So while sitting on a beach on the north shore of Kauai with my KX3 and center feed dipole antenna strung in the trees – I made a QSO in Arizona.
So I was sitting there for the longest time calling CQ up and down 10 meters and came up empty. However late in the afternoon I stumbled onto a net running at 28.445. When I heard the call for any other station that want to check in I called out. Net Control could barley make me out, however another station on the net could hear me just fine and relayed.
Now the “I’m new to the hobby” part. They asked me for my 10-10 number. I had no idea what that was – but obviously I was butting in some sort of club net. They did not care, they were happy to let me join in. I was number 8 to check in. By the time Net Control made it to check in number 43, the 10 meter band was falling apart and quickly as it was late in the afternoon. I was never able to pick them up after that.
So the cool part of this for me was that I was running the KX3 on batteries which means a max limit of 5W of power. So I was able to talk with someone in Arizona 2,900+ miles away while sitting on the beach and watching the surf on 10 meters with less power that a compact florescent bulb. No infrastructure other than two radios. How freaking cool is that. I am so loving this hobby..
