We had a gorgeous 60 F day yesterday. I took the opportunity to wind-test the new KHRA1 right-angle adapter for the KH1. Pomponio State Beach was the perfect place for this: quite windy, with lots of picnic tables but no antenna trees. Setup of the station took about 90 seconds.
I'm happy to report that the radio and antenna remained firmly in place even in stiff gusts. The reason for this is that the "outriggers" on the adapter spread out a total of about 8" tip-to-tip when unfolded, while the wind load presented by the whip is very small. No heavy/large-area loading coil is needed because of the KH1's built-in 15/17/20 meter matching network.
SWR was < 2:1 on all three bands using the internal ATU. I made a test QSO on each band to verify efficiency using just the supplied 13' counterpoise wire.
As with most field tests, I did learn something: I needed to add a couple of push-pins to my ES20 go-bag. Given that the picnic table was ancient and made from soft wood, I could have poked a pin through the hole in each leg to add further stability to the setup. (This is not specifically authorized by Title 14 of the California Code of Regulations, but it should be.)