With the "new" job; I get an hour for lunch. This is great because I've found a park that's all of about 5 minutes away from the building by car. That leaves me plenty of time to operate; and plenty of time to set up the PAC-12. I've been using the PAC-12 for the past week; and the results have been very gratifying.
Yesterday, I worked Pierre VE2PID up in Quebec. Today, I had the fortune to work Robin WA4NLF in New London, NC. Robin was a solid 599 into New Jersey. He was running a Ten-Tec Paragon into an Inverted Vee. I was very happy to receive a 579 report from Robin.
Robin is 50 years old and got his ticket as a High School student back in 1975. That's almost the same story as me! I'm the same age as Robin; but I got my ticket three years later in 1978.
We spent our time together telling each other how we got started in radio; and before I knew it, 20 minutes had flown by! Not a super long ragchew by any stretch of the imagination; but not bad for a lunch time QSO. The PAC-12 worked flawlessly; which was nice to see. Today I set up the commercial version that I had purchased from Mike W1MT last winter. Not only does the commercial version have cosmetic appeal that my homebrewed version doesn't; but it also has the multi-band coil. All I have to do is tap the coil at the point where I get maximum band noise and the internal tuner in the K1 does the rest! And when I want to change bands; all I have to do is change the tap position, rather than change the entire coil. Much faster and easier!
During the QSO, two curious park workers came by to see what I was doing. I explained to them that I'm a Ham and that I was talking with a guy in North Carolina. They mentioned that they have a colleague who is a Ham; and that they were going to tell him about me. I'll bet I get a visitor soon - probably to make sure I'm not a terrorist or spy or something!
Even though it was hot (about 93 degrees) with a ton of humidity; it made for a pleasant day. Tomorrow is supposed to be about pretty much the same weather-wise. Hope I have the same amount of success tomorrow!
73 de Larry W2LJ
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