Hermit Lake in February 2010


Yesterday, Hanz, W1JSB, and I took our
rigs onto Hermit Lake in Sanbornton. It
was sunny and 35 degrees.

The ice was so smooth, we slipped and slid
our way out to one of the islands in the middle
of the lake. We were glad to find a little snow
in the lea of the island. The snow allowed us
to walk normally!

We surveyed the branches on the South side
of the island hoping to avoid the wind.


W1PID gets set to throw a wire over the branch

I brought the little MFJ Cub for 15 meters.
I threw about 20 feet of wire over a branch
at the edge of the ice and hooked it to the
T-1 tuner.  15 meters had been pretty active
in the morning, but by the time we reached
the lake after lunch, things we're kind of
quiet. None-the-less, I made a quick contact
with N4JT/M in Texas.  Jim gave me a 559 and
went on to the next caller.

Not far away, Hanz set up on 20 meter SSB.
He had the FT-817 and was using his new
Par Electronics end fed half wave.


W1JSB works GA on 5 watts SSB

Right away he worked K1EKF in Georgia. Rich
gave Hanz a 57 and they chatted for a few minutes.
Pretty good report for 5 watts SSB!

With that we packed up our gear and shuffled
our way back to shore. I'm glad we got out
when we did... today we got six inches of snow.