My family and I went to Lake George in early August for a week of fun — I’m not as bendy as they are, so while they were parasailing and kayaking, I hung back at our hotel to make a few QRP contacts while portable.
We had a nice room with a second story balcony that overlooked the lake. I was able to hang my dipole from the two far ends of the balcony, about 24 feet across (short for 20-meters). Using that sub-optimal antenna I did work a pair of CW QRP contacts with WW4LL, Fred in GA, and K1DW, Dallas in LA.
Dipole fed with RG174 strung from the columns about 24 feet apart on our deck.
KX3 operating portable CW
One funny thing — on my second day using the KX3, the internal battery was running low, so I replaced it with a spare, and when I picked the rig back up, the main tuning knob fell off. I watched it roll across the bottom of the deck railing, noticing that the knob was taller than the gap. Whew! Unfortunately it rolled to the very end of the deck, where the gap was much larger. I then watched the knob roll off the end of the deck, and heard it bounce off of several other decks then into the grass below. Fortunately my son found the knob in some flowers, and I actually found the felt washer that provides a bit of back drag under our deck rail. Now that was very lucky!
