Things really came together for me at Scheck's Place! The rain stopped just as I pulled in. By now I knew the ropes and I
got the campsite set up for Michelle and Magic, and I had my radio station up and running by 11:05, earlier than other sites
by about an hour!
The location I picked had a nice view with good trees for my antenna. It was also out of the way, at the far side of the
campground. Other riders would avoid this area because rather than just pulling in and out, parking here required backing
between closely spaced trees and shrubs. We had no close neighbors, which was an objective since learning that our generator
was offensive.
The 40-meter band was quiet with signals that were strong and clear. My calls were answered quickly with reports consistently
over S9. I settled into my rag chew mode, preferring friendly chatter over a hurried effort to increase my count. I met
some interesting people, like Ken N0HQL, who uses only solar power for his station, and like Joe WB8CTC/P who flies box kites.
Joe has a 12-foot box kite he intends to use to support a full-sized horizontal loop antenna for 40 meters! Joe’s first call to
me was 20 over S9 using 200W. He cranked his power down to 50, and then to 2 Watts. His signal was still S8! He said he has worked
263 countries on SSB using only 2 Watts!
The weather turned beautiful during the day. We didn’t leave the campsite after Michelle's ride, which gave us more time to enjoy
being here.
Michelle and I took time to visit the Boardman River, which was right next to our campground.