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It was a perfect afternoon for the NJ QRP Club Skeeter Hunt. I operated for an hour in Old Hill Village and made 13 contacts. Five QSOs were with fellow QRP operators. The rest were with DX stations from Finland, Germany, Romania, the Ukraine, Croatia and Italy.

This place has been abandoned since the 1940’s to make room for a flood control area. It was once a village. As I ride the bicycle along this road, I am transported back to the 1930’s. It has an old world feeling.

I turn east into a field that used to be the old elementary school grounds. One can almost hear the sounds of children playing from those years… or is it the crickets?

Up the slope several hundred yards is an ancient maple tree. This old tree certainly holds many secrets.

I throw my line over a high branch and pull up 33 feet of wire. I sit in the grass below with the KX3 and a notebook for logging. At first I go to 20 meters and work AB9CA and N0SS. But I don’t hear the QRP gang, and I start working the European stations in the WAE contest. I work both 15 and 20 meters. I stop by 40 meters and work K3RLL in the QRP sprint. Then I go back to 20 meters and log NK9G and WB4MNK. But I don’t hear many of the skeeter stations so I go back to the WAE.
Here is my log:

11 Aug-13 1822 14.060 AB9CA CW 559 559 AL 125
11 Aug-13 1825 14.060 N0SS CW 559 559 MO 20
11 Aug-13 1832 21.046 9A1AA CW 599 599 Croatia
11 Aug-13 1837 21.034 IR2C CW 599 599 Italy
11 Aug-13 1840 21.012 UU7J CW 599 599 Ukraine
11 Aug-13 1842 10.120 W3LN CW 549 579 PA ABE
11 Aug-13 1855 7.040 K3RLL CW 559 579 PA 25
11 Aug-13 1858 14.061 NK9G CW 559 559 WI 18
11 Aug-13 1900 14.060 WB4MNK CW 559 559 FL 95
11 Aug-13 1902 14.041 OH2XX CW 599 599 Finland
11 Aug-13 1903 14.042 DD2ML CW 599 599 Germany
11 Aug-13 1908 21.050 DJ8EW CW 599 599 Germany
11 Aug-13 1909 21.038 YP9W CW 599 599 Romania

After less than one hour, I pack up and head back down to the road for a bike ride.

I ride along the Pemigewasset River surrounded by the greenest green imaginable. The stillness of the afternoon is punctuated only by the sound of birds and crickets. Is there a nicer place in all the world?

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