Hi Gang,



About two weeks ago Gloria (WD5CMA) and I had a chance to spend a week at our son (W5WWX) and daughter-in-law's cabin the the north Georgia mountains (Blue Ridge GA) inside the Chatahoochee National Forest. Great spot for "luxury" POTA, with mains power,  A/C, comfy furnishings, kitchen, cable TV, WiFi, hot tub, etc. Rough duty, but somebody's got to get those Parks On The Air  :^))



Antennas were held up by a Jackite pole strapped to the deck railing. The deck at that spot is 17' above ground level, so for 20m it was a full size dipole suspended vertically, on 40m it was a slight sloper. Rig, for most of the time, was the K2-QRP running off a 7 aH AGM battery that was topped up periodically with a 600 mA solar panel. Had short-lived mini-pileups most days on both CW and SSB after spotting on the POTA site.



But for a brief 90 minute spell, I threw caution to winds and broke out the 20m Spy Radio, based on Dave Benson's Green Mountain 20, but packaged to look like the Bayou Jumper. A photo is attached. Output is about 1.5 to 2.0 W depending on battery health. Here the battery was three 18650 Li-ion cells in series.



I dived right into the roiling fray of the NA Sprint on 20m, and in that 90 minute span, with a couple of snack breaks thrown in, made 25 Qs, working all but three or four of the stations I called. It was a barrel of fun. So nice to be in an RF quiet environment. So quiet I could hear some slight noise from my Samlex switching 20A supply when I broke it out for a few minutes the next day. Never heard any amid the RF soup at the home QTH in Baton Rouge.



But probably the neatest part was introducing our grand daughter, Tessa, to ham radio. Not quite 3 years old yet, she was fascinated with the straight key and keyer, and we even managed a few words of chat back to grandma on 2m when we were out walking the trails on our "bear hunts". Couple of photos attached as well. All-in-all a wonderful getaway.



Blatant advertisement - they do list the cabin on airbnb - There's no permanent antenna installed, but a fishing pole, some wire and string is all that's needed. I shan't post a link here - that would be too blatant - but contact me privately if you wish.



73,

Jim, N5IB

n5ib (at) juno (dot) com