Outer Banks 2023

We made a trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina this week for our annual family vacation. As in previous years, we rented a house on Currituck Sound. This time, however, we were just outside the village of Duck.

This was our first time renting this house, so I did a little prior research on the layout using pictures on the Realtor’s website and Google Earth. OK, I’ll be honest; I was looking for places to put my antenna. I had a couple of possibilities in mind, but I waited until we got there to decide where to set up.

My Set-up

It was brutally hot when we arrived on Sunday afternoon, August 13th; so I decided to forego putting up an antenna until the following morning. Instead, I surveyed the property to find a spot to set up the radio gear.

Later the next day, I strapped my 31-foot Jackite pole to a fence near the pole. The wind was pretty strong, so I used every velcro strap I had with me. Since these rental houses usually come with high noise levels, I kept the antenna about 40 feet from the house. I used the pole to support a 29.5-foot vertical wire, which was fed through my weather-resistant 9:1 unun. I had to use 50 feet of RG-8x to connect to the rig. That’s longer than I usually use, so I’m sure I was introducing increased coax losses. Life is full of trade-offs, I guess.

We were under an excessive heat warning for the first few days, so I kept my radio inside the building. I unclipped the bottom of the window screen enough to accommodate the coax. I cut a foam pool noodle to fit the width of the window. Then I made a lengthwise cut so I could fit it onto the window frame and seal the window a bit.

After getting it all together, I did a quick test. The KX3’s tuner provided a good match on every band from 80M to 10M. I’m sure the coax losses were helping to make it easier to tune the antenna. There was a fair amount of noise on 40M and below, but the higher bands weren’t too bad.

While I was on 30M, I heard a station in Arkansas calling CQ. Despite some deep fading and static from storms in the area; we managed to complete the QSO. The antenna, while nowhere near optimal, was functional. Satisfied with that, I declared victory and headed out to join the rest of the family in the pool.

Wright Brothers Memorial (K-0797, KFF-0797

For the past several years, I thought about activating a park or two on the Outer Banks. For various reasons (mostly laziness), it hasn’t happened. I set out to change that this time around. 

On Wednesday, I drove down to the Wright Brothers National Memorial (K-0797, KFF-0797), about 30 minutes away from where we were staying in Duck. I planned to go the day before, but I delayed it by a day, because of an excessive heat warning. There’s normally a fee to enter this park, but my Veterans ID card got me in for free.

I operated from my truck in the main parking lot, using my TR-35 (five watts) and 12-foot loaded whip antenna. The bands were in great shape; I made my first ten contacts in ten minutes.

After about 50 minutes, it started getting hot and crowded; so I started packing up. This park is a very popular attraction; the empty parking lot I started in was now full. I ended up with 30 contacts in my log, including six park-to-park QSOs. 

I had planned to activate a second park this week, but that didn’t work out. I’ll save that for next year.

Operating from the House

Besides the POTA activation, I made a handful of QSOs each day. The 30M and 20M bands, both having a low noise floor, were the most productive for me. These rental houses are chock full of light dimmers and other noise-producing amenities, so operating on the lower bands can be challenging. 

Tuesday, August 15th, was the 30th anniversary of my first QRP portable operation. I wrote about that trip in a post from five years ago. It was fitting, I suppose, that I was portable this week. 

Things also got a little dicey Tuesday evening. A storm blew in, and the high winds were bending my 31-foot Jackite pole further than I had ever seen. I hurried out and collapsed the pole before the heavy rain started. That pole has really taken a beating over the years, and this year was no different. The wind collapsed it a few times during the week. 

One of my last QSOs for the week was with EC1R, who was activating a park in northern Spain. I had to crank up the KX3 to 15 watts to make it, but I managed to bust through the pile-up he had going.

After a few final QSOs on Saturday morning, it was time to take down the antenna and pack up the radio gear. Our annual family vacation always seems like the shortest week of the year. This year was no exception. 

73, Craig WB3GCK