DX from the Ledges
October 2015

Tim W3ATB and I hiked to the Ledges in Sanbornton today. It was really
gorgeous. I worked the Dominican Republic, Morocco, Italy and Belgium.



We drove up an old logging road in the middle of nowhere for about a mile and
a half. Then we started walking... through beautiful woods decked in orange, gold
and burnt umber. We hiked on a carpet of multi-colored leaves. After perhaps a mile
we started a steep climb and we were there.



The view was grand. Right away I tossed a line into a pine tree at the edge of the steep rocks.
I missed my mark and wound up with a sloper instead of a vertical. Oh well... it still worked.
I set the KX3 up on a flat rock and sat down. I started on 12 meters and heard HI8A in the
Dominican Republic. Chikin returned my call and gave me a 449. Good enough to complete
the exchange.



Then I switched to 15 meters and answered a CQ from Morocco. CN8KD gave me a quick
599 and I tuned down the band a bit where I heard Rudy IK4VFD in Italy. Rudy gave me a 539
and we completed the exchange before the QSB hit us. I took a quick break and walked over
to see how Tim was doing. I caught him right in the middle of a QSO with Joe W2KJ in
North Carolina. They were on 20 meters.



When he was finished, Tim was kind enough to take a photo of me standing at the edge of
the drop off.



Before leaving I made one more QSO with Belgium. ON7NDR Nico was on 17 meters. He
gave me a 579 and we said 73.

I'm so glad we were able to make this trip before all the foliage was gone. It's supposed to
rain tomorrow and be windy for the next couple of days.