Pukerimu

I am fortunate my work brings me into contact with many rural folk. During a site visit preparing for a job, I inquired with the customer who owned the wee hill behind her house. Fortunately for me I was conversing with the owner and she was more than happy to let me access the hill for the purposes of photography and radio experimentation. Last Friday evening I reconfirmed my access and prepared for the trip. This was to be a family trip except Emma wasn’t feeling the best and the kids opted to look after mum.

Down the drive and along the dairy tracks I parked up at the plantation edge. This hill is covered in Pine trees. Over the fence and it was a nice walk up to the summit through long grass, decomposing pine branches and the odd blackberry bush. I roughly followed the fence line between farm and forest to the summit. At the summit was a fallen log which acted as a perfect working bench.

NVIS conditions were rubbish on 7 MHz but I worked a few ZL stations on 3.7 MHz. My aerial isn’t tuned for this band so the ATU works hard to fool the radio into thinking it has a 50 Ohm load. It was good enough for a few contacts. As the sun moved on 7 MHz opened up into VK and I worked a collection of VK chasers as well as 2 other summit activators. After the last summit to summit contact I realised I had better get moving as the light was starting to fade. About half way down I grabbed my torch out to shine the way back to the car.

A good wee hill for a Friday evening walk in the forest.