Operating is the Trick

So my antenna woes continue at the home QTH. I've decided that the 10/20/40m dipole I'd been planning was a boondoggle, at least in the manner in which I had planned it out. I might be able to make something out of it but not before I get some more ladderline. I'm not cuttin' up what I have now because I can use it to depoly an all band no fuss "Double extended Zepp" type antler for 80m. I'll just run 450 ohm feedline for that sucker, and call it a day!
To get myself out of the ham radio doldrums, I decided to play radio from the field, well, kinda from the field at least, so it's time to operate KG4GVL from the work parking lot in the FYBO contest.

Ready to Deploy!

The antenna I decided to use is the W3EDP. I've featured  it several times on this blog, and it is my favorite antenna. I use a sister antenna to this one at home for my primary antenna right now. They are generally stealthy, simple to deploy, and tune well on all the bands, except 10 and 30. I've gotten them to tune there, but not without struggle. Getting it to deploy was a mild challenge, I arrived at work 15 minutes before I had to clock in just so that I could deploy the thing, and maybe even strike up a QSO or 2 before clocking in. Murphy struck a couple or three times, and I barely got the antenna up before clockin time.









Ready to Operate!





Notice the picture on the right? I'm using "The Killer Watt Radio", my trusty ZM-2 antenna tuner, battery power, and a straight key. I have the world's worst callsign for contests, but hey, I like it just fine for most of the hamming I do. In the middle of the lid is my "Highly Calibrated Whistle Thermometer." It will provide real time temperature readings, and serve as a handly emergency signalling device should the need arise.
Because I'm using "The Killer Watt Radio", I am stuck to 40m only. That's ok, but it's times like this I do miss having an FT-817.

Check out www.qrpspots.com for KG4GVL when I get QRV!
Follow up Post to come later.
73!