The mall wasn't too bad last night as

there were not a boatload of people hanging out in the middle of the night.

It's been a while since I made a PRC-320 QSO while having the rig out so I decided to do a little hilltopping last night. The mall was built atop a hill and it's a pretty good spot to use to grab a late night QSO off of the little backpack rig.

I also had my little 2 meter hand-held with me.

I had just put the 320 on the deck of my pickup bed when I saw the headlights headed my way and knew it was a cop. He pulled up and asked me what I was doing and I told him. He looked a little suspicious, which is to be expected because he doesn't meet a guy late at night packing a military radio every day.

I was polite and pleasant and he asked me several questions and I explained to him why I was using this particular parking lot. He nodded and agreed that it was a pretty high spot. He also suggested that sometime I try the water tower in a nearby park and I explained to him that in addition to the park being closed after dark that a lot of dirty dealings take place after dark up by the water tower. He agreed with me on this one.

By now I had the rig set up and I clicked the power on and turned and tuned the antenna and started combing the 40 meter band for activity and almost instantly found someone out there. It was an insomniac in Virginia calling out 'CQ', calling any station. I turned to the cop and told him I was going to answer the guy and he nodded.

I had a pretty good signal from the guy and the cop seemed pretty impressed whan I told him I was yakking with Virginia. I grinned and held up the hand-held and told him I was going to try and hit the International Space Station with it and his brows raised. He asked me if that was legal. I assured him it was.

What I am doing with these police officers is not what a guy usually does. Most people lay low and try and fly under the radar. I'm simply going to go about my business. I want them to see me and get to know who I am and what I am doing out there. It makes for good public relations.

While I'm sure that over time I'll be referred to by the police in that town as 'the radio crackpot', that's fine by me. They'll simply keep an eye on me to make sure nothing happens to me and in return if I see anything suspicious I'll phone it in.

I'll be hilltopping there from time to time and it is probably a good idea NOT to hide, but to simply become a part of the woodwork because when the police get used to something like this they'll simply drive by and wave instead of interrupting me.

my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/