'05 FOBB REFLECTIONS: Into the Wilderness Again
Special to The ARS Sojourner
June, 2006
Location: Approximately 25 air miles E-SE of St. Maries, ID on a divide ridge between the Hugus and Mica Creek drainage of the St. Joe River.
My start in ham radio began in a logging camp of the North Idaho Wilderness, where I studied for my ticket one quiet snow-bound winter in 1971. So it's great when I find and excuse to get out in that wilderness again. FOBB is one such excuse! Although, now, at age 69, my range and duration has shortened a tad.
For this event (my first FOBB) I decided to revisit Hugus Creek and locate my station on the divide ridge, a gain of about 2,000 feet over my home QTH.
The drive up was uneventful and dusty. I found a spot on the ridge, close to the road and north of a cluster of small, dense hemlock. This spot provided cool shade, a much desired commodity during this hot season. (90 degree plus temperatures)
Four trips to the road for gear, which included a light-duty spinning rod to get my antenna up, found me about 20 minutes into the contest.
Deploying the antenna would have been easier without the bramble of huckleberry brush and left over slash because I lay the antenna out on the ground before pulling it into position.
My spinning rod and four-pound line will just barely handle a one ounce egg sinker. My tree of choice (highest available within reach of my position) was barely thirty feet high, a spiky, sharp topped Alpine Fir.
I cast the sinker through the upper limbs and then pull in a 40# monofilament which I re-use time after time.
I position the 40# spool by cutting a small limb which is sharpened and stuck in the ground to hold it in position. I then remove the sinker, tie the two lines together and reel the heavy line up over/through the tree and attach it to the antenna, pull the center up, then stretch the ends out and tie to a small bush, etc. (Again using additional spools of heavy line.)
My first call went out 35 minutes into the contest on 40 meters. I thought 40 was wide open but after 20 minutes or so it petered out.
Changed to 20, and it was up and down for the duration. (I did spend the last 20 or so unfruitful minutes on 40 meters.)
The highlight contact of the event was AL7FS, Jim in Alaska. Of course, the exercise as a whole was a rush, with a total of 43 contacts for both bands, 25 were Bees.
Vital statistics:
Flight of the Bumblebees 2005, W7WEL/BB, No. 184
Equipment:
ATS III (@ 12.6 V = slightly shy of 5 watts)
102' dipole (51' each leg) inverted V @ about 20'
75 ohm twinlead
Ten-Tec 247 manual tuner
NoGa SWR/Wattmeter
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Bill Linn, W7WEL, is an avid QRPer and outdoorsman living in St. Maries, ID.