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iBob Cunnings NW8L |
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iThis year I returned to South Sandia Peak in the Sandia Wilderness Area, |
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ioverlooking Albuquerque, NM. The location was atop the long north/south |
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iridge a few hundred yards south of the summit, at approx. 9600 ft. |
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ielevation. This is a nice location, with the terrain dropping off |
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isharply to the east and west, but requires a good 4 hour hike to reach. |
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iThe weather was warm and humid and thunderstorms were expected. |
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iThe antenna was a combination 40m dipole/20m "coupled resonator" |
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imade from 450 ohm window line, supported by two telescoping fiberglass |
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ipoles. It was fed with a 300 ohm balanced feedline. The "shack" was in a |
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inice sheltered depression in the limestone just below the ridgeline to |
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ithe west, with a tarp providing shade. I used my 20/30/40 KX1 with |
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iautotuner. It was powered from a pack of 8 AA cells, putting out at best |
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i3 watts on 20m. |
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i |
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iI managed a total of 24 qso's - 18 BB and 6 home stations, all on |
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i20 meters. After 2 hours of operation a clap of thunder overhead |
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iinformed me that thunderstorms had formed over the mountain, and so I |
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ihad to pack everything back up and retreat from the ridge. Fortunately |
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ithe rain held off until I had started back down. The return hike wasn't |
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ibad, with only light showers on and off. Thanks to all for another great |
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iFOBB, I know some of you had to work hard to copy my weak signal. |
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The backpack |
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iI was glad to drop the pack when I got to the top, |
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ithere's a lot of water inside. |
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The KX1 setup |
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iThe KX1 was connected to the AA battery pack, running iperhaps 3 watts |
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iout. I use a little self-powered speaker that plugs right in to the |
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iheadphone jack. |
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The antenna |
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iI divided the 32 ft. telescoping fiberglass pole into two 16 foot sections. |
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The radio shack |
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iThe shack is set up under a Noah's Tarp in a notch in the limestone. |
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The view to the North |
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iLooking North along the ridge South Sandia Peak is seen not far away. |
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The view to the South |
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iLooking south, the Manzano mountains are seen in the distance. |
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The view to the Northwest |
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iTo the Northwest is Cabezon, a volcanic plug, looming on the horizon. |
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iThe ghost town of Cabezon is in that vicinity along the Rio Puerco. |
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i |
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iI've discovered more of those mysterious "medallions" on trees |
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ialong the CCC and South Crest trails. Here's the Massachusetts Colony tree... |
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The Massachusetts Colony tree |
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A closeup of the medallion |
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iLooking at the medallion we see that the germination date is 1629! |
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Huygens Manometer Tree |
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iThis is the Huygens Manometer Tree... |
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A closeup of the medallion |
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iLooking at the medallion we see a germination date of 1661. The |
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irumor is that these dates were obtained by taking a core from the tree |
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iand counting rings, so perhaps "TB" means "tree bore"? |
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The stream across the trail |
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iIt's been a very dry year and the spring along the South Crest |
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itrail is barely running. Here's where the stream it feeds crosses the trail... |
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Another view of the stream |
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i |
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i...then it runs over to the top of the waterfall... |
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The waterfall |
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i...and as you can see the waterfall is down to a trickle this summer. |
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iLet's hope for rain, and I'll see you next year, perhaps with an Elecraft KX3! |
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