Recent Upgrade to General

Who knew what I've been missing?

I upgraded last Saturday through my local club. Went home, strung a wire in the tree and turned on the radio... And stumbled right into Winter Field Day. Seemed like the right thing to do was to figure out what everyone was doing and do it too. I'm only 20w and was testing out battery operations and switched around the frequencies quite a bit. Made a few QSOs on 40m, 20m, one on 15m and one on 10. I tried to stay behind the pile-ups as they moved up or down the frequencies, since my power level keeps me from being heard until all the high power folks have moved on.

I'm planning to do a lot of SOTA and POTA. I like to be outside and this is yet another reason to go do things outside.

This morning I went to China Camp State Park (US-1139) and strung a 35' wire up in the trees. Managed a couple-dozen contacts and a DX to Sweden-- With 20w. Who woulda thought? I only blew one call sign and I swear I had it right! I think there's another contest going on, so eventually someone who probably couldn't hear my low power signal started stepping on me. I went hunting instead and picked up a couple more park-to-parks.

This is going to be fun.