I drove around Red Hills State Park and chose a spot near the lake not far from the old abandoned restaurant.
In addition to the 857d, I brought the Tecsun S-2000, a weather radio, a QRP tri-bander, the Anytone 878uv HT, and a handheld scanner. I set up a long wire antenna for the Tecsun, and a GR5V-Jr for the Yaesu.
First thing that I heard was Voice of America in Somali from England with a decent signal. Next, I decided to try some QRP CW. I had a station that heard and came back to me from Georgia, but I was lost in the QRN after that. Than I made contact with another QRP portable station located at Beaver Dam State Park - also in Illinois.
I had to work early the next morning, so it was already time to break camp and head home to get some ZZZZzzz’s. A local ham radio and fellow former Air Force friend from Olney had stopped by to see the setup. He helped me get everything back into the car and that was that.
Lessons learned: remember to bring whatever you need to get the antenna up high. Bring more ink pens and fewer radios. Probably one HT, one HF and the weather radio will be plenty. Get set up early on day one and camp out overnight. Get a lighter portable power setup - what I have is too heavy and requires too many pieces of equipment.
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