An Evening at Knox Mountain
August 2013
What an evening! Nearly 80 degrees and humid. Judy and I
walked to Knox Mountain. I worked Spain, California,
Cuba, Morocco, and Texas.
The hike in was fast in order to keep ahead of the mosquitoes.
It was well rewarded by the view of the pond after the 1.5 mile
hike.
As I approached the pond, a large gray heron swooped up in front of
me and headed east to the other end of the pond. It was stunning. We
walked around to the front of the cabin. Beautiful!
I tossed a line nearly 50 feet into the cherry tree at the edge of
the
pond and pulled up a 33 foot wire. I set up the KX3 and used the
earchi.org 9 to 1 unun. At first I operated on 20 meters. I worked
two Spanish stations in a row and lost them both at the very end
to QSB.
After that things picked up a bit. California and Cuba on 20 meters,
then
I switched to 17 and worked Morocco and Texas. Here's the log:
27 Aug-13 2134 14.008 EA5HFW CW 559 599 Spain
27 Aug-13 2140 14.013 EA8AGF CW 449 579 Spain
27 Aug-13 2145 14.022 N6QQ CW 559 599 CA
27 Aug-13 2146 14.011 CO6RD CW 599 599
Cuba
27 Aug-13 2155 18.086 CN8KD CW 599 599 Morocco
27 Aug-13 2156 18.075 WF5W CW 579 599 TX
Mid-way during the operating a hoot owl in the woods not far away
let forth with several calls. It was remarkable. Down by the pond
Judy was knitting some baby booties in the sunlight.
As I packed up the gear, a bunch of jays started squabbling
down by the pond... a chorus of "Dee Dee... Dee Dee. As we
headed down the path, I turned back for one more snapshot
of the pond. It was worth the stop.