Lake Life Radio: FT8

We spent a few days at a friend’s lake house on Cedar Creek Lake during our school’s fall break, and I couldn’t resist packing a little radio gear along for the trip. The view was too good not to play a bit of radio—with a deck overlooking the water, light breeze, and a perfect spot to string up an antenna.

I set up my go-box running the QDX on 20 meters, powered entirely by the internal 6Ah battery. The noise floor was impressively low out there—almost silent compared to home—and everything just worked. My collapsible fiberglass fishing rod made a perfect temporary mast for the EFHW I built, and I ran about 8 watts for roughly three hours without any issues.

I logged several good FT8 contacts across the country and even had a nice JS8Call chat with an OM in Iowa right before the battery gave out. The little transformer handled it all beautifully.

Sometimes it’s fun to strip things down to the basics—radio, nature, and a little time to relax. It’s also a good reminder that you don’t need a big station to make great contacts.

(And yes, that EFHW transformer was one of my own builds—the same kind I make by hand for my Etsy store.)