In March 2015, I went on a study trip with my students, visiting Washington, DC and New York
City. While I was there anyway, this looked like an ideal opportunity to extend my stay with a
family visit in Springfield, MO and my first ever SOTA activations in
the USA.
As I
planned everything, it turned out that I was lucky : I would be in Missouri at
the time of the OzarkCon QRP
Conference in Branson, MO !
(read my seperate report on OzarkCon here)
I won’t go
into all the “tourist things” we did with the students, but I have to mention just this one thing …
In Washington
D.C. we walked by the National
Museum of American History, and I thought I saw an interesting antenna … was that a dual-polarisation magnetic
loop, mounted on top of an FCC Direction Finding vehicle ? … maybe I could use the idea
for my next SOTA-antenna ?
Oh no, wait
! Look again … the antenna is actually a work of art … and the vehicle belongs
to an ice cream vendor … and it says “Good Humor” .. yes, very funny !
Now over to
my next destination : I arrived in Springfield, MO, on March 28.
Since I
travel alone, I booked a small rental car, a Chevrolet Spark.
Not only
was it small and cheap, I thought the “spark” was very appropriate for a ham ! (remembering how radio all began … ;-)
At the
airport I was told that the Spark was not available, there was a problem with
the license expiring in April … so they offered me a free upgrade to this
“little” beauty : a Hyundai Sonata. It had all the luxury I
could dream of : A/C, cruise control and also free Sirius
satellite radio (see http://www.siriusxm.com/ ) . Nice !
For all my
radio needs, I adapted a commercial cigar lighter accesory into a dual
PowerPole output, it had also a dual USB output, so I could charge my batteries, feed my rigs, my phone and my tablet.
And then it
had still a conventional cigar plug left available.
Toghether
with a mini LiPo-balanced charger (a HobbyTiger BC-4S15D) that works at 9-16V DC input, I could
recharge my 5800 mAh LiPo pack while driving from one summit to another.
Now for some real ham radio action !
SOTA or Summits On The Air
I activated
10 different summits in Missouri and Arkansas, on 6 days in April 2015, using my US
callsign KF0CR :
Date
|
Summit
|
Call
Used
|
QSOs
|
Points
|
Bonus
Points
|
Total
|
04/Apr/2015
|
W0M/ES-002
(Romance Lookout)
|
KF0CR
|
40
|
4
|
0
|
18
|
08/Apr/2015
|
W0M/ES-001 (Webster County HP)
|
KF0CR
|
18
|
6
|
0
|
24
|
09/Apr/2015
|
W0M/ES-003
(Pilot Knob)
|
KF0CR
|
22
|
4
|
0
|
28
|
09/Apr/2015
|
W0M/ES-004
(1270)
|
KF0CR
|
6
|
2
|
0
|
30
|
12/Apr/2015
|
W5A/BR-006
(Kennedy Mountain)
|
KF0CR
|
14
|
6
|
0
|
36
|
12/Apr/2015
|
W5A/BR-012
(Whitney Mountain)
|
KF0CR
|
19
|
6
|
0
|
42
|
15/Apr/2015
|
W0M/SF-002
(Buford Mountain)
|
KF0CR
|
22
|
6
|
0
|
48
|
15/Apr/2015
|
W0M/SF-011
(Shepherd Mountain)
|
KF0CR
|
18
|
4
|
0
|
52
|
16/Apr/2015
|
W0M/SF-001 (Taum Sauk Mountain)
|
KF0CR
|
11
|
6
|
0
|
58
|
16/Apr/2015
|
W0M/SF-010
(Oak Mountain)
|
KF0CR
|
14
|
4
|
0
|
62
|
I started
SOTA in 2014 and had only 14 points so far, these 10 activations raised my
score with an impressive 48 points to a total of 62. Still far from Mountain
Goat but I take my time, hi.
My equipment
for his trip was an Elecraft KX3, a
3-cell LiPo battery with a capacity
of 5800 mAh, and a link dipole which I
constructed and tested just before the trip. I also had
a homebrew mini-paddle for some CW, although I am mainly a phone operator. But you never know ...
As a mast I
had a 6m telescoping fishing pole, when collapsed it’s only 58cm long, so it
fits easily in the side pocket on my backpack. Setting up the pole is very easy
using a ground stake, consisting of a 25cm steel pin, and a plastic tubular piece
which holds the pole (both items are available in the fishing department at
Decathlon (sporting goods store in Europe).
No guy
wires were used, except for the two legs of the dipole.
This setup
resulted in a fair amount of NA contacts, but some nice DX too: Spain, Poland, Ireland and England. Too
bad I didn’t have a chance to work a Belgian station.
Most of the
time I was just setting up on the ground (on a large plastic bag, using my folded
fleece jacket as a cushion to make things a bit softer …).
If I was lucky,
the summit had some concrete pillars left, that were used for a lookout tower,
then I used one of those as a “table” (like in the picture below, on
W0M/ES-001, Webster High Point).
I think
it’s a bit strange that these towers were “fire towers”, but why are they all
gone ? Did they burn down ? The fire
watchers didn’t do a good job then ? I’m
still a bit puzzled on that subject, hi.
My first
activation was on summit W0M/ES-002,
with the promising name Romance Lookout.
I didn’t find it very romantic though … there were ticks and other bugs … and
nothing but rocks and trees, not much else to see. Getting into the activation
zone also required some bushwhacking, there is no public path available.
(there is a road to the radio tower on the summit, but that is closed).
Now for
this first activation, I tricked my brother-in-law, Leo NM0U, into accompanying me.
