[Elecraft] Appalachian Trail on Sunday

[Ron Polityka]

Hello,

 Today was a Great day out on the Appalachian Trail. My brother, Rick and I 
drove to Rte 501 just north of Bethel, PA. There was no snow on the ground 
as we were driving up the mountain. This was my brothers first hike with me 
out on the Appalachian Trail and my radio gear. He asked me how heavy was my 
backpack, I handed it over to him and he said wow, about 40 to 45 lbs. I 
said yep.We  started to hike to the Round Head Lookout. As soon as we 
stepped onto the trail we had 3 to 6 inches of snow covered trail with no 
other prints in the snow. It was a Great hike to Round Head Lookout which is 
a 3.1 mile hike up and down ravines and mountains. This is a very rocky 
trail and the ice under the snow powder made it a little more difficult.

 After a 1 hour and 20 minutes hike we arriver at Round Head Lookout. What a 
great view looking over the valley. I hiked back up the trail a little to 
gain some elevation. Rick followed me back up the trail and he said that he 
wants to see exactly what I do out on the AT. So I proceeded to set up my K1 
with the BWV (Black Widow Vertical). I first started calling CQ on 40m but 
the bad just did not seem to have any activity. Rick went to explore the 
area, this was his first time in this area. I went over to calling CQ on 
20m. Wow, I had 5 Great QSO's on the band in the next hour. I worked the 
following stations:

WB0BRO Ernie in SD
K5MMH Mike in TX
W0SD Ed in SD
W3EEK/4 Carl in FL
W4DEC Larry in AL

I got my SD station twofold on this trip. Now I need to work HI and MT for 
WAS from the AT. The 5 QSO's today places my QSO count from March 2000 at 
926 QSO with 48 States and 24 Countries.

I know there were some stations that were calling me but the QSB was very 
deep at times. I will be back out on the AT again in March. Just finished 
checking into the 20m and 40m net for Elecraft from home. I promised Kevin 
that I will camp out over night one time and check into the ECN from the 
Appalachian Trail this spring.

Thanks to those 926 stations that made a QSO with me over the past 8 years!! 
It has been a real trip.

72 and Thanks,
Ron Polityka
WB3AAL
www.wb3aal.com
www.n3epa.org/

K1 - SN 01011
K2 - SN 01392