Well I did get out it was great to smell the fresh air and get away from all the city noise. I went to Holmes lake inside a large park within the city limits. I had everything packed and ready to go so was up and running in short order. I ran the FT817 with a 50' zip wire antenna; I was hurtin this weekend so did not use Buddipole antenna. To cold for the rheumatoid arthritis bear Grrrrrrrrrrr. It was 29F measured with light wind and light flurries. Very peaceful day I love the outdoors and miss hunting. I started on 15m after hearing promising signals. I called CQ for quite awhile with no answer. Tuned up and down the band no bears Grrrrrr and very few signals so moved to 20m. 20m looked promising and a quick check of qrpspots showed a few bears on band. Anyway I listened around with no joy from any bears. I did hear one SKCC member calling and after I plugged in the straight key he/she dropped off Grrrrrrrr. I parked on 14.062.5 and called with no answers. finally moved to 40m, man I wish my home station noise floor was this low. It's great to operate out and about and the ham shack feels like a dungeon to me. After a short time on 40m the snow/rain started and this wimpy bear called it a day with no BSO's. Dressing in the hunting gear with hand warmers made the difference on comfort and reduced the shaky bear claws on the keys... I will post pictures soon. I need further experience experimentation with the zip wire antenna 50' of speaker wire 4-1 balun. I may not use it again I have a partially completed w3edp hope to have it operational next month... Thanks bears it was nice to blow the stink off Grrrrrrrrr...

72/73/Scotty/NUØS pb266

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