QRP on the Trail

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.