Dear Gang:
Yesterday I went for a hike on snowshoes for the first time.? I had always
thought that snowshoes were for chickens afraid to do a face plant while X-C
skiing like the rest of us.? I was wrong.? It takes quite a bit of effort, and
is a lot of fun.? I, for one, kept my snowshoe tracks out of the X-C ski tracks.
I went to Yosemite, and there is so much snow there I literally could not find
the trailhead!? So I?took an alternate route.?
After plodding for probably two hours, I set up.? I was as not well-prepared as
I had hoped.? My original desitination had a place to sit down, but I had to
just stop beside the trail on a slope.? Nothing to sit on, not even the ensolite
pad I left in my garage.? I just plopped my butt into the snow.?
I didn't have long to operate, what with my butt freezing and my snowshoeing
partner getting rapidly impatient.? But I did hear a number of stations who were
unfortunately engaged in a CW contest.? No?one answered my calls or eventual CQs
on 20 and 30 meters.? Sometimes you just get skunked.
My antenna was a simple wire thrown in a tree, hooked up to my KX1 and station
power was a Buddipole 4S1P A123 battery.? Key was my favorite for portable work,
a PortaPaddle.? I'm attaching a picture of my station.
73,
Eric WD6DBM?
