My (far) better half and I spent the weekend puppy sitting at my daughter’s house in central Pennsylvania. There are some POTA entities in the area, so I planned to get in an activation while we were there. We drove out in my (far) better half’s car, so I couldn’t use my usual setup.
Thanks to the work I did before I retired, I have a tendency to plan for every contingency. I started thinking about antennas for every scenario I might encounter. Since I have a lot of antenna options, my packing list quickly grew to ridiculous proportions. In the end, I resisted the urge to over-plan and kept things simple.
For this trip, I took my Elecraft AX1 antenna. With this antenna, I could go “picnic table portable” or use a window mount on the (far) better half’s car. For the rig, I went with my KX3, so I could use 20M, 17M, and 15M.
Early Saturday morning, I threw my backpack into my (far) better half’s car and drove up to Boyd Big Tree State Preserve (K-4356, KFF-4356). My last activation at this park was back in 2022. Coincidently, I was puppy sitting on that trip, too.
The parking lot was pretty crowded when I rolled in, but I found a spot with a little room around it. It only took a minute or two to set up the AX1 on the window mount. The car is pretty small, so I had to experiment a little to find a spot on the center console to accommodate the KX3.
My goal for the day was to make at least 14 contacts to reach the required 44 contacts at this park for World Wide Flora and Fauna (WWFF). (I had 30 contacts on my previous activation.) Of course, I would have been happy just to make the 10 contacts required for POTA. But, once again, I underestimated the effectiveness of the AX1.
Running five watts of CW on 20M and 17M, a steady stream of hunters kept me busy. It only took about 20 minutes to make the 14 contacts I was looking for. The last time someone activated this park was back in November, and there have been very few CW activations. So, this was probably a new one for a lot of hunters.
DX-wise, I had one of my better outings. I had 14 DX contacts with the following countries:
- Sweden (2)
- Finland (4)
- Italy (3)
- France
- Poland
- Germany
- Slovak Republic (2)
I worked OH2LIO on both 20M and 17M. Although not DX, I was pleased to log a contact with a California hunter. My little QRP signal really seemed to be getting around.
After slightly over an hour, I had 37 contacts, including four park-to-park contacts. Not too bad for five watts and a 45-inch whip.
I’m glad I went with this simple setup. That little AX1 never ceases to amaze me.
72, Craig WB3GCK
WB3GCK QRP Amateur Radio 
It would be neat to see a comparison of the AX1, a dipole and efhw in a tree. I do such by going to the Hawaii, KFS and Utah Websdr’s at home or mobile via my smartphone (wonderful hand held palmtop pc) or laptop wifi’ed to my phone. Supposedly the shorter whips do appreciably less than the bigger antennas but my comparisons show them all to by within one s-mark( 10db or so) of each other. Tho in linear fashion 10db is still 10 times the signal. 10 times seems like a lot and makes a big difference in noisy locations. I do find $100 for a coil in a plastic tube with a $10 45 inch whip on it daunting when i can make it for free with the junk and wire I have laying around. Then they want $20 to add 2 little sticks for a bipod. Ick.
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There’s no question that a full-size antenna would run rings around the AX1. It’s not my first choice in portable antennas. Yep, it was pricey, but it packs down to to a very small size. It has come in handy for quick impromtu outings, and it has been fun to play around with. 73, Craig WB3GCK
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