2015 Dayton, Ohio County Tour

We had a lot of fun during our 2015 Dayton US Counties Tour from our home in New Hampshire to the 2015 Dayton HAMvention and back. The trip involved a total of 5 days of driving and covered about 2,000 miles – giving our Mobile HF station quite a workout. We ended up activating 98 unique US Counties, and we made 1,226 contacts during the trip. We mostly operating using the Nashua Area Radio Club’s call, N1FD/M. We spent most of our time on the County Hunter’s frequencies on 20m, and 40m, and the Net Control folks there provided a great deal of help in making our operation effective and efficient. We worked both bands in most Counties to try to give folks that were both close in and some distance away a chance to contact us.

Near The Line Between Blair and Cambria Counties in PA

We tried to activate some of the most needed Counties along our route. We had the most activity when we were in Blair and Cambria Counties in PA. These were two Counties that were needed by quite a few folks.

On The Fulton And Montgomery County Line In New York

We learned that one can be quite popular with County Hunters by activating two Counties at the same time. To do this properly, one must park the vehicle on the county line with one set of wheels in each county as shown in the picture above. Operating in this ways allows folks to gain credit for two counties via a single contact.

Dirt Lane On A Hilltop In Hampshire County, Massachusetts

We spent quite a bit of time finding good locations to activate the rarer counties that we were in. This involved driving down dirt roads and “getting off the beaten path” quite a bit.

The County Hunter folks who worked us were great, and some became fast friends during the trip. Several folks worked us more then 30 times during our trip.

N1FD/M QSL Card

We have already begun receiving QSL card requests for the contacts we made during our trip. A Mobile HF Counties Tour is a great activity for a Mobile HF operator. It makes the time on a long drive go by very fast and generates great Mobile HF operating time. We are looking forward to finding another opportunity to do a County Tour again in the future.

– Fred, AB1OC/M