Maumee Bay State Park Oregon, Ohio September 14-17, 2026
Start 44,327 -- End 44,530 -- 203 miles Maverick Tow Start: 9994 + 203 = Tow total: 10,197 Click any of the images for a higher resolution
picture Two things. First, a shakedown cruise for Texas. Testing carrying the canoe a ways. And then … bit by the ham radio bug again! The idea here is to set up and operate QRP. New antennas, devices, thingies, and the Elecraft EX3. Yahoo! My portable shack:
I used a new Spooltenna and I have to admit, for what it was and how I set it up, it kicked butt. Here is the 25 foot push up pole I used for the end in the tree. I clamped the Spooltenna onto the picnic table. I have another 25 foot pole and will try to put up both ends next trip.
SpoolTenna with a condom:
While this antenna is … clunky … it has given me TWENTY SIX states on 80, 40, 30, and 20 meters IN TWO AND A HALF DAYS. The wildlife was INSANE. Mouse Trail runs aournd the campground. Deer every 200 feet. Turkeys. Rabbits. Raccoons. Squirrels. The fields were GOLD. Goldenrod colored everything yellow.
They told me the rule is, “If you tree it, you eat it!”
“Look Dad! There’s enough for everyone!!!”
This was a great trip. We got two long walks each day. One in the morning. One in the late afternoon. Each was chocked full of adventure. On Mouse Trail we treed raccoons. Every two hundred feet there were deer. Lot of deer. Lots and lots of deer. There were rabbits, though these rabbits were definitely onto dogs on the trail. They were gone like now. I was able to use and learn so very much about my Elecraft KX3 radio. I worked twenty-six states on 40, 20, 30 and even 80! I learned more about the working of POTA although I have no interest in being POTA. The SpoolTenna is a DAMN GOOD ANTENNA! Very much fun! More to experiment with. A very sleepy dog! Like this for thirty minutes!
There is a new site map for Maumee Bay with better sites on it. MY SPOOLTENNA REVIEW: TO MY HAM FRIENDS … If you are operating potable or if you are in an HOA and have to be like the Orb Weaver spider, that is, installing your antenna at night and taking it down in the day, I have a suggestion. I bought an end-fed half-wave called a SpoolTenna. This thing works. In two and a half days at Maumee Bay State Park, I worked twenty-six states. This was a “worst case scenario” test. I clamped it to a picnic table and ran the wire to an extended painter’s pole leaned into a tree about twenty-four feet up. It was next to trees and bushes. During the two and a half days, numerous people on the bands complained about how bad the bands were. Not to this antenna. It worked great on 20, 30, and 40 meters. But wait, I worked stations on 80, too. It is not supposed to tune 80. It would be a quarter wave with no counterpoise. Should be poop. It wasn’t. In a past life, Mike, WA8BXN (sk), and I compared a full-length dipole up about twenty feet to a Hustler mast with a 40 meter resonator clamped on top of our luggage racks. We found, test after test, day after day, the Hustler worked almost as well as the dipole. In fact, the Hustler’s easy deployment made it the antenna of choice at the campgrounds. More testing to follow. I really want to get both sides up twenty-four feet on two painter’s poles. We’ll see then if the Hustler has the chops to beat this SpoolTenna. For up-to-date park maps and information, check the |
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