Perfect Summer Outing at the Eddy
June 2015
This afternoon I rode my bike from Profile Falls south to an
eddy along the Pemigewasset River. 20 meters was dead so I
operated on 40M and worked New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
I rode about three miles south. It was glorious... nearly 80F. The
hills behind the river were a hazy blue-green and it felt like
summer at last. I stopped to walk from the old road down to the
river. There was a perfect poison ivy garden on both sides of
the
footpath.
I walked down the path a couple of hundred yards and came to a
beautiful sight.
There was a great breeze today and it kept the mosquitoes at bay. I
walked back to the old
road and set up my gear underneath an arching maple tree.
20 meters was pretty awful. I heard a couple of weak stations, but
they
couldn't hear me so I went to 40 meters. I made a quick contact with
Tony
N2ATB in New Jersey. But he was troubled by QRN and couldn't hear
me very well. He copied my name and location and we signed.
Then I called CQ on 7030 and received an answer after the third
call.
I worked Bob K2OGT/3 in PA. He gave me a 569 and copied easily.
We chatted for more than 10 minutes and signed.
I was running the little KD1JV MTR rig at 3 watts with a Par Endfedz
antenna. I used 8 AA cells for power.
Before heading back I tuned across 20 meters again. TA3D Yasar
in Turkey was quite strong and under normal conditions he would
have heard me. Today I couldn't raise him.
I packed up and cycled 3 miles back to the car. It was a perfect
outing.