04/09/2017z

There continues to be lots of activity on 40 meters today with the GA QSO party, Straight Key Century Club's "WES" contest, and NM QSO Party.  I did get a NM station in my log which is great.  I need that state for Worked All States so that makes 31 states total at this point.  

I spent the last part of the Zulu day in the woods hiking with the SW+  It is like a field trip.   I went to the Morgan Monroe State Forest.  It is still in Morgan County and what I consider my home base for backpacking.  This is were I go to try out my equipment.  It is close to home so I can leave if things aren't working out and I am pretty comfortable there.   I know where water is and my favorite spot to spend the night.  It is up on a hill.  Less mosquitoes on a hill and better RF take off.  I made two QSO's and enjoyed a cup of tea.  One QSO was to the GA QSO party and the other to another GA station AI4UN for the WES contest.

     This was my first trip into the woods with the SW+.  It performed very well.  As expected I should say.  Last summer I bought a used Elecraft KX1.  It has 4 bands and displays a lot of information.  The KX1 really is hard to beat for the investment.  Low power consumption and the information it shows helps me feel more comfortable.  For expample SWR.  SWR is Standing Wave Ratio.  A high level of SWR is feedback of your signal into the radio due to a non-resonant antenna.  This is hard on a radio if the SWR is very high, and it is very inefficient both for receiving and sending.  At 1.5 watts you want to be as efficient as possible.  So the SW+ feels like going out there blind.  I didn't take a tuner.  My antenna is pretty resonant as long as it is deployed correctly.  I also don't have a good key set up yet for the SW+, so I just took a straight key.  I can't complain though.   The SW+ does not have a contest grade receiver, but it worked pretty well in the conditions I found myself this weekend.  I continue to be impressed with this little... well.... wonder.