DX from Profile Falls
December 2014
It's a cold, miserable, rainy day. Tim W3ATB and I went to Profile
Falls in Bristol to operate
on 20 meters. It was nuts... but we worked England and Germany and
had a good time.
It's 35F. We've just had a Nor'easter but avoided snow. We were so
glad to find a shelter along
the Smith River just down from Profile Falls. The Smith River flows
into the Pemigewasset.
I heaved a line into a large maple tree alongside the shelter and
pulled up a resonant dipole
for 20 meters. I set it up as a sloper and anchored the lower end
with my water bottle into the
snow. Although it was raining steadily, the picnic tables inside
were dry.
I turned on the Small Wonders DSW rig. It runs 2 watts. Signals
across the band were excellent
and right away I heard Ben DL5ANT calling CQ from Germany. We had a
quick QSO. He gave
me a 569, and he was a very strong 599. The last time I worked Ben
was from Cannon Mtn in
July. I gave the antenna to Tim.
Tim had brought his HB-1B. As soon as he turned on the rig, he heard
Tom G3VBS in England
calling CQ right on the frequency. Tim was ecstatic.
Tom was a strong 599 and gave Tim 549. They chatted for quite a
while before we
called it quits and pulled down the antenna. Our fingers were
chilled and we'd had
enough.