It is warming up nicely here in SE Minnesota and the city parks are finally open. Yesterday I took my KX3 along with my
20 meter end fed zepp to Essex park here in Rochester. I didn't have a lot of action but both QSOs were neat. I finally had to QRT when the high school kids started showing up for prom photos and it looked like I might be in the background.
My first QSO was with NM5S in the Magdalena Mountains of New Mexico. He was operating SOTA (
Summits on the Air). I've activited a couple of summits but no 10 pointers like Alan was yesterday. Later this summer I'll probably find a summit or two to activate myself.
My second QSO was with N1SZO. Rod was running 170mW using a
Rockmite transceiver and a 1/2 wave vertical. He was almost 100% copy here in MN, that's 5600 miles per watt!
I'm looking forward to more QRP outings to the park but next time I'll pack along a Coke and the BBQ grill so that I can make a day of it.
