K8HGY
Parker Canyon Lake Island, AZ024L
2 January 2009

The front of the boat is headed for our landing spot. The photo with small orange section of a vest is a view of the Island. The other shots of the trees in the foreground are of the island. The high hills in the background are not part of the island. Scott is in the orange shirt. He did the logging and we used his boat to reach the island.

We used a Honda 1000watt inverter generator. Scott threw a rock over a tree branch with a nylon line and we pulled up an inverted v dipole for 40 mtrs and we used my IC706. We checked into an emergency power net from Calif and made several contacts. After that we made a few contacts but not much activity so we let the antenna down and shortened it up by rolling up the ends to make a 20 mtr antenna. I had my MFJ analyzer with me so we were able to make the antenna SWR flat. We worked several Dx stations including Japan on 20 mtrs.

We were on the air at about 1250 hrs Mountain standard time and closed down at 1652 hrs. as we were loosing heat and would be loosing daylight soon. It was about a 3.5 hr drive from Phoenix so we go started at about 0530 hrs and we had to pick up the boat at Scott's cabin. Parker Canyon Lake does not have commercial power so the people who have homes there use either Solar power or wind power. They have their own water dept. There are 35 homes around the lake. The elevation is about 6000 feet and it was cold in  the morning around 30 degrees. As soon as the sun went down it cooled off. There are no commercial phones and no cell phone service so the people were very interested that we could establish communications with the out side world.

We had a great time and it is amazing that taking a few pieces of equipment to a remote area and have good comms with the world. Rich K8HGY