I felt a
bit safer with someone on my side that lives in the region, and knows all
horrible dangers we could encounter …
Below, the
two “explorers” , well protected against the sun and the bugs …
 |
| Leo, NM0U |
 |
| Luc, KF0CR |
After this
first activation, Leo had enough of it .. SOTA was not his cup of tea. But I
had become confident enough to do the rest on my own .. seeing that the walks
were not too difficult, and those dangers didn’t work out that horrible after
all, hi.
On my
second activation on W0M/ES-001, Webster
County High Point, I got two well-known visitors: Gary, W0MNA and Martha, W0ERI from Leavenworth,KS !
Gary sent
me plenty of mails with answers to all my questions, and all sorts of
interesting tips on activating in that region. So now I finally got the
pleasure to meet them live !
I had done
my activation in the morning, and had my picknick on the summit while they
where approaching.
This gave
the opportunity to do a “double duty” on
the summit … Gary and Martha called me on 2m from outside the activation zone,
and I did the same when I drove off, leaving them to do their activation on the
summit.
We didn’t
talk too long, since we were to meet again at OzarkCon the next day.
Meeting
another SOTA activator is also an opportunity to “spy” a little … how do they
do it ?
As it turns
out, they do it very well !
Being with
two people means you can carry some more or some heavier “stuff”.
Gary’s
backpack is usually around 10 kg, Martha’s around 5 kg.
What’s in the
packs ? … 1 transceiver , a Yaesu FT857D, 2 LiFePo A123 battery packs, each one is around 1,1 kg, an OCF-dipole (most often called a windom antenne
in Europe), and of course several accessories. That antenna is a Buckmaster 4 band OCF (see http://hamcall.net/7bandocf.html) , weight another 2 kg. And then of
course the usual food & drink, adding even more weight.
I watched
Gary throw a rope over a tree branch to pull up the OCF antenna. He’s using a
small plastic bottle, halfway filled with gravel and he seemed very good at
throwing … I would need some more practice to do that ;-)
The balun
in the middle (well, not actually in “the middle”, rather at one third … it’s
an Off Center Fed antenna you know ;-) is quite heavy, so they lift it up with
their two walking poles, which are actually fishing lure retrieval poles sold
by Cabela's Outfitters. They extend to almost 5m, and the two poles form a
letter ‘A’ for stability.
And how do
you operate one transceiver with two operators ?
Simple ! Each
has their own HEIL Traveler-headset,
and each has a PTT button, but the microphone signals are coupled in a small
box (on the right in the picture), which then feeds the transceiver. They take
turns in working each chaser, and so both have a valid activation in the end.
Now the most clever trick most
chasers don’t know about … Gary lets Martha note all QSO’s in the log, isn’t
that handy ! (it’s the same log for both after all …)
Think about
it when you work them next time … hi.
I have made a video with the best pictures from a slideshow about this trip, and it includes a short piece of video where you can see Gary and Martha in action : https://youtu.be/3VgdQnceZGw
I’ll skip a
few summits now before this page gets too long. Most summits were quite boring
after all, it was quite warm, a steep climb, and I saw more trees and bugs !
One
exception : in my opinion, the most beautiful summit on this trip was Kennedy Mountain in Arkansas,
W5A/BR-006.
[ added note in 2016: this summit is now closed to the public, very sad ...]
In the next
picture a nice view from the very top of the summit.
I did set up my station
near that tree on the left, just below the top of the summit. The next
picture shows me “in action”. I liked this one so much, I used it for my
qrz.com page (for KF0CR).
 |
View from Kennedy Mountain, on a rather cold Sunday morning …
|
 |
Luc, KF0CR activating Kennedy Mountain, W5A/BR-006
|
Just a
couple of days earlier , this summit had been visited by a whole group of hams,
including well known (or should I say legendary) Steve,
WG0AT. He made a nice video of their group activation (including some images from
OzarkCon). See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXNcC5CkcRs .
Really excellent video !
The easiest
summit on my trip must have been W5A/BR-012, Whitney
Mountain, also in Arkansas. It’s an
easy drive-up summit. You can park next to the lodge, carry all your stuff to a
large grass field next to the parking space, and enjoy SOTA !
I
discovered that the lodge provides open WiFi access, so I could quickly consult
the sotawatch website and found 4 other activators and their frequency, but all
four were in CW. This was the only time I got out my mini paddle and worked all
four S2S !
Not all summits were that easy …
Two days
before going back to Belgium, I said goodbye to the family and moved to a motel in Ironton, MO for two nights, to do my last
four activations.
Right across the motel, is Shepherd Mountain , W0M/SF-011, so that looked easy !
Now, when
taking the path to the summit, it suddenly gives you a choice …
 |
| What to do … steep or not (less) steep, that’s the question ! |
Can you
guess which path I took ?
Of course,
the steep one ! I had to prove that I was "the man", hi … but I should have known better …
Steep was
no lie … but with a couple of stops I managed to get to the summit after all and had a good activation.
Coming back down, I wisely took the “less steep” path … one more lesson learned
!
And of course .. I
could not leave Missouri and NOT have been on the highest point in the state … Taum Sauk Mountain.
This is
also a very easy summit. Since they get many non-ham visitors, there is a large
parking lot, and it’s only a short walk to the actual summit.
Next to the trig point marker is a “rock” of
unknown height, but of course I had to have a picture of myself on this “higher
than the highest point”, hi.
And with
that achievement my SOTA tour 2015 in the USA was over .. I took the plane for Belgium in
St. Louis … bye Missouri ... back to Ostend, Belgium.
I hope to be back soon … for more SOTA fun !
73 de Luc,
ON7DQ / KF0CR
