Jim's 2012 Hunting Trip

I set off on a 2 week hunting trip (Sept 19-Oct4)  north to the Dawson Creek/TumblerRidge area of BC & took along my ham radio equipment.  The camper has been renovated since my last trip with the addition of 16' of 4ga wire acting as a feed line from my RV battery to the Anderson Power Pole system, a shelf to hold my Kenwood TS140S radio & At100 Pro antenna tuner.   Everything has a quick connect now. My antenna was connected to a system of 2 poles connected to the side of my camper, first a 13'carbon-fiber/sail board mast & into that  another 1 1/2" wooden dowel to take it up another 10' My home-made G5RV antenna also connects directly into the Camper via a permanent connection in the wall.

I tried to check into the BC public net @ 3.729 on 80M every night @ 18:30 hrs loc. as well a scheduled net with Charlie Scott, VE7CMH & his wife Mavis @ 3.800 on 80M @20:00 hrs loc.  Unbeknownst to me 10M had opened up & there was a flurry of activity all day.  During the daytime I made contacts with Luxembourg, France, Slovenia, Birmingham England, Brazil, Ukraine & Uruguay as well as all over the USA.

The first week was warm, 25C mid day, & cool at night, 5C, which was not productive for hunting but as the week progressed we hit some cold nights,-5C & daily highs of only 8C.  It was the beginning of the second week we "harvested" our 1000 lb. moose which meant the pressure was off & a little relaxation time was due.

As they say "timing" is everything & as luck should have it, the weather turned ugly & we received 8" of snow overnight.

Here are some photos of the hunting area & our moose, campsite & the snow, click image for larger view.