N8PPQ

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- W8H -

Pickerel Lake, (Kalkaska)

Horseback image
This is my antenna feed at Pickerel Lake campsite.
Back to W8H, Horses on the Air!.

We arrived here on Wednesday, a day sooner than the normal schedule would have us, because the trail from Goose Lake was closed. It was a relief to know we would be staying without hitting the trail first thing again in the morning. We could rest. Michelle’s horse appreciated that, too.

I got the camp set up, like always, except that it was later in the day. I worked in a steady rain. Michelle had ridden through light rain earlier, but she was equipped with rain gear. I didn’t bring anything for rain. I was miserable and not fun to be around. Michelle earned her wings by not strangling me in self-defense.

My antenna wasn’t loading up on 40 meters like it did, so I tried adjusting the length of its dipole. It was resonating below 7 MHz, so I tried shortening it. Rather than cutting, I just folded the elements back on themselves. I spent a *lot* of time with this, bringing the antenna down and putting it back up again - at least eight times! Even shortening by 2 feet on each leg did nothing! At first, I wondered if the wet trees were acting like capacitors on HF. Then I wondered if the ladder line was somehow undoing what I was trying to do with the flat top. I finally gave up and just relied on my travel tuner. It turned out that it worked fine that way. I didn’t need to spend all that time fighting with the antenna and getting soaking wet.

Right after giving up on the antenna pruning, and before testing it with a tuner, Michelle and I decided to unhook the truck and drive to Kalkaska. There, we found a Tractor Supply and I got a good rain suit, new jeans, and rubber boots. What a difference that made!

Before leaving, though, I narrowly missed a catastrophe while unhooking the trailer. As I began to pull away, I decided to stop and double check things. I found the gooseneck for the trailer snugged right up tight against the tailgate of the truck! If I hadn’t stopped, I would have broken the tailgate right off! I found out later that a lot of the riders have done this. Some, more than once!

We got back from Kalkaska just in time for me to take a shower and change into dry clothes before meeting up with the others for dinner at G’s Pizzeria! G's is a regular part of the trail ride, we were told. The menu was great and so was the service! (I had never seen a plate of nachos that huge!)



On Thursday, I finally got on the air from Pickerel Lake! The antenna worked fine! By this time, I had given up on trying to log a thousand QSOs. I just wanted to talk on the radio. So, it’s fitting that I happened to meet VE3FXA: Don, in Stratford, ON. We rambled on for over an hour about everything that came to mind. That was my only QSO for the day, but it was a good one!



On to Scheck's Trailcamp!

CampTale.com page for Pickerel Lake Trail Camp

Google Maps page for Pickerel Lake (Kalkaska) Trail Camp

Google Earth page for Pickerel Lake (Kalkaska) Trail Camp