[amsat-bb] KB5WIA/P Death Valley Trip Report

[David Palmer]

Hi Everyone,

The trip to Death Valley went well!  We travelled from home (grid CM88
west of Sacramento) east by Lake Tahoe and then south down the east
side of the Sierras.  First day camping was at Eureka Dunes in
northern Death Valley National Park, where I was able to make a number
of satellite contacts (grid DM17).  Next day we took 4-wheel-drive
roads from the Eureka Valley over Steele Pass to Saline Valley, and
then up the Lippincott road to Racetrack Valley.  We camped out near
the moving rocks of the Racetrack, and I was able to make a few more
satellite contacts from there (DM16).  Especially nice was a morning
round-table QSO on Oscar 7 while out in the desert, we had five
stations on the bird and a nice conversation!

The equipment worked well -- I brought my usual satellite portable
station, consisting of the pair of Yaesu FT-817ND radios, an Elk
antenna, and a 7-Ah SLA battery for power.  Something new that I've
been doing is running the radios entirely off solar power -- I have a
set of PowerFilm solar panels (20 watts total) that I use exclusively
for recharging the SLA battery.  I set up the solar array whenever
it's convenient to top off the battery, it provides more than enough
power for my intermittent satellite operation.

A map of the route along with some photos of the scenery and radio
equipment is at:
http://kb5wia.blogspot.com

73 de Dave KB5WIA