Sometimes scarcity yields more interesting results than when full resources are at hand.  We just got back from a Maine vacation.  We spent a week in a cozy  A-frame cottage on Penobscot Bay.  The location, just steps away from the water's edge just can't be beat!  The hosts were quite gracious and gave us good advice about touring the area, and otherwise left us alone to rediscover a needed sense of peace.

Part of my quest for renewal has come in the form of jumping back into the "Weird Hobby" described in the earlier blog below.  I recently acquired a "new" Icom IC-746 (not Pro!) transceiver, just days before leaving for Maine, so I was just itchin' to try it out.  No way would I leave it behind! 

But what to do for an aerial? Pretty presumptuous to show up to a rental and erect a very visible structure next to the cottage, I thought.  When we arrived, and after looking around, the answer became obvious -- try loading into the big silver stovepipe that came down through the living room ceiling!  As luck would have it, a sail mast was laying on the ground, perpendicular to the "vertical antenna" I had discovered.   Enameled wired threaded through a crack in the wall, tied to the boat mast and bingo, I had my ground plane!

But what would our hosts think, at seeing coaxial cable strewn across the living room floor at the cozy cottage?  Surely they would come by and ask if we needed anything, and "what the heck is all of this!?"

Even luckier -- as we left for a day trip up the coast, on the 2nd morning of our vacation, I looked over admiring the landlord's shiny new Harley, and there was my answer on a small 4x6 license plate, which read "N1PVC."  Awesome, another Weird Hobbyist!  Sure enough, Jeff was excited to see me browsing through the 746 manual, while we were sunning on the deck, and merely curious about the "make-do" vertical.

So how did it perform?  Kinda lousy on 15 and 10 meters, but those bands are dead anyway, as we're at the bottom of the 11-year sunspot cycle.  However on 14 Mhz (20 meters) I worked Macedonia (Z32AU), Slovenia (S55DX)...Switzerland, Belarus, Bulgaria, and W4MS in Virginia that needed a QSL card from me to confirm Maine.  Cool-o!  Only 100 watts.

After reporting this result to an old ham buddy of mine, he remarked: "sometimes all you really need is a vertical antenna next to the ocean." 

Indeed...the Simple Life!