C6AQW Packing

I’m writing this on a flight from DFW back to Orlando Saturday evening. It will be a quick turnaround for me-I’m flying to Puerto Rico Sunday evening for business and will not be back until Wednesday night. I fly to C6 on Thursday morning. On the plane with me is a SKB hard case designed for golf clubs, 6 100’ sections of RG-8X with connectors and a Spiderbeam 40’ fiberglass mast. I had to be in Fort Worth this past week on business so had to have it shipped there to be brought back to Orlando. Everything fit in the SKB case which is 48” long by 12” wide. This case will also hold another Spiderbeam 40’ fiberglass mast which I had previously ordered and is sitting at home waiting on me. I was able to pick up quite a lot of supplies at the Melbourne, FL hamfest last Saturday including coax connectors and barrels, wire and a G5RV antenna. The packing list is as follows: 2 Spiderbeam 40’ Fiberglass masts (only about 46” long when not extended) About 500’ wire 6 100’ sections of RG8X Icom IC-R7000 Heil HC-10IC headset Bencher Paddle Coax connectors, barrels, jumpers etc. MFJ-259 with rechargeable batteries Buddipole deluxe kit with extra arms and low-band coil HP Laptop with N1MM and MMTY installed (Little Rascal interface from Buxcomm for RTTY) Samlex SEC-1223 Power Supply Bencher Balun, lots of end insulators Rope for guying masts and antenna supports Wooden supports for antenna ends. G5RV antenna Dummy load 3 position coax switch LDG 7000 Automatic Antenna Tuner Multimeter 500' tape measure I’m sure I’m missing something major on this list. The goal is to have everything packed and ready to go before I leave for P.R. Sunday evening. The masts, coax and anything else I can fit in will go in the SKB case. I have another large suitcase for everything else that won’t. Both of these will be checked. I will carry the IC-R7000 and the laptop in a carry-on laptop case along with another carry-on bag with my clothes and other personal items. The antenna plan is to go with 2 full-wave delta loops with one point of the triangle at the top of the 40’ masts and the other 2 as high off the ground as I can get them. One will be aimed at N.A., the other EU. I will try to get the G5RV up after the contest replacing one of the 40M loops. Hopefully this combination will give me a good signal into the major ham population centers. I’ll make one major admission-I haven’t had a chance to really operate the IC-7000 yet. I assembled it with the power supply, laptop, paddle, RTTY interface, dummy load and headset last weekend and everything checked out. Sunday before I leave I will go through the manual and practice operating the rig to be able to set filters, work split and set and playback CQ and contest exchanges etc. My main rig has been the Kenwood TS-2000 but it’s really too big to lug with me. I sure hope the IC-7000 is intuitive; it’s pretty risky to be heading on a contest expedition with a rig I’ve never used yet. I’ll report back tomorrow evening with the (hopefully happy) results.