[Elecraft] K1 out on the Appalachian Trail

[Ron Polityka]

Hello,

  Before I departed the home QTH for the Appalachian Trail I 
took one last look at the weather radar. I was glad I did 
that when I did because I would have been driving into rain 
and I would have not gotten out on the AT at all today. So I 
headed towards the East in PA land.

 I arrived at the trail head parking lot around 14:30 UTC. I 
have hiked thru this area about two years ago but I did not 
remember if there were any good operating locations. I hiked 
South on the Appalachian Trail with out my gear for about 1 
mile. No good operating sites and I was going down in 
elevation. I hiked back to my car and put the back pack on 
and headed North. I hiked in around 3/4 of a mile and found 
a nice spot to setup.

 I started calling CQ on 14.060 around 15:30 UTC.  I did not 
have any luck. I tuned around the band and I did not hear 
too many signals on the CW portion of the band. I went over 
to 7.040 and I heard Pierre de VE2PID calling CQ. We had a 
nice chat before the QSB was playing with my signal. After 
Pierre and I signed I did hear a couple of stations sending 
just their call. Since Pierre was calling CQ on the freq. I 
moved up to 7.042 and called CQ. I worked Art de K8CIT in 
Hillman, MI. We had a nice chat until Art said he had to go 
QRT due to the heavy QRN in his area.

 At this point in time I took a few pictures and had my 
snack. I could not find any Salmon to eat at 1,400 feet in 
elevation. So I had what the cousin black bears eat, dried 
berries and fruit. I will post a picture later.

 I called CQ on 15m for a while, I tired but there was no 
signals. I started calling CQ on 14.060 again and I thought 
I felt some rain drops. So while I was calling CQ I turn on 
my cell phone to see if I had a signal. I did so, I checked 
the radar and I seen a large dark green  patch moving in my 
direction. Then I worked Steve de NU7T in NV. He was running 
900 mW into a beam. Great signal Steve but the QSB seemed to 
be the spoiler today.

 I packed up and hiked back out to my car. While driving 
down off the mountain the skies open up and it started to 
rain. What timing. I did not make many QSO's today but I did 
get out onto the trail and made 3 contacts and that is 
better than making no contacts.

 I did notice one thing while I was out on the Appalachian 
Trail today. There were a lot of women hiking in groups or 
by them selves. They were not out for a day hike because 
they had large back packs on with gear hanging off the 
packs. One group of women had way too much perfume on and 
that could mean trouble for them over night.

 If you were looking for me, I want to thank you for taking 
the time to do so.

1,180 QSO's from the AT.

72 and Thanks,
Ron Polityka
WB3AAL

K1 - SN 01011
K2 - SN 01392