Mobile activity

This week I took a 900 mile drive to visit a friend in West Nebraska. That gave me a lot of mobile time. Here are some highlights.

Early on the trip Monday I had a long contact with someone (his call escapes me) who I've talked to a few times from Pennsylvania. While we were talking he viewed this blog, and commented on the photos of the mobile setup. That's how it's supposed to work.

Shortly after that I was calling CQ on 40 meters and W7AAZ/m came back to me. It turned out he was about 400 miles ahead of me on I-80, also heading west. We talked for about an hour, largely about mobile setups -- his was in a Corvette -- then both stopped for lunch at the same time. A half hour later I called him again, and we went for another half hour or so. Great mobile activity.

Today I started the eastbound trip. This morning I was having no luck on 40 meters, so listened to the I-pod instead. Then this afternoon I switched to 20, and was still having minimal luck. So I settled in on a frequency and started calling CQ.

After numerous calls, I had a faint station come back to me that I first copied as K7KAT. It took a couple rounds for me to realize it was IK7Kat, and I was working Italy, not the west coast. After he signed, I started calling CQ again, and this time was answered by KH6LC near Hilo, Hawaii. So back to back I worked Italy and Hawaii, with my compromise Yaesu ATAS 120 antenna. Not bad. After that, I figured my luck was running out so I went back to listening on my I-Pod. I'm stopped in Omaha for the night, so I have another day of mobile ahead tomorrow.