Signal Peak (W6/NS-179) SOTA Activation 8/4/2012
Read MoreI had planned to operate from the historic stone lookout building on the spur ridge southwest of the summit. However, based on what I could see on topo maps I couldn't be certain that it was within the 80 vertical feet activation zone allowed by SOTA. The summit itself is covered by communication towers, equipment huts, generators, fences, etc. so operating from the actual summit would have been difficult. I decided to instead operate from under this small pine that is about 30 vertical feet below and east of the summit. The pine gave me shade and an easy way to secure my 18' Buddipole mast without having to guy it. Most of my contacts come from the east, so the steep downslope greatly helps the 20/40m link dipole antenna's performance in that direction. The dipole was strung N-S so the maximum lobes were to the E-W.
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