Operated from the summit of Stone Mountain, Georgia, one of the bastions of the Confederacy, using the QRP ARCI club call, K6JSS.

Officially, there were no major battles fought during the Civil War at Stone Mountain. However, local pundit Lewis Grizzard (now deceased) used to tell the following story:

Seems General Sherman had raped and pillaged most of downtown Atlanta and was headed east (to deliver Savannah to President Lincoln as a present). He and his troops were passing Stone Mountain when they saw a Confederate soldier up on top of the mountain calling them all kinds of names and just generally causing a ruckus. Well, this was something that Gen. Sherman couldn't stand, so he sent one of his best soldiers up to take the guy out.

The guy goes up and there was all kinds of hoot'n and holler'in and swearin' and any kind of nastiness, and finally, the Union soldier's body comes flying off the mountain and lands right at Gen. Sherman's feet, dead.

Well, by this time, Gen. Sherman was pretty mad, so he sent 10 men up the mountain to fetch that Confederate soldier. Once again, there was all kinds of noise and swearin' and gunfire and sparks flying, and finally, one of the 10 men comes flying off the mountain, lands at Gen. Sherman's feet, and dies.

At this point, Gen. Sherman has gotten really mad and sends 100 men up the mountain, with orders to kill the guy. Trees start crashing, guns are blarin' and sparks are flyin', all kinds of swear words and such like you never heard.

Finally, one Union soldier comes flying off the mountain, and just barely alive, lands at Gen. Sherman's feet.

"It's a trick, General Sherman," the soldier says, "--there's two of them!"

It is true that on his destructive "March to the Sea," General Sherman destroyed the Georgia Railroad line between Stone Mountain and Decatur to the east of Stone Mountain. In addition to Atlanta, the Union army burned some of the buildings in the village of New Gibraltar (present day Stone Mountain).

The face of Stone Mountain features the largest high relief sculpture in the world. The Confederate Memorial Carving depicts three Confederate heroes of the Civil War: President Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. The entire carved surface measures three-acres, larger than a football field. The carving of the three men towers 400 feet above the ground, measures 90 by 190 feet, and is recessed 42 feet into the mountain. The deepest point of the carving is at Lee's elbow, which is 12 feet to the mountain's surface.

My operating position was at the summit of the mountain, in the shadow of some scrub pine trees (more like "pine bushes). The summitIt is at 1,683 feet above sea level, rises 825 feet above the surrounding area and can be reached by cable car or by hiking. I hiked the 1.25 (10.4% grade) to the summit.

Rough conditions, lots of QSB, but operated 2 hours on 20M using KX1 #73 with a modified MP1 antenna at about 1 Watt or so. Carried K1 to summit as well, but it didn't seem to work (darn, wanted to try 15M).

Coolest QSO was with WA8REI, a fellow NOGANaut, misplaced in Michigan. We had a nice, brief chat. Think he was running his Yaesu FT817.

72 de Mike, KO4WX/K6JSS