February 2023 – WB3GCK QRP Amateur Radio

More Fun with the AX1 Antenna

Sometimes, you just have to be flexible. Originally, I had planned to do some bike riding today and experiment with a bike mount I cobbled together for my Elecraft AX1 antenna. However, Mother Nature decided to throw some freezing temperatures at me today. Instead of a cold bike ride, I opted for a more comfortable “stationary-mobile” POTA activation.

I loaded up my gear and made the quick trip to nearby Evansburg State Park (K-1351). My setup today was similar to the one I used a couple weeks ago. I used my AX1 antenna on a window mount. The rig today was my PennTek TR-35 (5 watts), coupled with an Elecraft T1 tuner. The TR-35 limited my operation to the 20M and 17M bands. With this simple setup, I was on the air within a couple of minutes of arriving.

Contacts on 20M came as easily today as my last activation with the window mounted AX1. I had my first 10 contacts in about 15 minutes. I was pleased to get a call from K4SWL down in North Carolina. Thomas has a bunch of recent posts on the AX1 over at qrper.com. Of course, I had to let him know I was using an AX1 today.

The organized chaos in the cab of my truck, which includes my PennTek TR-35 and Elecraft T1 ATU.

After logging 20 contacts on 20M, I changed over to 17M. I didn’t have as much luck, but I made four contacts there. After that, I went back to 20M to make a couple of park-to-park contacts. My last contact was with WA3GM. Greg is a local ham who is spending some time in Florida and was activating a park down there.

I shut down after an hour of operating with 26 contacts in the log including 3 park-to-park contacts.That exactly matched the results from my last activation with the AX1. This little antenna never ceases to amaze me.

Hopefully, we’ll get some more moderate temperatures this week, so I can finally get that bike ride in.

72, Craig WB3GCK

Samurai Tactical Wakizashi Backpack

Over the past couple of years, some knee issues have slowed me down. My new knee joint resolved those issues, and life is getting back to normal—as normal as my life gets, I suppose. Anyway, I’m planning to get back to doing some light hiking this year as the weather improves. With that in mind, I bought a new backpack to use on day hikes.

For the past four years, I have been using the Rambler sling pack from Red Rock. It has been—and still is—a great backpack. It has plenty of storage for hauling a radio and accessories out to the field, and it is one sturdy, well-built pack. My only issue with it is that it is a sling pack. For short trips, it’s fine. But, for longer trips, having all the weight on one shoulder feels a bit “lopsided” to me. If I could have the same pack with two shoulder straps, I would be a happy camper (hiker).

A while back, I came across the Wakizashi backpack from Samurai Tactical and saved it to my Amazon wishlist. The Wakizashi is similar in size to my Rambler sling pack. While it has fewer storage pockets than my sling pack, it has more than enough storage for my needs. (I tend to carry too much stuff with me anyway.)

When I purchased it, the Wakizashi backpack in black was selling for a mere $24 (USD). (Other colors are available at slightly higher prices.) For that price, if I didn’t like it, I could always give it to one of the grand-kids. The average ratings were 4.6 out of 5, so I took a chance and placed an order.

I should also note that I have no financial interest here; I paid for the backpack with my own funds. Also, the Amazon link above is not an affiliate link.

Amazon delivered the pack to a neighbor’s porch a few days later. I had to wander the neighborhood in the rain to find it. Not cool, Amazon.

I wasn’t expecting much for a $24 backpack, but I was pleasantly surprised. For a cheap backpack, it seems well built. A few of the many reviews complained of poor stitching and general issues with quality. I saw none of that in the item I received. Mine was well-built, and the material appears to be durable enough.

Samurai Wakizashi backpack. The patches and HT pouch were added by me. — Samurai Tactical Wakizashi backpack. The patches and HT pouch were added by me.

The pack measures 17.1 x 11.1 x 6.1 inches with a capacity of 24 liters. There’s a large main compartment and a smaller admin compartment. There are also two smaller compartments near the top of the pack. A side pouch is large enough for a water bottle, and there is plenty of MOLLE webbing on the sides and back. If you’re so inclined, it accommodates a hydration bladder and has a hydration port at the top of the bag.

Samurai Wakizashi backpack shoulder and sternum straps.

Although the Wakizashi backpack has fewer compartments than my sling pack, there is enough storage to accommodate everything I normally carry in the field. Besides the radio gear, I always carry a small first aid kit, emergency poncho, headlamp, and a few other emergency items. The main compartment is a bit larger, so things that present a tight squeeze in the sling pack fit easily in the Wakizashi.

