Nice afternoon with 60-ish temps and clear blue skies, so I took a little day hike with the FT-817nd and related gear to the old ANER boardwalk / marsh viewing platform. No bugs today! Not a lot of contacts either -- 2 on HF and 3 on UHF/FL-SARNET. Still, it got me out of the house and back on HF. While there, we saw several barges on the river (one in pic below), a couple of bald eagles, and one biplane. Pretty outstanding for a little Saturday afternoon stroll.
Yes, it is possible to make UHF contacts with the 817's stock rubber duct antenna, but it really helps if the repeater is only a mile away.
ps 12/27: Did a repeat of yesterday's QRPxpedition to the same place at about the same time of day, etc. Snagged CT on 20m and Brazil on 17m. The ionosphere still stinks, but the 817's a performer.
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