30M and had a short QSO with AE4DB in Florida. After we wrapped up, I packed up and headed home to spend the rest of Christmas Eve with my (far) better half. It was another short outing but it’s always fun to get out there.

I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a joyful and peaceful holiday season.

72, Craig WB3GCK