Lots of thoughts racing, so I'll just summarize right here:
I'm planning to go camping out toward Salton Sea next weekend, 27-28 January. Purpose is to try to boost my score in the ARRL International Grid Chase and participate in Winter Field Day. Who wants to come and where's a good place to do this? (Note, it has to be no more than about 8 miles east of 78 and 86 to be in the grid I'm trying to be in.)
Stream of consciousness:
- I got on HF, mostly the FT8 digi mode. My antenna is a stealthy wire. (https://www.qrz.com/db/K6BOS)
- I'm doing pretty good in ARRL's grid chase (https://igc.arrl.org/index.php), but progress has slowed. I think this because most people I can work already have credit for my grid.
- The grid that contains the Salton Sea has had hardly any contacts, so there should be demand for it
- I want to go operate from that grid and get lots of contacts, score
- Next weekend (i.e. 26-28 Jan 2018) is my last chance to rack up January points
- Coincidentally, this thing called Winter Field Day is the same weekend (https://www.winterfieldday.com/). It's like Field Day, but in the Winter.
- I've gathered some stuff to make a minimal field Ham station, i.e. radio, laptop, antenna, car battery hookup, card table
Here is a map of grid DM23, out of which I want to operate from:
I'm thinking about camping off of pole line road just north of 78, right around here:
https://goo.gl/maps/qWjWLpyY6e82 Plusses are, it's pretty much the quickest point in DM23 to get to from San Diego, and there is a pit toilet. But I've never been out there, so I have no idea. I'm gonna put up an easy-up and run a wire antenna out about 130 feet to a pole (see below). I figure I'll just sleep in the car and eat Mountain House.
Anybody been there? Any reasons we should stay away? Any better ideas?
For an antenna, I'm bringing an MFJ-1982MP. It should tune up on 80, 40, 20, 17, 12, and 10 meters. It's an end fed wire, 132 feet long. I rigged up a 20' tall pole, which will hold up the far end of the antenna. And I'll tie off the near end with the feedpoint to the roof rack.
I practiced setting it up today, and it went pretty well.
But being 20 feet long, the pole is pretty much a noodle.
I'll add a set of guys halfway up.
For power, I'm tapping into the starter battery on my X. It's a Bosch AGM. I figure I should be good to operate for a couple of hours, then run the engine for 30 min or so. I'll use a voltmeter and try to get a feel. If it all goes wrong, I should be able to get a jump from someone.
So that's it.
Anybody want to go? Bring an HF rig and operate multi? Any other ideas?
