Even though I've had this year's Skeeter Hunt on my calendar for quite a while, it still managed to sneak up on me, somehow. I decided at the last minute to drive up to the Hopewell Fire Tower in French Creek State Park. I had never operated up there before, so I figured I'd just go up there and wing it. About an hour before the contest, I hastily stashed some radio gear in my truck and headed out.
When I rolled into the parking lot, there wasn't a soul in sight. Before unloading anything, I set out on foot to check out the fire tower and scope out an operating location. I found some picnic tables near the fire tower but I was a little concerned about some antennas mounted on the tower and some powerlines running overhead from a little cabin up to the tower. So, I figured I'd just set up at a table out near the road instead.
As I was walking back to the truck, I noticed a picnic table back in the woods just off of the parking lot. I walked back into the woods and found a nice little secluded clearing with some great looking (antenna-wise) trees. It was a great area; very secluded, yet just a short walk to the truck. I grabbed my equipment and went about setting up.
I set up a 53-foot inverted L, which was supported by a 31-foot Jackite pole and fed through a 9:1 unun with 25 feet of coax. For the far end of the antenna, I tossed a line up into one of the trees. The rig was my trusty little YouKits HB-1B running about 4 watts and an Elecraft T1 tuner. Skeeter #36 was on the air about 20 minutes into the contest. Not bad for getting such a late, disorganized start.
I wound up with 20 QSOs with 19 skeeters. Forty meters turned out to be the most productive for me today. It was nice working my old friend, Carter N3AO. I also worked Larry W2LJ, the person behind the NJQRP Skeeter Hunt. Around 4:00 PM (2000 UTC), things really started to thin out on the bands. I made one more contact and decided to call it a day.
Despite the occasional swarm of gnats, it was a nice relaxing and fun afternoon. The weather was absolutely beautiful. I'm glad I decided to give this location a shot. I will definitely be operating from the Hopewell Fire Tower again in the future.
---------------------------------------------------- BAND UTC CALL NAME SPC NR/PWR ---------------------------------------------------- 40M 1718 N2JJF Denis NJ Skeeter #115 20M 1730 AB9CA Dave AL Skeeter #59 20M 1737 KX0R George CO Skeeter #86 20M 1740 N0SS Tom MO Skeeter #66 20M 1750 NM4T Craig AL Skeeter #18 40M 1811 VE2DDZ Mal QC Skeeter #73 40M 1817 N3AO Carter VA Skeeter #19 40M 1827 WI2W Steve NJ Skeeter #54 40M 1845 W3ATB Tim NH Skeeter #153 40M 1835 W3BBO Bob PA Skeeter #3 40M 1839 W2LJ Larry NJ Skeeter #13 40M 1853 K3RLL Don PA Skeeter #25 40M 1858 N1ABS Pete MA Skeeter #10 40M 1901 W4MPS Marc NC Skeeter #110 40M 1904 AI4SV Jack VA Skeeter #63 40M 1919 NQ2W Will NY 5W 20M 1930 AB4QL Barry AL Skeeter #81 20M 1938 W2KJ Joe NC Skeeter #38 40M 1946 K2TD Tom NJ Skeeter #21 40M 2015 N3CU Ken PA Skeeter #154
73, Craig WB3GCK