Visiting and Activating!
Anderson and I are visiting my sister in Mount Airy, MD and took the opportunity to do some hiking and activating in this beautiful part of the country! Our first of hopefully three activations in three days is Hawksbill in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
My sister Rebecca and her dog Quinn came along with us for the hike and activation that held some important firsts for us, one of which being that Quinn was the first dog we ever took with us!
This was also the our first activation since I passed my General Exam which meant I could play on HF for the first time! My first ever HF QSO was with K5DEZ, Tim from Albuquerque, New Mexico on 20m. In addition to my Elk Antenna, I had an end fed half wave dipole that I ran up a 33’ telescoping mast.
I made four 20m contacts and has plans to try 40m as well, but the time monster reared its ugly head and we had to get down to hit the road.
We were also joined by a Black Bear! We saw him on the way up and then again on the way down!
Thank you to my sister and her dog Quinn for joining us and thank you to the chasers for another successful activation!
Stew
De KC1IFK/AG