Late Summer Hike on Shute Hill

I hiked on Shute Hill this afternoon. It’s definitely late summer. The sounds of crickets say so. The loud buzzing of bees on the goldenrod tell me fall is around the corner. I made a wonderful 2-way QRP QSO with Georgia.

trail

The trail goes south and east from the old cemetery off the Rufus Colby Road. It goes all the way over the hill to the range road on the other side.

I walk for about 20 minutes. There are asters and goldenrod everywhere.

goldenrod

I set up along the trail under a beautiful oak tree. I’m using the MTR by Steve Weber, KD1JV. It’s a tiny 3-band rig powered by 8 AA cells. It gives me about 3 watts. I have hung a 20 meter dipole as a vertical from a branch and I sit on the ground with the MTR in my lap.

rig

I hear K4JPN Steve in Georgia finishing up a QSO and I call him. He answers right away and gives me a 579. He is 599. He is running a K2 to a 3 element beam. He drops his power down to 2 watts. I still have solid copy and we chat for about 15 minutes. I’ve worked Steve about a half dozen times before. He spent lots of time in New Hampshire as a youngster and he’s as glad as I am for the contact.

Here’s my view from my operating position. At the bottom right of the photo, you will see a water bottle. It is hanging from the end of the dipole keeping the antenna taut.

view

It’s not a fancy place with a spectacular view. But it’s beautiful nonetheless. I pack up and hike back to the cemetery where I left my car.

Jim Cluett, W1PID, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Hampshire, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

3 Responses to “Late Summer Hike on Shute Hill”

  • davey glad neversad:

    hi i love to read your stuff and imagine doing the same thing nice and tranquil good pics new hampshire is a place i’ve passed through many times on my way to maine gotta make spending some time in nh a thing on my to do list
    i’m a technician class operator so as you well know 20 meters is out of my transmitting realm mostly i hang on 6 meters for dxing when its skipping of course

    your mountain topper is way kool

    sevendy threes

    kd2dug

  • Thanks for the note Davey. Good luck with the /p ops. 73 Jim

  • Richard,K0RDS:

    Jim, Nice pictures of your QRP adventures. Makes me miss my home State of Iowa even more.Also the Topper QRP rig is on my future wish list. Kind of hard to take the Argonaut V out in the field for a day. Keep the views coming. 73, Richard,K0RDS

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