I always try to find a place to operate other than the home QTH.  I don't have a tower and I'm not at a height advantage, so I try to go to the high ground.  I tried to get approval to spend the weekend at Big Pine Hill Tower in FN21EF, but the Park service guy suggested the Dry Land Hill Fire tower just a few miles south of there.  The park service guys were a big help, but I quickly found out that hauling equipment up and down fire tower stairs was a bad idea.  I didn't get to operate inside the tower itself, so I used a stair landing about 30 feet AGL.  The higher landings were too small to even move.  

I made quite a few contacts on Saturday afternoon. ....and then I had to take down the station and go back down those stairs.  I finally got it all packed up and headed for a hotel a few miles away in Mt. Pocono, PA. 

I slept in Sunday morning.  My thighs were aching from making 25 plus trips up and down steep stairs with heavy equipment. I decided to rest my weary bones at a local buffet.  I highly recommend the Sunday brunch buffet at the Mount Airy Casino.  It was truely ham radio contest worthy and I'll make it a planned stop again!

I stayed on the ground on Sunday in front of the fire tower.  I bungied the antennas to the chain link fence around the tower and used the armstrong method to turn them.  It was drizzling slightly, so I set up tarp over the side of the van. 

I made my first 903 MHz contact!  I put together one of the W1GHZ transverters.  I didn't manage to get a sequencer put together for it though, so switching between TX and RX was like running a steam engine.  After much searching for the other guy's signal, I managed to make my first  contact with WA2FGK.  He mentioned that he was running 500 watts into a phased array.  I was running less than 15 watts into 5 elements.  Later, I found out on Google earth that he was only 4 miles from me!  

I had a separate 1.2 Ghz transverter connected into the chain, but it took me a few minutes to find WA2FGK and by the time I did, he jumped to another band.  Maybe next time. 

It was a fun contest!  I have 3 other W1GHZ transverters that I have to get up and going.  I'll have to clean off the bench and heat up the irons. 

73 de KM3G

Tyler