WS6L portable QRP and mobile operation, near Mojave, CA...

A couple of days prior to a planned visit to my son, who lives in Bakersfield, CA, I took a couple of extra days to spend some time in Mojave, CA to pursue a few of my favorite past times, including dining in fine restaurants, relaxing, railfanning, four wheeling - activities that really dovetail with mobile high frequency radio operation. On Friday, November 6, 2009, after enjoying a delicious breakfast at Café 58, I headed over to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks to catch some of the action on the Tehachapi railroad line, the busiest single-tracked rail line on the North American continent. You're almost always guaranteed to find lots of railroad action on the Tehachapi line!

Photo: WS6L, parked by the tracks, and waiting for some railroad action. What a perfect time to work 40 meter CW? The door is open, the radio is on line, and the dits and daws are musically playing the background.

However, this article isn't about railfanning Tehachapi, as that's covered in another section of this web site, rather, this is about hamming, while railranning and four wheeling in the hills, west of Mojave, California, on the edge of the Mojave Desert. Even on a busy line like Tehachapi there are slow times, so what better thing to do, between trains, than to break out the straight key, screw on the 40 meter resonator, and work 40 meter CW, QRP, from the cab of the truck?

I don't have my Yaesu FT-817ND mounted in the truck, as it does quadruple duty as not only a truck-portable, but a jack-of-all-trades rig at home, a rig for backpacking trips, a sit-on-the-patio-and-drink-beer rig, and just about everything else. I love the little rig... When I go on trips, I keep it in a "go bag" with all of the needed accessories, which doubles as a place to put it. I rarely operate the rig while moving, as I prefer to give my undivided attention to the road. So today's operating was quite the norm for me, as I simply removed the rig from the "go bag," connected it to the coax, the DC power, plugged in the key, and I was on 40 meters in a couple of minutes.

Photo: Here's how I operate 40 meter CW portable: Rig on the seat, log book and pencil next to the rig, and the key on the floor. Strange, but it works for me...

Photo: One of the objects of this trip was to photograph the awesome railroad action that the Tehachapi Line has to offer, and this photo is typical of what I photographed, as U.P. 5362 leads a manifest freight east into Mojave and beyond...

One thing that I absolutely LOVE about operating in remote places is the noise level, or stated more correctly, the TOTAL lack of noise, except a touch from the front end. No exception today, as I operated 40 meter CW between trains, operating next to the railroad tracks, at mile post 377.5, about three miles west of the small town of Mojave, CA. I didn't work anything spectacular, but enjoyed several QSO's with hams in various parts of the state, and a QSO with one ham in the neighboring state of Nevada. Not bad, considering that I was only running 5 watts to a Hustler mobile antenna, mounted on the side of my truck. Prior to this trip, I had checked my SWR and made sure it was adjusted down as low as I could get it, which was 1:3:1, which is more than acceptable, even for QRP portable operations.

After a few QSOs and a few more trains, I decided to head for the hills and do a bit of four wheeling in the sagebrush and piñon pine covered hills to the west of town. The hills are traversed by a network of motorcycle, ATV and four wheel drive trails, which provide a nearly endless amount of four wheeling, motorcycle riding, or horseback riding. As for me, I just love to four wheel, and enjoy the beautiful desert scenery, on a weather-perfect day in early November.

Photo: Note that the rig is tuned to 7.248 MHz, which is the frequency of the California Emergency Power Net, which meets the first Friday of the month at 11:00 A.M., California local time.

Photo: This is a wonderful place to operate portable high frequency, as there is NO noise, No hassles, and No people. Photo was taken as the Jefferson Noon Net was in operation.

I managed to take a break from my four wheeling fun to check into the California Amateur Radio Service Net, which runs on 7.248 MHz Monday through Friday mornings at 11:00. The first Friday of the month, they hold their Emergency Power Test Net, and the idea is to check into the net using battery power. Running QRP from my truck, I felt right at home checking into the net, and I managed to receive a 57 signal report from Dave, WA6YOC, who was acting as net control. When that net signed off, I moved over to 7.204 MHz and checked into the Jefferson Noon Net, which I am a regular member of, and also received a decent signal report. After checking into the nets, I packed my rig back into the ready bag, and made my way back to the railroad tracks to do some more railfanning, before the sun went down.

Photo: The antenna farm on my truck pales in comparison to a small portion of VOA's gigantic antenna farm. Those Sturba curtain antenna towers are 400 feet tall! Check out the rhombic antennas, and keep in mind that this is only a small portion of the awesome antenna farm.

Two days later, as I was heading home from spending a fun weekend with my son, I stopped by the Voice of American relay station, just outside Delano, CA, to ooooooohhhh and aaaaaawwwwwe at their awesome, currently dormant, antenna farm. Wow! It's mind boggling, as the farm is about 800 acres of Sterba curtain antennas and rhombics of every variety. It's definitely the Mount Everest of antenna farms! I couldn't resist taking a photo of my truck, which I think sports a pretty decent antenna farm, with a small portion of VOA's array in the background.

No, I didn't work any DX, nor did I work any new states, counties or whatever, but I had a great time operating portable QRP from my truck.

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