Last week my family and I went to Avalon, Catalina Island, off the coast of southern California. What an awesome place! It feels like a coastal tourist paradise in another country, except that it’s just 26 miles from Long Beach. Definitely a bucket-list item.
To recover from two days of gawking at beach scenery and tapping generous libations, I set off on a 6 mile solo hike to take in the view from 1500 feet. And to sneak in a little stealth radio op. From downtown Avalon I walked to the Wrigley Memorial, then zig-zagged up the Garden to Sky trail for 1.2 miles, where I was rewarded with a vista to the north that includes another of the Channel Islands. At this point I picked up the jeep road for another half mile, heading east, ascending even further to a gazebo overlooking the Hermit Gulch campground far below. (The trail down from here is very steep; if I ever do it again, I’ll go the opposite direction.) This gazebo was the perfect spot to break the KX2 out of its tiny ES40 bag and deploy the whip, which took all of 30 seconds. Aside from the obvious (gorgeous WX, killer view, and the joy of running 10 watts hand-held to an AX1 whip on 15/17/20), I was blessed with both acoustic and RF noise floors so low that I was reminded of a minor tinnitus condition. No wind, no other humans, the occasional cry of a hawk, and the radio equivalent of a peaceful, easy feeling. I could hear stations that were merely thinking about transmitting. It would be tempting to weave a tall tale about DX worked from this idyllic overlook. Truth is I just listened for awhile, marveling at how sparkling clean everything sounded without the usual three coats of RF grunge we often suffer at home. The noise drops with any trip away from civilization, of course, but this was exceptional. It’s yet another reason to get out of the shack. And why we keep designing rigs like the KX2. 73, Wayne N6KR ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
