Hello,
Saturday February 2nd was a very interesting day. I went out to one of my
spots on the Appalachian Trail in PA to operate the FYBO contest. I got to
lot to find it heavily encrusted in ice. I parked the car and very carefully
got out and started to get the backpack on. I almost fell 2 times while
gearing up. I even had my cramp ons on my boots but they were of very little
help. The area of the Appalachian Trail I was at is a very rocky trail, the
cramp ons did help a little but hike was still very treacherous. I had very
serious doubts if I was going to be on the air at all that day. The hike
that usually takes 15 minutes now took 35 minutes.
I finally arrived at my operating location. I had to find an area where I
could drive a small ground rod into the stony area to support my vertical.
After trying for 10 minutes I finally found a spot and got the antenna
erected. I finally got on the air about 40 minutes later than I plan to be.
But all good things take time.
I started out on 40m and found the band had a lot of signals all over the
place. Unfortunately they were taking part in the other contest that were on
this past weekend. I did make a few QSO's on 40m but I decided to try 20m. I
made a lot more contacts there. I did try 15m a couple of times on the top
of the hour. I did call CQ for 10 to 15 minutes the three times I was on the
band. There were a lot of signals on 15m but down around 21.030 and nothing
up in the QRP area.
My Log:
40m W8PIG OH
40m NK9G WI
20m N4BP FL
20m KK6MC NM
20m G3RSP England Alan was running 2w.
20m KE4YH FL
20m N1LU/4 FL
20m K0XI MO
20m K4MF FL
20m W5ACM TX
20m AB9CA AL
20m W5ESE TX
20m AD7AN CA
20m W0RW CO
20m KB5FCF OK
20m WA4EWL FL
20m K5GQ TX
40m KB8FZY OH
20m AA1IK FL
20m WA5BDU AR
I was really surprised to work Alan in England and then an hour and a half
later to work California. My operating temperature stayed between 30 and
31'F. There was a good breeze blowing with snow flurries most of the day.
When I was calling CQ I was watching about 6 Blue Birds watching me and
trying to find out if my ground radials were edible. They were around for
about 45 minutes. I also noticed that my body heat was melting the ice
around me and I was slowly sinking into the ice. I did have a small portable
chair and table. I had to watch that my black coax did not melt down into
the ice and freeze when the sun did peek out for about 10 minutes..
This places my Appalachian Trail QSO count at 921 and closing in on the
1,000th QSO from the trail.
Thanks to all those that did make a contact with me and sorry to those
signals that were too weak for me to pull the out of the QRN.
Until the next time I go out on the AT.
72 and Thanks,
Ron Polityka
WB3AAL
www.wb3aal.com
www.n3epa.org/
K1 - SN 01011
K2 - SN 01392
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