A Couple of New Toys...

This week a couple of new toys showed up in the shack, both of them are on the list of wanted gear for my 30 day, 61 POTA Parks, west coast trip I have scheduled for next spring.....more about that later.

Both items were picked up from eBay, and several friends also have these items...so I know they work.  I was concerned that the 15w maximum of the KX3 may not be enough to get a good signal out of some of the deep valleys I'll be in.  So first to be bought was a MX P50M 45w amplifier to help push my signal out a bit further.

I'm also building a new 20m/40m linked dipole for the trip which will also help get a signal out better than my 40m EFHW or Hamsticks.

Next to arrive was a ATU-100 external antenna tuner, this is needed as I mainly use non-resonant antennas, and the amp will need to find a good match.  This tuner works on 10m through 80m, so it will cover all the options I need.

One last item has still to arrive, the PTT/Switching control cable for the KX3.  The tuner comes with the cable for the FT-817, which is no good to me as I have just sold my 817.

Once I have all the parts I can start testing how it will work for me.  It will be interesting to see how the extra power changes my normal contact area that you see in the QSO maps I publish every once in a while.

Now it's off to tidy up the maps for the routes I have chosen.  

Stay Safe Out There!