Kearsarge Mountain Trip
May 2015

A couple of friends and I did a trip to Kearsarge Mountain today. We had a fantastic
time and made a couple of dozen nice contacts. Dave K1SWL, Tim W3ATB and
I met at Kearsarge. The view was fantastic.



Dave brought his KX3 and put up a simple vertical wire 28 feet long. He sat at a picnic table directly under
the wire and had a short counterpoise. The internal tuner managed the setup just fine. Dave made a dozen DX
contacts mostly on 15 meters. I don't have his log.


Dave K1SWL working DX on 15M

Tim brought his HB-1B and wanted to test out a 30 meter dipole he made. He plans to use it
during an upcoming trip to Antigua. The antenna had a great SWR. After the test he switched to
20 meters and used his Par End Fed as a horizontal up about 25 feet. He made three stateside QSOs
and was thrilled with the results.


Tim W3ATB working a station on 20 meters.

I set up with a west facing view. I placed an inverted L up about 25 feet and across about 40 feet. I
tuned the wire with the internal tuner on the KX3. I was hoping to make some SSB contacts in
the military cross-band exercise and I had a mic out for awhile. But I abandoned that effort and
went back to CW. Here's my log:

9 May-15 1555  24.891 US5WE   CW 599 599     
9 May-15 1558  21.012 EA2NN   CW 599 599     
9 May-15 1600  21.026 SN7Q    CW 599 599     
9 May-15 1652  14.021 K3ZO    CW 599 599     
9 May-15 1655  18.087 AO150A  CW 599 599     
9 May-15 1657  21.021 HA3NU   CW 599 599     
9 May-15 1700  21.016 M0BEW   CW 599 599     
9 May-15 1701  24.891 US5WE   CW 599 599     
9 May-15 1705  18.082 R120K   CW 599 599     
9 May-15 1706  18.087 AO150A  CW 599 599   

I wasn't paying attention and realized back home that I had several dupes. 


Jim W1PID wondering how to use a microphone.

We operated about an hour and a half and had a nice picnic lunch before heading down the mountain.
Working DX was a lot easier today than battling the black flies. They were pretty thick and we were
all glad to have a nice breeze and some bug spray handy. The little park area midway up the mountain
makes a perfect place for operating on a beautiful day.