NJQRP Skeeter Hunt
August 2014

It was a perfect day for the NJQRP Skeeter Hunt... sunny and warm. I headed
to Old Hill Village with my bicycle. I worked France, Poland, Czech Rep, Russia,
and Finland for DX and as far west as Colorado in the U.S.

I rode the bike down into the flood control area by Needle Shop Brook. Then I
headed north toward Bristol on the old Hill Road.



Barely a half mile farther I turned west into the old school yard. It's over
grown now and has a healthy crop of poison ivy lining the lane way.



I made my way up the hill and picked out an ancient maple tree for the
antenna. I tossed a line over a branch and pulled up a 30 foot wire. I
set up the KX3 with the earchi 9:1 unun. In retrospect, I'd made a poor
choice for location. Firstly, I was in the sun. Secondly, I was surrounded
by poison ivy and couldn't move easily into the shade. But the view of
the surrounding area was lovely.



I started out on 14.060 and stayed there for about 20 minutes. Then I went down the band into
the DX portion to pick up some of the WAE stations. In all I worked 15 stations in about 35 minutes.
Here's the log:

10 Aug-14 1755  14.06  NM4T    CW 559 579 AL 18  Craig 
10 Aug-14 1757  14.06  AB9CA   CW 559 559 AL 59  Dave 
10 Aug-14 1800  14.06  WA0ITP  CW 559 559 IA 14  Terry 
10 Aug-14 1802  14.06  W4QO    CW 449 559 GA 91  Jim 
10 Aug-14 1805  14.06  KX0R    CW 559 559 CO 86  George 
10 Aug-14 1807  14.06  AB4QL   CW 559 559 AL 81  Barry 
10 Aug-14 1811  7038   KX9X    CW 559 559 CT 2   Sean 
10 Aug-14 1813  7039   K2ULR   CW 559 559 PA 12  Ray 
10 Aug-14 1817  14.061 N1LT    CW 599 559 NH 156 Dick 
10 Aug-14 1824  14.018 F8AAN   CW 599 599 94  
10 Aug-14 1825  14.03  SP3SSRN CW 599 599 148  
10 Aug-14 1827  14.032 OL8M    CW 599 599 894 
10 Aug-14 1828  14.034 RW1A    CW 599 599 1129 
10 Aug-14 1830  14.034 OH8WW   CW 599 599 180  
10 Aug-14 2007  7043   N3AO    CW 449 449 VA 19  Carter (from home)



By now I was sweating enough that my shirt was drenched. The rig was pretty warm too!
There was poison ivy in every direction, and I decided to call it quits rather than set up in
a new spot altogether.

I rode the bike in the shade for awhile to cool off before heading back to the car. Once home
I scrubbed with laundry soap to wash off the poison ivy oils. Hopefully, that does the trick.
Thanks to all for the QSOs and to Larry W2LJ for the great sprint. 73, Jim W1PID