This is always a bittersweet time of year for me. While I enjoy camping in Fall, I also know that the camping season is drawing to a close. This past weekend was the final trip of the year for the QRP Camper.
My (far) better half and I took our little trailer to nearby French Creek State Park in Elverson, Pennsylvania. We usually start and end the season there. It’s close to home and it’s one of our favorite campgrounds.
My radio time was limited this weekend. We had our four grandchildren visit the campsite on Saturday. Most of Saturday was spent carving pumpkins with the kids and roasting hotdogs and marshmallows over the campfire.
I did manage to find time to make a half-dozen contacts, though. A couple of them were real nice rag chews. One of note was with K1LKP in New Hampshire. Carmen noted that our last QSO was 15 years ago while I was camping in Maryland. It sure was nice to work him again.
Looking back over the past camping season, I made a few small changes in how I operate from the camper. I mentioned in previous posts, that the 120VAC-to-12VDC converter in the trailer generates a huge amount of RF noise. I’ve been getting around that by killing the AC power to camper when I’m on the radio. All of the essential functions in the trailer (lights, refrigerator, water pump, water heater) automatically switch to battery or propane. In the chillier weather—like this weekend—, I run a separate extension cord into the trailer to power a small electric heater.
I also did some experimenting with the way I feed my antenna. My 29.5-foot vertical is fed through 9:1 unun and uses the coax shield as a counterpoise. I have never had any serious problems with RF in the shack, but I have noticed some minor fluctuations in SWR. I placed a common mode choke at the rig end, and that has made tuning more consistent. I built the common mode choke—or line isolator—a while back for other experiments. It’s now a permanent part of my set up in the camper.
So, that wraps up another fun camping season with the QRP Camper. It’s now time to Winterize it and put it in storage until Spring. It’s not the end of my portable operating though; there’s still lots of outdoor radio fun to be had.
72, Craig WB3GCK
WB3GCK QRP Amateur Radio 