06/28/2007 | K7VAN Three hams from Oregon and four from Idaho organized a Field Day Expedition to the top of Hawley Mt., 7,300 feet elevation and 20 miles north of Boise. That does not seem far but the last ten miles of driving takes an hour or more on a Forest Service dirt track. Its worth the difficult drive for the view, as well as the operating height.

Although it gets cold at night, the biggest challenge is wind. Tents and antennas need to be well secured and there are a few radios that now need a good vacuuming to get out the fine dirt that blows in. Once we got cleaned up Sunday night we realized there was sunburn under the all the dirt.

A Hex-Beam light weight antenna and a Stepper vertical on top of this mountain were good enough to QSO with New Zealand. Working two to a shift, two hours on and six hours off, gave us our best rate yet. The whippings were also an important part of keeping the rate up. An inexperienced operator like me learns fast from the experienced DXs in these conditions.

We certainly enjoyed planning the expedition, setting up in a beautiful wilderness area and trading exchanges with over a thousand fellow hams. -- KD7VZW