August Afternoon on Shute Hill
August 2017

I hiked into an old farm field on Shute Hill this afternoon and worked France, Russia, Hungary,
and a SOTA station in North Carolina.



The field was full of late summer sights and sounds... crickets singing, goldenrod in bloom, purple
clover, jewel weed, asters and Queen Anne's lace.



At the edge of the field I tossed a line nearly 50 feet into a maple tree. My
33 foot wire was installed sloping a bit toward the east. I sat on the ground
with the KX3 on 20 meters.



There were a few strong stations on the band; fortunately they were able to hear me. At the start
I called Laurent, F6GOX in France who was working stations at the bottom of the band. He gave me
a 449. A few kHz up the band John, HA8GZ in Hungary was calling CQ. He gave me a 579. Then
I went up to the QRP frequency. KW4JM, Scott in North Carolina was operating as a SOTA station.
We were able to make a complete exchange. He was making lots of contacts without trouble. Tom,
W0WP was calling CQ from Iowa. He was especially strong to me and gave me a 579. Before calling
it quits, I answered Tony, RT9T/3 in Russia.

As I packed up, I couldn't help thinking about the magic of the day.... a beautiful old farm field at the
top of Shute Hill.... and the wonder of making contacts around the world with gear carried in a backpack.
It's a ham's dream come true...