2007 FOBB – K6DGW

From Adventure Radio Society

K6DGW - 2007

Well, I missed FOBB last year, but for 2007, I was determined to do better. We have a place here in Auburn where the Bureau of Reclamation built a parking lot in the early 70's for a visitor's center for the then-under-construction Auburn Dam. The site overlooks the canyon where the construction was going on, and is about 1,000 feet above the American River. The construction was stopped in the later 70's and never restarted. Foresthill Bridge/Auburn Dam The Bureau finally demolished the visitors' center and turned the land over to the local Parks and Recreation District and it became "Overlook Park."

There are some shaded picnic tables, one quite close to the bluff that drops into the canyon. The bluff is free of trees and has a super view to the east, dominated by the 11,000 ft summit of Sierra Nevada about 80 miles distant. This would surely be a much better spot than my puny 2005 attempt. I have braces on both legs so a major hike was a non-starter, but I did ferry all my gear over to the picnic table.

My rig was the K2 with a brand new Buddipole that I purchased just for FOBB. This was going to be my first field expedition with it, and I decided to use the horizontal, off-center-fed configuration (probably a mistake). I have a 12 Ah gel-cell that I solar charged with my neighbor's RV panel. Everything worked fine, however I made only 14 Q's, just couldn't find any more stations to work. We'll see how 2007 goes.

73,

Fred K6DGW