My client was a good sport.

Seated more than a foot below me in the passenger seat, he held on as the Jeep leaned its way through a rocky incline, occasionally tilting what felt like thirty degrees.

This wasn't exactly the smoothest ride in Arizona.

With the thermometer now reading well over 110°F, we slowly worked our way through the rocks, carefully avoiding a fallen saguaro while adding a little more "Arizona pinstripe" to the sides of the Jeep.

A few minutes later, the trail leveled out.

We had arrived at base camp.

With New River Mesa filling the windshield and nestled between Black Mesa and Ruin Ridge, I positioned the Jeep north-south to give us the best possible protection from the afternoon sun.

Time for the shelter.

I grabbed the balled-up tarp from behind the driver's seat and tossed it over the roof to my client.

Three minutes later, the same tarp shelter was standing once again.

Next up, solar.

I pulled a well-worn 20-watt PowerFilm solar panel from my ruck and clipped it to the east side of the shelter, where it doubled as a small sunshade.

It was time to top off the Anker 737 using the Devos solar voltage regulator.

Out came the folding table, two chairs...

...and a reward.

Yes, it was only 1230.

But after spending the morning in 110-degree heat, we had earned an ice-cold beer while there was still ice left in the cooler.

A non-alcoholic IPA for me.

A fully loaded IPA for my client.

After a bit of hydration, it was time to get back to work.

Surrounded by higher terrain on all four sides and nestled within a small canyon, it was the perfect opportunity to demonstrate some mid-range HF communications.

"Are you up for some HF?" I asked.

"Yes, sir!"

We grabbed our rucks and pulled our matching End-Fed Half-Wave (EFHW) wire antennas from a pair of small coyote brown pouches.

Just like in my videos, I wanted to demonstrate how quickly a simple wire antenna could be deployed only five feet off the ground.

My client clipped the matching unit to a nearby Palo Verde tree and walked out all 65 feet of wire.

"There's nothing to tie this end to," he said.

"Can I borrow one of your trekking poles?" I said.

"Of course."

I grabbed the trekking pole, my camp hatchet, some cordage, and a tent stake.

"Nothing to it," I said.

"We'll clip the wire to the hand loop, guy out the trekking pole, and call it good."

A few minutes later, we walked back to the Palo Verde, connected a 15-foot length of RG-316 coax to the antenna, and routed the feed line back to our improvised shelter.

My client grabbed his Lab599 TX-500MP and FZ-M1 while I opened the roll-top cover on my ruck and fished out my RigExpert 230 antenna analyzer.

The analyzer wasn't strictly necessary, but I wanted to demonstrate how to verify an HF antenna in the field before transmitting. We planned to operate on the 40m, 20m, 15m, and 10m bands, and this was a good opportunity to show him one more piece of field equipment.

Shoot!

I didn't have my PL-259 to BNC adapter.

This is what happens when I borrow gear from my field kit for a "quick" project at home.

"What do you need?" he asked.

"Do you happen to have a PL-259 to BNC adapter?"

"Let me check."

A few minutes later, he returned and handed me the adapter.

I immediately made a note in my field notebook.

After threading the adapter onto the analyzer, he connected the RG-316 coax.

He pressed the red square button to wake the analyzer.

The e-ink display came to life with four menu options.

Without any prompting, he pressed the + button and started a multi-band sweep.

Hrm.

He came prepared.

Better yet, he already knew how to use the analyzer.

Very nice.

I was impressed.

Then the screen changed.

Oh crap.

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