Getting My Radio Fix - QRP Portable Today!

I was finally able to sneak off at lunch time for some quick portable QRP op's with the KX3 and my Portable QRP Antenna from the local park.

I did a quick scan of the bands when I got there, and made one quick contact with a mobile station...

N7IV/M 14.056 599 both ways.  I am not exactly sure where he was, but had a little pileup going. (UPDATE: I found him on APRS - I appears he was in Wisconsin)

Then I decided to just plant myself on a frequency and call CQ to see what happened.  I spotted myself on Twitter hoping to maybe make contact with a Twitter follower.  VA3QV sent me a Tweet and said he was listening but could not hear me.

But I did manage to get some replies to my CQ on 14.057!

W4FO Pat in Florida
KD3CA Don in Pennsylvania
W9DCQ Doug in Wisconsin
WD9DWE Dennis in Indiana

Thanks for the QSO's guys!

I then decided to spin the dial a bit.  I heard W1AW/0 in ND, but could not break the pileup.  It sounded like he was working some DX but I could not hear the DX.

Then I went to 17 meters and worked...

W1AW/8 in Ohio - it took a bit to bust the pileup, but I finally made it!

So a fun lunch hour on the radio today!  Thanks to everyone that worked me, and to those on Twitter that tried to work me.  It was a fun adventure.

Here is where I was spotted by RBN:

One strange thing did happen today at the park.  A car pulled into a parking spot about 6 spots away from me.  There were a couple guys in the car.  On the trunk was mounted a large antenna with a wide spaced coil.  I suspect it was a CB radio antenna.  The problem was that they were talking on it!  Every time the talked I got a loud static noise on my rig.  I wonder if they were hearing my 5 watts also??

Eventually they left, but gave me a long slow look as they drove past - pretty funny - but I was glad they left because they kept messing up my QSO's!