QRP on the High Bluff Trail

 A short walk in from the High Bluff east trailhead, there's a picnic table with nearby limbs suitable for hoisting the Par 10-20-40 trail-friendly end-fed antenna.  Operated for a couple of hours, made two contacts (hey, you try talking 2300 miles on 2.5 watts), including one half-hour-plus rag chew up to New Hampshire.  Just stayed on PSK-31, didn't even try re-arranging menus to do voice.  The new iPhone did great as a computer, with the same interface that worked so well with the 4S (had to add a Lightning-to-3.5mm dongle, a big $9).  Here, have some pics and we'll wrap with lessons learned.

While breaking down.  Almost forgot to take a pic before leaving.

"The road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began."

About a 20 minute drive to the trailhead and a 12 minute walk to the table site.  Not bad at all.  Back to lessons learned.

1. I need a new broad-brimmed hat.  This sun is a little much as it slants in on my ballcap in the late afternoon.  Will attend to this detail next week.
2. When switching from digital modulation to voice, the menu system on the FT-817nd needs to be reset, even when going over to an FM repeater setting in memory.  Vox, etc., all those things that are a fiddly mess when working in the woods with the lightweight phone audio interface.  Of course, this is no problem at all if the signals are fed in through the data port, but that requires carrying along a laptop & SignaLink.  It may just be easier to haul along the FT-60 and use that for VHF/UHF work and leave the 817nd for the HF heavy lifting.
3. The ionosphere is in still in poor shape.  Next time out, I may go heavy with the FT-857d, laptop, etc. and work things at 10x the power.  Out of 10 fairly solid signals that I could copy, I could only reach back and work 2 of the stations.  Frustrating.  This of course will triple the pack weight, which will in turn necessitate going over a heavier pack, with all those tumble-on effects.  OTOH, it's only a 12 minute walk from the trailhead and this is no big deal.

All in all, a nice afternoon in the woods.  Think I'll be doing this more often.