Last night I sat in with the crew at the Ham Radio Kids Table, and it turned into an hour of trip talk, gear talk, and field stories.
For anybody just finding the channel: we sold our place in Texas, moved into a 21-foot travel trailer, and hit the road for a year. The RV Life app puts the route at 22,403 miles. We were about two weeks in when we recorded this, parked in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
What we got into:
- The full route, start to finish. Arkansas and Missouri behind us, the Upper Peninsula next, then east through Niagara and the Finger Lakes, Acadia by September, Boston for the Revolutionary War history, Florida before the cold, then across the south and out west, ending in Colorado.
- The station I am actually running out there. Yaesu FT-710 Field, Buddistick Pro on tripod legs, LiFePO4 battery, 55 to 60 watts, almost always 20 meters, almost always FT8.
- Why I keep hiding behind FT8, and the case the guys made for me finally getting on phone and taking a pile-up. They may have talked me into it.
- Argentina. Roughly 5,500 miles off a vertical sitting next to a picnic table.
- Two things that went sideways. A campground lawnmower rolling up at Table Rock Lake with nine contacts in the log and one to go. And a Powerpole connector that melted mid-activation back in Texas, which was my own crimp job.
- The Arkansas Grand Canyon. We found Scenic Byway 7 by accident because we stay off the interstates when we can, and it stopped me cold. First time I felt that since the actual Grand Canyon.
- Starlink Mini on the road, tree canopy, and the seven-hour video upload near Galena.
- Summer doldrums at higher latitude, which the guys warned me is about to get a lot worse as we head northeast.
Full round table on their channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4vauDo57Pc
Go subscribe to the Kids Table. It is a good hang: https://www.youtube.com/@TheHRKidsTable
The episode I mentioned on the stream, the one with the Arkansas footage: https://youtu.be/nO_PRLNaLuk
The whole Parks on the Road series in order: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwhBxy-l2D1Vr_QWXIRUH_YBAUhqZsZhS&si=Wn1Q819zYa1cIpNA
New episode every couple of weeks. Subscribe so the next one finds you. Behind-the-scenes footage, photos, and where we actually are right now go up on Patreon: https://patreon.com/hamradiolaunchpad
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Donnie, KD0JYV
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