The Great Outdoors

So here's a closeup of the "Camp Antenna" that I cobbled together at the last minute before our trip up to Lost Lake. I used a leftover PVC "T" and a short hunk of pipe that I had in my junk pile.  I added an eye bolt and few other nuts and bolts along with a couple of wing nuts and some big flat washers.

Then I clamped the two legs of the dipole to the two leads of the ladder line and taped the feed line to the bottom hunk of pipe for support.

 

Then I had to think outside the box and improvise because the balun I had planned to use was bad.  So I just stuck one end of the feed line into the center of the SO 239 connector on the rear of my auto tuner and hooked the other side of the feed line to the ground lug.  In other words... I Wood Ratted it!

And it tuned up just fine and I was on the air from the Great Outdoors.

Here's the station as I had it set up on the picnic table in camp.

Here's me and our Golden Retriever "Teva" talking to the world.

Lori is a good cook even if she has to use a camp fire.

That's a New York strip steak along with veggies and a baked potato.

Here's a shot of our Wood Ratty RV.  We call her "Belle"

But all good things must come to an end.

Here's Lori and Stoli and Teva as we're about to head for home.