Today, Ethan Clark AE2EC, Matt Viray KE2FUV, and Ryan Tolboom N2BP met up in the shack at NJIT and took a trip to South Mountain Reservation. Ethan found an excellent location to operate from, down the road from the dog park, and brought his mobile rig which includes a giant telescoping mast, a few “less than random” lengths of wire, a tuner that has mostly survived a lightning strike, an ICOM IC-7300, and an LiFePO4 battery. The foliage was beautiful and the weather couldn’t have been nicer.

The difference in QRM between this location and our QTH in Newark was astounding! Hopping bands we took turns making voice contacts with K1YW in Lancaster MA (despite the tiny distance, this one was particularly hard-fought and it was my first AM contact!), IW2MJQ in Italy, W2SMF in Long Island NY, KZ4BX in Florida, and Matt had a QSO with someone in Portugal! (but I forgot to write down their callsign).

Once we got tired of talking it was time for SSTV where we snagged at least one good image:

Then on to JS8Call, PSK31, and FT8, which was loaded with activity:

Thanks to Ethan for setting it all up and showing Matt and I the ropes. I’ve never met anyone who can use the IC-7300 front panel faster. Finally, I also brought my HT and made sure I could hit the K2MFF repeater for good measure. See you on the air, maybe from a park!