Wilderness QRP

One of my favorite facets of Amateur Radio is operating QRP while on primitive camping trips. The area I visit most frequently when doing this is Guadalupe Mountains National Park in west Texas, just south of Carlsbad, New Mexico. This park is a desert mountain range and ancient limestone reef where interesting fossils may be found. On the ridgetops is a ponderosa pine forest in montane habitat, overlooking cactus and mesquite on the Chihuahuan desert floor.

Backcountry QRP at W5ESE

I enjoy using simple equipment on backpacking trips. The radios I've used are an AT Sprint 3, an SW+, a Ten-Tec TKIT 1300 series rig, and a Rockmite. These draw between 15 and 30 mA (when receiving), so the battery life of a pack of AA cells is pretty good. The AT Sprint was designed by Steven Weber, and the SW+ and Rockmite by Dave Benson of Small Wonder Labs. The Ten-Tec TKIT 1300 series transceiver is a little heavy for backpacking, so I've only taken it on trips that require a short hike to the camp site.

I've found 40 and 30 meters to be the most useful wavelengths when backpacking, because the antennas are smaller than those for 80 meters, yet propagation on these wavelengths is still favorable during the early evening or morning when I am in camp and have a little time available to get on the air.