I’ve been using this pack for the past couple of months now with no issues. How well it holds up in the long term remains to be seen. For now, anyway, I’m happy with this budget backpack.

73, Craig WB3GCK

Reviving My Old Car Window Mount

Recently, Thomas K4SWL over at QRPer.com featured an excellent guest post from W2AEW describing a car window mount Alan built for his Elecraft AX1 antenna. Inspired by Alan’s post, William KR8L, did some experimenting and came up with his own window mount. These folks got me thinking—a dangerous thing, sometimes.

I remembered a commercially made window mount I bought 25+ years ago. (I think it came from RadioShack, but I’m uncertain of that.) Back then, I was traveling for work a lot, and I usually took my old RadioShack HTX-202 HT along with me. When I was using a rental car, I used the window mount with a rubber duck antenna. When parked, I used a 2M half wave telescopic antenna on it. I hadn’t used it—or seen it—in years. It was somewhere amongst the miscellaneous stuff acquired over my 48 years in ham radio.

It took a little searching, but after rummaging through some old parts, I found the old window mount. The mount is made of steel with a female BNC connector on it. It also has six feet of RG-58 coax attached. The coax is more than enough to reach the center console of my truck from the passenger side window.

The old window mount I resurrected from the junk box. The bolt next to the BNC connector is something I added.

The next task at hand was to figure out a way to connect a counterpoise wire to the mount. The steel mount has a black coating on it, which electrically isolated the BNC connector from the mount. To resolve that, I removed the BNC connector and used a rotary tool to remove some of the coating around the mounting hole. Then, I drilled a hole for a small bolt that I could use as a place to attach an alligator clip for the radials.

I already had an Elecraft AX1 antenna that I bought years ago when they first came out. I usually carry it in my backpack as a backup antenna, but I really haven’t used it very much. So, I guess it’s time to put it to use.

To see how this setup worked, I drove over to nearby Valley Forge National Historical Park (POTA K-0761) for a brief activation. Along with the AX1 on the window mount, I used two 12.5-foot radials. I have to admit it was nice being able to deploy an antenna in less than a minute.

My AX1 deployed on the window mount with two radial wires clipped on.

Back in the truck, I fired up my KX3 running five watts. I was prepared to crank the power up to 10 watts, if need be, but that proved unnecessary. Within a minute of spotting myself, the calls started coming in. The signal reports were decent, and I was seeing some strong hits on the Reverse Beacon Network. It took all of 12 minutes to make my prerequisite ten contacts.

In less than an hour, I had 14 contacts on 20M, nine on 17M, and three on 15M. Among those 26 QSOs, I had one park-to-park contact with a station in Quebec. At one point on 17M, I had a DX station calling. I believe it might have been Italy, but I just couldn’t pull out the entire callsign. My apologies to that station, wherever they were.

The AX1’s performance was a pleasant surprise. Although it has been in my antenna arsenal for a few years now, I really haven’t given it a serious test. Well, that changed today. It has proven itself to be a worthy antenna choice, when a larger antenna is impractical.

Thanks to W2AEW and KR8L for inspiring me to dust off my old window mount and put it to good use.

72, Craig WB3GCK

POTA/PBMME/FYBO – February 2023

I made a trip down to Ridley Creek State Park today to take part in three events. Besides a normal POTA activation (K-1414), the annual FYBO contest and the monthly Polar Bear Moonlight Madness Event (PBMME) were happening.

Because of the cold weather, I operated from the truck, using my KX3 (5 watts) and homebrew vertical. At 23F (-5C), my weather was nowhere near what folks up north were experiencing. Still, it was a little colder than I wanted to deal with today. The sun coming through the windshield kept my operating position around a comfortable 58F.

The "QRP-Mobile" at Ridley Creek State Park (K-1414} — The WB3GCK “QRP-Mobile” at Ridley Creek State Park (K-1414}

After approximately 90 minutes, I had 31 stations in my log. Among those were two fellow Polar Bears, John VA3KOT and Jamie AA4K. Jamie was one of five park-to-park contacts I made today. I didn’t hear any FYBO stations. I spent most of my time calling, “CQ POTA.,” so I wasn’t really looking too hard.

Towards the end of my outing, I spent some time up on 15M. My 5-watt signal was getting some strong European hits on RBN, but I didn’t hear much activity on the band. I eventually had four contacts on 15M, including Belgium and Italy.

Starting tomorrow, we’ll be getting back to more moderate weather here in Pennsylvania. I’m looking forward to it.

72, Craig WB3GCK