I went off-grid in Colorado near Gunnison from July 11th to July 18th at Gold Creek

campground in the Gunnison Natural Forest at 10,000ft elevation. GridSquare DM68rp

No cell phone service. No electricity. However plenty of mosquitos!

I built a solar based power pack including batteries, 100w solar panel.

The solar panel provided plenty of power for my ICOM IC-7300 and laptop. However my choice of

power invertors to power my laptop for logging and digital modes failed me. Too much RFI!

I am more annoyed that I did not discover this issue at home before deploying to Colorado

Here is a link to photos of my solar setup: Solar Power

For an antenna, I purchased the HF Kits EFHW antenna from ARRL. I merely hung it horizonatily

via 2 sheppard hooks. It worked quite well in the forest. You can judge for your self via the

QSO stats below.

Here is a seperate page with a couple of pics from this trip Pics from Gold Creek

I was on the air July 11th to July 18th from Gold Creek Campground, DM68rp near Gunnison, CO in

the Gunnison National Forest.

Total contacts: 87

SSB 7

Rest were FT8/FT4

Besides US contacts, I made the following international contacts:

Canada 3

Belize 1

Peru 1

28 States worked

Contacts by state:

AL 1

AK 1

AZ 8

CA 3

CO 1

ID 1

IL 8

IN 1

KS 2

KY 2

MD 1

MI 3

MN 1

MO 1

ND 1

NE 2

NH 1

NM 1

NV 1

NY 4

OH 6

OK 5

PA 1

RI 1

TN 1

TX 10

WA 3

WI 6

W1AW/9 1 I think they were working from Indiana

By Band

40m 20

20m 48

17m 6

15m 13

The HF Net antenna is not rated for 17meters. I measured the SWR using a NanoVNA and it showed 4.1:1.

My ICOM IC-7300 tuned it up. It appears my IC-7300 works up to about 4.5:1, not a recommended use.

10meters was dead the whole time I was there. Antenna? Propagation?