My (far) better half and I spent the weekend in Central Pennsylvania watching the grandkids, while our second harmonic and her husband were off celebrating their anniversary. Of course, I took some radio gear along to do some QRP-portable operating while I was out there.
I had a brief window of opportunity on Saturday morning, so I drove to the Falmouth Access boat launch along the Susquehanna River to activate the Captain John Smith National Historic Trail (US-4567). Since we used the (far) better half’s car this weekend, I used this opportunity to try out my Gabil GRA-7350TC vertical and magnetic mount on her car for the first time. I also brought along my trusty Penntek TR-35 (5 watts, CW).
To facilitate tuning the vertical, I used a recently acquired Mini60 analyzer I bought off AliExpress. It’s cheap and a little quirky, but it’s small and its simple SWR readings got the job done. I started on 40M and got the SWR down to 1.3:1 without adding radials. That’s better than I had ever gotten on my pickup truck. I guess the roof on my XYL’s little SUV provides a better ground plane than my truck.
Band conditions were generally lousy, and there was some horrendous local noise in 40M and 20M. I didn’t experience any noise issues the last time I activated from here. Despite all that, I managed to scrape together 17 contacts in about 35 minutes, including one with F4ILH on 17M. Also, thanks to W5KEB for working me on two bands. (My apologies to a couple of hunters I couldn’t pull out of the crazy noise in 40M and 20M.)
Even though the bands weren’t too hot, I was pleased with the performance of the Gabil antenna. It’s another good antenna option when I’m using my (far) better half’s car (or any car, for that matter).
72, Craig WB3GCK
WB3GCK QRP Amateur Radio 
It’s amazing how well those mobile antennas work even at QRP levels. I’ve been having good luck on my 30m ham stick and FT 818 during my lunch break here lately. Hopefully, the noise was temporary to that location.
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