Knox Mountain in Late November
2011

This afternoon I made a quick trip up to Knox Mountain. I only operated for 15 minutes or so,
but I worked Portugal, Northern Ireland and British Columbia.



I was rushing a bit because it gets dark pretty early now, and it's hunting season in New
Hampshire. The path was dry and traveling easy. Shafts of light coming across the hillside
decorated the path. It was great to be out.

I made it to the pond in less than half an hour. Already long shadows stretched across the
water.



Two mallards swam away from the shore as I tossed a line over the wild cherry tree in front of
the cabin porch. I pulled up 25 feet of wire and connected my T-1 tuner. I used the ATS-4
at about 3 watts. I started on 20 meters and tuned up from the bottom of the band. I heard
CT8/W1NN in Portugal calling CQ. He was strong and we exchanged 599s. A little further
up the band I found GI4DOH in Northern Ireland. We also exchanged the basics quickly.

Before heading back I wanted to try 15 meters, so I moved up. There wasn't a lot of activity but
VA7QB was calling CQ. He wasn't strong, and when I answered, he sent QRZ? He got my call
on the next try and we exchanged signal strength before we both faded out. We never did
finish with a proper signoff. As soon as we signed ON4PQ called me. We agreed to move up 2,
but as it turns out, there was a DX pileup there and we never did connect again.

I packed up and headed back down the trail. I'd only operated for a while, but it was lots
of fun, and I was glad to get back to the car in the safety of daylight.