Bike Ride in East Andover
April 2016

It was beautiful today... sunny and 73F. I went for a bike
ride in East Andover on the old Northern Rail route. I
worked Germany, Italy, New York, and Idaho. I started
out near the Post Office and headed south and east. I stopped
by Sucker Brook.



For the last several years there's been an old picnic table not far from
the brook. I set up the KX3 and tossed a 28 foot wire into an overhead
pine tree.



I started out on 20 meters. I don't think my signal was very good...
DX stations weren't answering. My antenna was rubbing against some
branches and the bottom half of the wire sloped quite a bit. Maybe that's
why. DJ5AZ Fred in Germany answered... but he only gave me a 449.
Still... we completed the exchange easily and I switched to 40 meters.

N2OTG Bob in New York was calling CQ and he answered and gave me
a 559. We chatted quite a while. He was curious about my antenna and
also the RF ground. I told him about the wire and said I was using a
9:1 unun without a counterpoise. He said it was working. He confessed
he would have been fishing if he'd been near the brook as I was. Oddly,
I could see fish jumping down below.



I switched back to 20 meters and answered IT9SSI Dario in Italy. It was a quick 599 exchange, but I
was glad he could hear me well enough. I went up to the QRP frequency and found KE7GKM calling
CQ. Bob in Idaho only gave me a 229... but I know he heard me pretty well, because he copied
everything and didn't ask for repeats. He was also running 5 watts and was a 559. I was thrilled when
he told me he was using a homebrew rig.

I packed up the gear and headed back to East Andover on the trail.