Rig: NorCal 40a es 1/4 vertical es dipole
KF4KRV
Location: Walter F. George Resvoir, Chattahoochee River
Lowest Temp: 45 w/HEAVY rains :)
Well, my camping-buddy/bro-in-law and I managed to get the pontoon
boat loaded and running about 3:00 Friday afternoon and headed out from
Lake Point Marina on the Chattahoochee River near Eufaula, Alabama.
Folks in the southeast will recall that Friday was a day of some
heavy-duty storms.
As we left the marina black clouds were rolling in and the protected
water we were traveling on was pretty choppy. Knowing that the open
water of the lake would be pretty bad and that the intended campsite on
Gopher Island (abt 15 miles south) would be a problematic mooring site
for the boat we opted for the nearby state park campground. We had to
pass under a highway overpass to get to the camp and as we neared it the
bottom fell out. This wasn't a normal heavy rain, mind you, but one
that slung down stinging drops of rain. I kept looking around expecting
to see hail hopping around the boat. Heck, the velocity of the rain
would've driven a tough-hided badger into hiding! It was so heavy that
we had to hold the brim of our gortex hats up because the rain was
knocking it down obscuring our vision. Vision was abt 20' ahead of the
boat, but we were just barely moving....
We finally found the campsite, found a spot for the tent(easy to find a
good spot for a tent when it's a lashing rain going on.....look for the
spot that ain't covered by water!). Dried things up a tad, had supper,
and croaked early.
Saturday morning we awoke with a beautiful blue sky and abt a 2' rise in
the river level. Bill started working on his famous omelets and I
strung a dipole up (Bill did a great job on the omelets, but I only got
the dipole up abt 10'.) A started calling CQ and first got N5GW in
Vicksburg, MS. Running a homebrew, battery-powerd xceiver at a whopping
1 watt into a zep at abt 40'. He had a gud signal, abt a 349. He gave
me a 569. Good QSO. Solid copy.
The only other QSO before we loaded the boat back up was with K2SSE in
Brooksville, FL. He was running 4 watts into a rotary dipole. Good
solid copy on this one, too. The nice part of this one is that I had
email from him waiting on me when I returned home. He'd told me that in
the QSO that he was at a hamfest. He had a ham (QRO) friend with him at
the tailgate during the QSO and the guy couldn't believe we had such a
good QSO with 2 and 4 watts. Maybe a convert in the making? :)
Well, the omelets got ate, the coffee drank, things packed up and we
headed out to the river to make the 20 mile trip to Gopher Island. The
river/lake was choppy, the sky was blue, 'twas a nice ride. We
arrived at the island to find the nice, sandy beach that was the SW
point of the island covered by water....the recent rains had covered my
spot! :( Not to despair we eased around the point to the SE side of the
island and found a good mooring spot, crawled up the bank and found an
excellent campsite. Nice view, too! :) Got things set up and raised
the 1/4 vertical. Had a little trouble here and the HB thin-walled
aluminum antenna buckled as we raised it. Luckily I had an extra piece
of tubing in the boat the size of what I needed and had the tube cutter,
too! Repaired it and raised it. Didn't work any CW that
evening.....enjoyed some Fosters instead.<grin> Did watch a beautiful
sunset and an equally beautiful moonrise, though! Went to sleep to the
tune of the choppy waves slapping into the shore.
Sunday morning our alarm clock went off at sunrise......hundreds
(thousands?) of Canadian geese sounding their horns, all yelling for a
place at the breakfast table along the shoreline. I never came out of
the sleeping back to crank the 40a up....it was kinda comfortable there!
Got her going and proceeded to contact with WA4OOD in Cary, NC (RST
569), KB3AWR in Pittsburgh, PA (RST 559), W4LVP in Johnson City, TN(RST
569-armchair), and W4WF in Bristol, TN (RST 549). Had a blast. Not a
lot of contacts, but enough to keep me interested. Anybody happening up
on us as we camped would've really been scratching their head.....me
sitting their with headphones and key and Bill practicing magic tricks
(he's an amateur magician).<g>
Well, we had to go home. We loaded the boat, cruised the shoreline for
an hour or so. Headed back out to the main channel for the trip back
home. The wx was changing and the swells on the lake were beginning to
get fairly deep. Water splashing onto the deck of the pontoon boat...it
was great. We got out in the center of the lake where it was the
roughest we killed the motor....it was time for our traditional "going
in" dinner. Viennas, sardines, canned smoked oysters, celery(gotta have
the greens), chunk tuna, es crackers! It was great dining!<grin> After
toasting with some "Very Old Ray" (local rye) we checked our fleece,
button down the gortex, cranked 'er up and made the 15 mile dash back to
the marina.
It was a great weekend all the way around...camping, hamming, enjoying
nature. It'll keep me pumped up for a while....but withdrawal will come
and we'll have to do it again.....QTTF? :)
Had a 75 mile drive home, was exhausted. :)
Enjoyed the weekend....FB
72/73
Ed Welch KF4KRV
QRP-L #873
Luverne, Alabama
Crenshaw County - Grid EM61
+--------------------------------------------------+
----------+ Norcal 40a es Straight Key es Wire-wrapped Trees +----------
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> Isn't "time" a 4-letter word? <
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