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I rode my bike to the Pemigewasset River today. I worked Mexico City, New Jersey and Maryland.

I stopped about half way down to the old bridge abutment and snapped a quick shot up-river. It’s rained every day for a week and the river is about 6 feet higher than normal. Today is gorgeous… 70 degrees with a stiff breeze to keep the bugs at bay.

I left my bike under some huge pine trees and walked down to the bridge abutment.

The old bridge used to cross to Hill Village. It was removed in the late 1940s. I stood on the edge of the old concrete support and looked upstream.

I found a sunny spot with some nice grass and heaved a line about 40 feet up into a maple tree. I was using a 33 foot wire straight up with the Elecraft T-1 tuner and the ATS-4 at a bit more than 3 watts. I started out on 20 meters and worked XE1RK in Mexico City. Ralph gave me a 569 and we completed the exchange before the QSB got us. 20 meters was pretty poor, and I only heard a few stations there so I switched to 40 meters.

I re-tuned the same wire on 40 meters without a counterpoise. Signals were stronger here. Right away I heard W2WSC/100 calling CQ. This is a special event station honoring the old Tuckerton WSC shore station in New Jersey.
We exchanged 599s and I called N3WT in Maryland as he was finishing up another QSO. John said he had to run, but he gave me a 579. He was 599. When I told him I was running 3 watts, he sent back,” VY GUD JIM UR 3W IS TRUE 579.”

With this I packed up and headed south along the river. I stopped at a favorite spot to take one more photo.

It was great to get out for a while after being stuck indoors for so long. Today was really well worth the wait… it doesn’t get much better than this.

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