2. Ham Radio

Virginia Peak, NV (W7/WC-010) SOTA Activation - 12/28/2011

Dec 28, 2011 activation of Virginia Peak for ham radio's Summits On The Air activity.
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The view to the west. The Sierra (where I live) makes up the skyline.
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The view to the west. The Sierra (where I live) makes up the skyline.

ViewToWest

  • On the way up to the top. The temp was about 35 degrees with winds of 38-40 mph, gusting to 45+ mph. I'm wearing many layers of clothes, a balaclava under my NCCC hat, plus ski gloves (had to take off the gloves to snap this shot) The black thing sticking up out of my pack is my trusty Buddipole telescoping mast that I'll use to support the antenna.
  • Upon getting to the top and having a look around, I figured that the little equipment building would provide the best wind break. The camera is looking almost straight into the wind (coming from the west). There was a convenient concrete slab to set my mast on (diesel fuel storage tank for the site's emergency generator), and I've routed my RG-58 coax from the antenna into the wind to the chain link fence. This allowed it to act as my primary guy, keeping the antenna from blowing over toward the camera.
  • I needed to secure the coax to the fence for it to be an effective guy. Someone had left this little plastic bottle on the ground so I turned it into a makeshift tensioning device.
  • This is the anchor for one of the inverted-V antenna's two wires. A pile of rocks, a bungee, and a loop in the orange string that runs to the end of the wire.
  • I secured the antenna's other wire to the chain link fence using another bungee cord and a teeny-tiny carabiner that I happened to have on my pack. The hook on the bungee cable was too big to fit through the ring terminal at the end of the wire, hence the need for the carabiner.
  • My operating position setup on the nice clean concrete that is the step for the building I'm using as a wind break. I'm ready to kick back in my Crazy Creek chair out of the wind (or most of it), find a clear frequency and call CQ. I forgot my wrist-mounted GPS so the iPhone is on clock duty. I didn't need the antenna tuner to operate CW but I brought it to let me operate phone as well.<br /> <br /> Why the pistol you ask? My radio was acting up last time out, so this time I brought along Mr. Glock to keep it in line. ;-)
  • OK, guess which "tower" is mine? You get two guesses and the first one doesn't count.
  • The camera is looking almost straight into the wind. I'm kicked back in my Crazy Creek chair, operating CW, with the building serving as a very effective wind block. I didn't need gloves and I'm almost toasty with the sun on that side of the summit. Good thing I didn't need gloves because I have no idea how I would have worked my little Bull Dog mini keyer paddles while wearing them.
  • NOAA has an automated weather station on the peak. Here is the data with my mouse pointing to the times when I was on the air (roughly 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM Pacific time). Winds were 38-40 mph with gusts to 45.
  • VE2JCW answered my very first CQ, then spotted me on SOTAWatch.org. This alerts the other summit chasers that a summit is on the air, and makes it a lot easier on us as well. We don't have to call CQ repeatedly to make contacts: everyone stops by, lines up and we knock em out one after another. :-)<br /> <br /> Thanks VE2JCW!
  • Aw crud, had I known there was going to be AC available I could have left the heavy battery at home! <br /> <br /> Actually... SOTA rules prohibit the use of permanent power sources like that one so I would have been stuck slogging the battery regardless.
  • It started to get cloudy. The round thing on the tower in the background is a radome (I think). Notice how I have the coax tensioned to slightly bend the mast back into the wind.
  • Looking toward the east. There is nothing at all blocking my signal to that direction, and there is steeply downsloping terrain just past the edge of the flat that I'm setup on. That kind of terrain makes my low inverted-V antenna work a lot better than it would at the same height over flat ground.
  • Looking northeast. The actual peak is up in that rocky area a bit further back from the edge of the photo, maybe 50-ish feet higher than me. I wasn't about to perch myself on the exposed rocks and slope with the winds cranking like they were. Fortunately the SOTA rules allow you an "activation zone" that extends for 80 vertical feet below the summit for exactly that reason.
  • The view to the west-northwest. I unloaded my ATV w-a-y out there past the cultivated fields and rode most of the way up to the summit, doing only the last few hundred vertical feet on foot.
  • The view to the southeast.
  • The view to the south-southeast with the large radome perched up on its tower.
  • The view to the west. The Sierra (where I live) makes up the skyline.
  • The final log (page 1). All QSOs were made on 20m CW while running 20W.
  • The final log (page 2). All QSOs were made on 20m CW while running 20W. After these QSOs, I called CQ on 20m phone for about 10 minutes using 40W but received no responses. The same thing happened to me on Peavine. Oh well, CW is more fun anyway.<br /> <br /> Thanks to everyone for the QSO's!
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