WD9EWK/7 from London Bridge at Lake Havasu City, Arizona (30 November -
1 December 2002)
Updated 23 December 2003
Over the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend (28 November-1 December 2002), I
wanted to get away from the house for a day to play radio. I was looking
for a place that was 2 or 3 hours away from home, that would be OK for a few
hours' on the radio, and still be able to get home at a decent hour at the end
of the day. Originally I was looking to make a trip to
Bagdad (no, not the
Iraqi capital - but a small mining town in north-central Arizona), but due to
bad weather I decided on a trip to Lake Havasu City in western Arizona.
Lake Havasu City has the London Bridge, formerly located in the English
capital, but moved to Arizona and opened to the public here in the early
1970s. Not a lot of QSOs in the logbook, but an opportunity to try a
different radio in a portable setup - and still fun.
In the last year or so, my radio of choice has been the Yaesu FT-817 due to
its small size. I also have an Icom IC-706Mk2, which had been the radio
I used at home until I bought an IC-756Pro2 in May 2002. I decided to
give the IC-706Mk2 a try, and run 10 watts instead of the 5 watts the FT-817
can put out. I had 3 12-volt gel-cell batteries with me (2 @ 21Ah, 1 @
7Ah), and that was more than enough to power the radio for the afternoon and
early evening I spent in Lake Havasu City. I had my W3FF
"Buddipole" portable dipole with me, on its mast
and tripod, and I found a spot on the west side of the " Island at Lake
Havasu" - island AZ019 in the United States Islands Award Program - where I could set up
and not cause other people problems.
When I arrived in Lake Havasu City, it was raining. I set the antenna
next to my car, assembled it, and hoisted it into the air before running the
coax cable into my car where I assembled my station. I started on the
10 meter band, figuring I would hear lots of stations on a Saturday afternoon
on that band. My first QSO was with Alves PV8AAL in northern Brazil at
2100 UTC (1400 local time), not bad. I also wanted to work friends of
mine who hang out around 18.1575 MHz - but only made one contact there.
That contact was with Harry XE2/W6DXO, on vacation in the Mexican city of
Mazatlan. After 15 minutes of no luck, I moved to the 12 meter band and
had a quick chat - in Spanish - with Carlos
6J2WCG,
in northeastern Mexico. I went back to 18.1575 MHz after that contact,
hoping to work some of my friends there - but had no luck. I did manage
a contact with Raleigh WB7WNF in Washington state before moving back to the 10
meter band for the rest of the afternoon. Back on 10 meters, I had 5
contacts with Japanese stations plus one with Alex
L53EA in
Argentina.
I ended up working HF for about 4 hours, for my 10 contacts (2 on 17 meters,
1 on 12 meters, 7 on 10 meters - all SSB). Having the extra power,
even though it was only 5 watts more than my "typical" portable
setup using the FT-817, was a good thing. I don't know if I will travel
by air with just the IC-706Mk2, or take both rigs with me, but for road trips
I'll look at taking both with me.
QSL information for WD9EWK/7 at Lake Havasu City
As with my other portable ventures, I am my own QSL
manager. I sent my QSL cards from this day-trip on 5 December 2002,
and will prepare cards to go through the QSL bureau system for the DX stations
I contacted later. My cards will note the fact I was in Mohave County,
Arizona, in grid DM24tk on US Island AZ019 in Lake Havasu City.
Until my next trip.... 73!
WD9EWK/VA7EWK - WD9EWK (in USA) - QSL VIA WD9EWK