I love amateur radio and I would like to do more hiking - so what's more natural than to take part in the
Parks On the Air (POTA) program. I've only recently discovered POTA and how it combines the two: amateur radio and hiking.
Today I went to a park not too far from home. In addition to a short drive it took about a one hour walk in the terrain each way to NO-0497, "Furuåsen og Hagahogget". There is a magnificent view over the Oslo fjord from a trekking cabin there: Hovdehytta. It has a history going back to 1922.
I used my QMX+ and a 20 000 mAh power bank with a 12 V Power Delivery cable. The battery has enough power for many activations, and the QMX+ gave out 6-7 Watts CW on 20 m. With such a location and view, and it being a Sunday with many active stations, it took about an hour for 27 contacts. Most of them were with Central Europe, one to NY in the US, and a local one with LA3PK.
The antenna is the Ali Express 5.6 m telescopic whip antenna with a red base ("red slug") tuned to resonance by varying the length of the whip using the incredible QMX SWR tool for Android of Francesco IU2UEQ.
 | | Spectacular view of the Oslo fjord |
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 | The trekking cabin with a nice outdoor table
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 | | The QMX+ with power bank and single-paddle key |
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 | | Resonance in the antenna |
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Looks like a great place to play radio outdoors, Sverre. And this is the first I've heard of the SWR tool for Android - thanks for that info.
ReplyDelete73,
John
Yes, John, it is one of the nicer places for portable radio around here!
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