Trashcan Portable: Project TouCans POTA at US-3012 Franklin Mountains State Park

I didn't manage to activate this El Paso, TX adjacent park this time, but the innovative antenna KO6BTY and I prototyped back in December did a pretty good job in kinda lousy band conditions! Then, I had to flee the dust storm and head for Albuquerque to catch a plane the next morning.

Project TouCans watches the dust storm roll in with its big brother

Park:

US-3012 Franklin Mountains State Park near El Paso, TX.

As is usual for my trips to New Mexico, my radio ops over the weekend were all car transit.

Radio Details:

Rig: TouCans and a Stick on the only band it uses right now: 20 meters

The radio worked well considering the antenna was taped to a rest area trash can. Propagation in general was bad, but I learned a few ways to make things better with respect to the trash can. The rig does better when the insulated antenna wire is not touching the trash can lid. Go figure. It makes sense, but still. Go figure.

Here's a closer view of how the antenna was mounted, although you'll notice the antenna is disconnected at the time the photo was taken.

Happenings of Interest

There was a highway closing dust storm predicted later in the day, so I had to cut my activation short. Sure enough, on my drive up US 70, there were points where I had about fifty yards visibility in front of me.

What interests me the most about this location is that if you zoom in enough on the map below, you'll see that the rig was having to hop a failry steep embankment to make any of its QSOs, and it had few if any problems pulling that off.

Here's what the transmit site looked like with a bit of an explanation of the terrain.

QSO Animated/Interactive Map

Comments

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