FYBO 2006 - Up a Creek with Paddles

This year the snow pack near Moscow, ID was not deep enough to dig a snow pit so Geoff, KC7QCS, and I decided to slip over into Washington and operate from an island in the Snake River. The island is 200 yards long by 50 yards wide and is planted every spring with grain to feed wildlife, mostly geese, as part of the mitigation of Lower Granite Dam 15 miles downstream. The weather forecast was 70% chance of rain and winds with gusts to 40 mph.

After loading the canoe I headed over to Geoff’s house at 1430Z in the dark. After two rain showers along the way we were at the put in and across the short section of Snake River in an hour.

Clear skies to the west greeted us and we began to set up the antennas, tent, and radios.

For antennas we used an SLV (St. Louis Vertical) on 40 m and a hamstick on 20 m. The radio lineup was a K2 and a Sierra. The K2 worked mostly on 20 while the Sierra stood watch over 40 m.

The tent was my canoeing tent, a Campfire Tent a la Bill Mason. (If you are a die hard canoer, you’ll know who I’m talking about. Especially if you are from Canada. If you aren't, look at the picture.) You can see the two antennas in the picture. We were on the air by 1700Z.

First contact on 20 was with KK6MC, as seemed fitting. Although we switched positions, Geoff was mostly on 40

and I was mostly on 20.

No rain showed up, but the wind certainly did. We were under trees that served as a wind break, but they made plenty of noise while doing it. Inside the “porch” of the tent the temperature soared from 55 to almost 70 until the clouds hid the sun.

About 2130Z dark rain clouds came in and the wind picked up even more, so we pulled the plug at 2200Z and rigged down.

Notably loud all day were KK6MC on both 20 and 40 and N1QS on 20. I made 26 QSOs with 16 SPC mults and Geoff made 6 QSOs and 6 mults. The antennas were good enough to make contacts from down in the canyon, but they don’t command a frequency.

No snow, a different state, and fewer contacts, but it was a great outing.