A Little Pacific Beach San Diego, CA Portable QRP

I was on Pacific Beach in San Diego, CA for a conference, and took some time to set up a little sand based station for some QRP action! The waves were up, the weather was beautiful, and the Florida stations were booming in! I was using my main QRP rig, an Icom 703 (not plus), with an off market battery and a modified MP1 SuperAntenna with a 12 foot whip (here shown only up about 6 feet). I used my antenna tuner to optimize the settup for 20 meters and only laid out 2 long radials. Seemed to work well. I had the power down to 5 watts for true QRP.

Some kids came by and asked what I was doing. I briefly explained about Ham radio, and they seemed interested, but were disappointed that I wasn't trying to contact UFO's or aliens. I told them I'd talk to whoever answered! Hopefully Stephen Hawking wasn't listening in, as he probably wouldn't approve.

73

AD7QQ

Woah, time has really gone by

This is a picture of my indoor shack. I haven't had too many qrp adventures yet this year (just some back pack in the snow near by home), but will be traveling in late April to California and plan to take the Icom 703 with me for some portable QRP!!!! Very exciting. I will take my Acer Netbook with me and try to do some Beach Pedestrian PSK and Olivia.

If you click on the picture it will enlarge. From the top: box of QSL cards, stamps and envelopes ready to go. Several Ham radio theme hats to help set the mood.

Second Row Down: Yaesu FT-450AT and a stack of manuals

Third Row Down: QSL folder, automatic LDG antenna tuner (not currently in use), 300 watt rectangular air cooled dummy antenna, SignaLink USB interface, an ancient inherited coax switch, and an antenna tuner by MFJ.

Bottom Row: Oscilloscope, IMD meter, MFJ antenna analyser, stack of "to be read" books, some mail, more manuals, Yaesu power supply, old Toshiba Satellite Laptop (now replaced with the small and speedy Acer Netbook, and an Alinco DX-70 from the car brought in for testing (works great). To the right is a box of miscellaneous antenna parts, etc.

73

AD7QQ