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iBob Cunnings NW8L |
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iThis year I returned to the Ojito Wilderness for FOBB. The location was |
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iup on a mesa overlooking the Arroyo Bernalillito area of the Wilderness |
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inorthwest of Albuquerque, NM, adjacent to Zia Pueblo lands. A narrow |
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ipromontory juts out northward from the main body of the mesa, with its |
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ihead standing about 300 feet above the surrounding terrain at an elevation |
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iof 6100 feet. This is a great spot for a QRP station if you don't mind |
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ithe July heat! |
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Entrance sign to the Ojito Wilderness |
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North view of the mesa |
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iThe caprock forms a sheer vertical sandstone wall at the top and the slopes |
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ibelow are steep with ia lot of loose and crumbling rock. The best way up is |
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ito climb the ridge at the far left and work up to the wall very gradually |
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iover the slopes and terraces below. Then the wall can be followed to the |
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ientrance point. |
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The cleft in the wall |
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iA tree marks a break in the sandstone wall which is one of the few places |
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ioffering easy access to the top. |
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The final passage |
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iHere a tree is perched precariously on a sandstone shelf supported by |
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icrumbling mudstone. |
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The antenna |
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iThis year the antenna was a 33 foot doublet with a balanced feedline, made |
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ifrom vinyl speaker wire. The antenna was supported by a 32 ft. telescoping |
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ifiberglass windsock pole, tied to a juniper tree. It was set up as a |
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i"sloper" with the low end tied off to another juniper tree. This was all I |
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ineeded since I was making a single-band effort on 20 meters. The rig is my |
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itrusty Elecraft KX1, with a small self-powered speaker. Power is supplied |
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iby 8 AA cells in an external pack. RF output is about 3W on 20 m. |
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The radio shack |
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iNear the edge the rock is broken up, and I set up the shack in this cleft |
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iunder the juniper tree holding up the antenna mast, with a "Noah's Tarp" |
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ifor shade. |
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The view to the West |
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iTo the West is Cabezon, a volcanic plug, looming on the horizon. |
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The view to the North |
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iTo the North is the area in the Ojito Wilderness where the dinosaur |
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i"Seismosaurus" was excavated. The old track you see leads to the |
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iexcavation site. |
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The view to the East |
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iTo the East is White Mesa, where gypsum is mined to make wallboard. |
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The KX1 set up and ready to go |
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iConditions were variable, with stations fading in and out the whole time. |
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iI made 39 QSOs, all on 20 meters. 35 were with fellow BBs, and 4 with home |
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istations. 25 states and provinces were worked: |
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iID, CA, MI, WA, IL, OR, GA, MS, WI, WV, ON, NY, AZ, ND, IN, OH, MO, |
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iNM, NE, TX, TN, NC, VA, OK and FL. |
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iOnce FOBB was done, I took a few pictures before heading down. |
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Some flowers on the mesa |
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Some more flowers on the mesa |
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iEven though this seems like a tough place to live, wildflowers manage to |
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igrow here. It rained quite a bit in these parts in the last 2 weeks so |
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ithese flowers are blooming. |
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A juniper tree on the mesa |
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iThe juniper trees are pretty gnarled, this one is showing how they help |
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ibreak up the rock with their roots. |
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Old metal fragments |
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More old metal fragments |
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Even more old metal fragments |
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iScattered around on top are old crumpled fragments of heavy iron sheet |
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imetal. I've been told that this area was used as a bombing range for the |
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itraining of B-17 crews flying out of Kirkland Field during WWII, and |
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ithat these are dummy bomb fragments. I don't know if that is true. If not, |
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iit's a mystery, because there seems to be a lot of the stuff out here. |
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A stock pond on the range |
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iHere is a picture of a stock pond filled by recent rains, east of the Ojito |
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ion the way out. I haven't seen this pond filled in years. The last time it |
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iI saw it filled it was populated by "desert shrimp", strange crustaceans |
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ithat lurk deep in the ground during dry times, then emerge when the pond |
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ifills. I didn't get close enough to look for them this time. |
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iSee you next year! |
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