‘Twas the night before Christmas…nope, I can’t do it. 
I had the day off and was only 64 contacts away from my Kilo at US-9873 Boone Forks Wildlife Management Area in central Iowa so I headed out after lunch to my usual spot at the dead end road that is very clearly within the boundary of the park. I snapped a couple of typical Iowa photos on the way. One of the flat and fertile crop fields sometimes interrupted with wind turbines and farmsteads, another of the wooded Boone River valley that bisects the otherwise boring landscape, and one of the sign marking the start of the Wildlife Management Area.
I planned to be here a while so I set up my 23’ Frankenstein flagpole/fishing pole mast in the receiver hitch mount to hold the center of my homebrewed and 3D printed 10/20/40 link dipole. I use sandbags with 6’ bungees to hold the ends so I don’t have to deal with tent pegs and can just throw the bags to the appropriate distance and the antenna will self-adjust, or if needed I can grab a wire and drag the bag towards me.
Since it wasn’t fit for outdoor operation, the operating position was the driver seat and radio setup is a long-term, temporary setup using a Kenwood TS-480SAT, a 30ah Bioenno LFP battery, and my Heil Pro Set Elite in VOX mode to keep my hands free to log and scratch down calls.
Band conditions seemed decent but a lot of hunters probably were busy doing other family activities so I didn’t just stick to 20m, moved to 10, then 40, and finished with 15. Twice I lowered the mast to change the links that connect with mini-banana connectors, a process that takes less than 60 seconds.
The only wildlife I saw looked like a mountain lion and I did have a quick conversation with a barred owl across the food plot.
