The weather forecast for the next few days is so insanely great that I took today off to go mountain biking. Started the day with the usual 25 miles like a normal biker, then had lunch and pressed the nerd button. Swapped camelbaks for the one pre-loaded with the Yaesu FT-817nd and its accouterments, jumped back on the bike for a couple more miles' ride up South Bethal Trail, set up the antenna, and... made next to no contacts. Did catch the tail-end of a 40 meter net that's run out of Texas, so I wasn't completely skunked. Then I almost got through to an elementary school's ham station – but only 5 watts wasn't able to break through suburban Atlanta background noise, so that didn't go. Mulled over pulling out the iPhone interface, but even the digital sub-bands were all but dead so I didn't bother. Just one of those afternoons.
For all the lack of contacts, it was a successful trip nonetheless. The basic scheme of pedaling out with complete HF radio gear worked well. Set-up and tear-down each took only about 15 minutes. Pack weigh-in with 1.5 liters of water came to 12.3 pounds. That's trivial on foot, and even manageable on a bike. And while the ionosphere was uncooperative, I got enough signal through to prove to myself that the concept as a whole works. It was a nice spring day well spent.
Lessons for next time? I probably ought to invest in a good day pack. A ten year old camelbak MULE, even augmented with an extra MOLLE pouch, just doesn't cut it if I want to bring lunch or a poncho. It'd also be nice to bring a foam backpacker's seat. I already have one and that bare dirt gets hard after an hour. But those are small quibbles, and the rest came off without a hitch.
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