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Hanz W1JSB and I hiked to the cabin at Knox Mountain this afternoon. We set up a 20 meter dipole as a vertical and worked London, Ontario on SSB and Guadeloupe on CW.

The first bridge has nearly collapsed. Two out of the four main timbers have fallen into the brook. We took a chance and scampered across the far north end of the bridge which still has some cross-boards attached. We went one-at-a-time and made it safely across. My guess is… the bridge won’t be here in the spring.

We had a grand time hiking to the pond. We hadn’t seen each other since sometime in July. At several spots along the trail, we could see where a bear had scraped up the earth, perhaps in search of food below.

The pond is always a beautiful sight after the darkness of the woods.

We had brought two rigs and one antenna. Hanz had his Norcal Cascade, an SSB rig set up on 20 meters. I had the little DSW by Small Wonders Labs.

We tossed a line over a 40 foot branch on the wild cherry tree behind the cabin and set up the dipole as a vertical. The bottom end was weighed down with a water bottle.

Hanz took the first turn.

There were plenty of stations to choose from. VE3LHU was calling CQ from London, Ontario and had a very strong signal. David answered and gave Hanz a 56. “You’re doing a fine job with 3 watts,” he sent. With that Hanz handed the antenna to me.

I went down toward the bottom of the band and right away heard TO10RR in Guadeloupe calling CQ. He had a hard time copying me on the first call, but came back on the second. We exchanged quick 599s and I considered myself lucky to have made the contact. Right away a large pileup formed. Had I waited, I would have missed the QSO for sure.

By now the shadows were lengthening and we were anxious to get back before dark. We couldn’t have had a better outing… it was 52F, and perfectly pleasant for a great radio adventure and hike.

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