April 20, 2012 – SOTA Activation of Quabbin Hill
- Summary: A windy day in which 20m opened into Eastern Europe
- DX: Spain, England, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia
- U.S.: MA, AR, OR, NC
No video today!
This activation was a spur-of-the-moment idea. With rain impeding on our weekend plans, Jess and I decided to take a quick jaunt up Quabbin Hill on this Friday afternoon. The hill is a great recreational area that overlooks the Quabbin Reservoir.
I worked 20m for an hour, racking up QSOs with the usual SOTA chasers. I even made contact with N4EX, who was very nearly buried in the noise. I was able to pull out his callsign and complete the QSO, but man, it took a while. I could barely even hear him, and the wind didn’t help.
Around 20:00 UTC, the band appeared to suddenly open up into eastern Europe. I heard many Italy stations, and one even responded to my CQ! I was still running just 5 watts at this point! I then knocked out QSOs into Slovenia, and at 25 watts I was able to reach Croatia.
This is what I really love about amateur radio: I can talk down the street in one breath, then talk across the world in the next. The unpredictability keeps me coming back for more, because you never know the next station who will come back to your CQ.
