Music and Mountains

This past Monday was Memorial Day in the US. A day to remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice in defense of Freedom and our Country. I am grateful for the dedication and patriotism of these Americans.

Memorial Day Weekend is therefore a Holiday weekend that finds many of us enjoying a three day weekend. The weekend was busy and memorable one for me. The weekend began with a 300 mile drive to play a show with my band, The No Refund Band, at a venue in Crystal Beach, TX. Crystal Beach is on the Bolivar Peninsula, east of Galveston Island on the Texas Coast. We had a great show there. (You can check out my band at norefundband.com )

The next morning (Sunday), my XYL Cris and I got in the Jeep and headed to the Ouachita Mountains in Oklahoma. This would be a 430 mile drive with the purpose of getting as many SOTA points as possible. The drive from Houston was very nice. North of Houston you take Hwy. 19 which goes through the piney woods of east Texas. Of course Texas is a big state and on this highway alone I went through Palestine, Athens, Canton and Paris. The road is nice and the speed limit is 70 - 75 mph and the traffic was light. As long drives go, this one wasn't bad.

The Ouachita Mountains cover southeastern Oklahoma and west central Arkansas. Along with the Ozark Mountains, the Ouachita Mountains form the U.S Interior Highlands, one of the major mountainous regions between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains. It is a beautiful area that is very green and lush with mountains and valleys that induce tranquility.

From a SOTA perspective I had done my research to find the most efficient route to accumulate the most points in relatively short amount of time. I had to be backon Tuesday for work, so I would have 24 hours get as many points as possible.

Sycamore Lookout W5O/OU-005 (8 pts)*

We arrived 20:15 UTC. The summit has easy access from the highway and I was QRV by 20:35. I set up next to the commercial antenna's with no RF issues. The bands were not in good shape and the WPX contest was in full swing. I made 10 QSO's in 25 minutes on 17 and 40 meters and decided to move on to the next one.

Peak 2210 W5O/OU-006 (8pts)*

This summit is just up the road a few miles and the highway is in the activation zone. I did ascend about 50 feet vertically to the summit. I set up just below the summit ridge. Unfortunately, the cell service was spotty and I wasn't able to spot myself. For some reason I wasn't picked up by the RBN network either. Consequently I called CQ for 10 minutes on 17m with no responses. I finally had cell service long enough to get a call off to Fred, KT5X, to ask him to spot me. It still took me 10 minutes after the spot to get my 4 QSO's. Conditions were not good.

Winding Stair Mountain W5O/OU-002 (10 pts)*

Winding Stair Mountain is a nice hike. The trail head is across the road from the Campground and the hike is about 3 miles roundtrip. We encountered a troop of Boy Scouts training for their upcoming 68 mile trek at the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. Conditions were only marginally better, I made 11 QSO's in 25 minutes.

After this summit we made out way to the Green Country Inn in Heavener, Oklahoma where we had a room. The hotel is a great place to stay if you find yourself in the area. The next morning began early to make sure we got to the summits we planned.

Lynn Mountain W5O/OU-001 (10 pts)*

Getting to this summit is best done with a 4WD vehicle. While a 2WD would make it most days, a 4WD is preferred. The road does enter the activation zone, but I took an ATV trail for the short walk to the summit. This summit is very green and overgrown so I operated from the trail. The weather was overcast and as I left the Jeep it started to rain. We were prepared with rain gear and umbrellas to provide a mini-shack on the summit. There was a light rain during the entire activation. Conditions were a little better and, since the WPX contest was over, 20m was available again. I was on the air at 1335 UTC, so I think I was a little early for propagation and some late rising operators. I made 12 QSO's on 20m and 40m.

Pigeon Benchmark W5O/OU-013 (10 pts)*

This summit is off the same road as Lynn Mountain. The hike to the activation zone is a 2 mile round trip. The trail to the summit is an overgrown ATV trail. The walking is easy with about a 220 foot elevation gain over the mile to the top. The grass on the trail is knee high and it was wet from the rain, so it was a very wet hike. Conditions were much better as I was QRV at 1510 and made 20 QSO's on 20 and 40 meters.

Rough Mountain W5O/OU-014 (8 pts) *

The road to this trail head requires a 4WD. The road crosses the Ouachita trail a about a mile in from Hwy. 259. This is nice 2.5 mile round trip hike with about 500 ft. elevation gain over the 1.25 miles to the summit. The trail is nice. I made 22 QSO's from here.

*Additional details on how to get to these summits can be found on the SotaWatch page for each summit

So there you have it, 54 SOTA points in 24 hours. We had a 500 mile drive home that we made in about 8 hours. So in total we traveled 1,200 plus miles to enjoy music and mountains to make memorable Memorial Day weekend.

A short highlight video can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZhGh-XATJ0

Call CQ

In todays digital, interconnected, instant access world we have become very dependent on gadgets, websites and notifications. In ham radio, if you chase DX at all, the cluster is probably your primary tool to see who is on from where. I know that I have become accustomed to checking the cluster and if there is nothing interesting I will go do something else with the idea that the bands are dead. There there are times when I check the low end of 20 meters to see what good DX might be available and more often than not, the band is quiet. In the old days, the lower end of 20m was a treasure trove of  DX. I wonder to myself if ham radio is waning in popularity. However ,when a rare country appears, its chaos with unending pile-ups. I am forced to conclude that we are all watching the cluster.

The other night I actually called CQ on 20 meters. In short order I had a nice pile-up of  Europeans, then someone spotted me and the pile-up increased significantly. Everyone must be watching the cluster, thats why the bands are quiet. I think we should all make it a practice to call CQ with some regularity. Tune the bands to see how much DX you can pick up without the cluster. How long will it take you to work DXCC without the cluster, or how many countries can you work in month by calling CQ. If we all do a little of this, the lower end of 20m would came alive again.

Texas SOTA Trip - The Law of Averages

The "Law of Averages" is a layman's term used to express a belief that outcomes of a random event will "even out" over time. While statistical experts may argue the validity of this thinking in the short term, what do they know anyway. So, you may ask, what does the law of averages have to do with SOTA?

As I have written here recently, the SOTA program recently added 40+ one point summits in South Texas. These summits are within a reasonable drive for me, so I was enthusiastic to activate them and after all, they are all one pointers, they should be easy enough. Just as a reminder for those who haven't caught the SOTA virus yet, point values range from 1 - 10. Oddly enough, 1 is the only odd number used in the valuation scale. Summits can be worth 1,2,4,6,8 or 10 points. Don't ask, I have no idea.

 I've already activated Peak 2002, which was the first South Texas group summit activation. I ended up walking 8 miles for that point. Not to worry though, they can't all be that long. So in the spirit of adventure (and not point accumulation), I planned to activate two of these summits during the International SOTA day and the QRP to the field (QRPTTF) events. My two targets were Bullhead Mountain, W5T/ST-007, and Pikes Peak, W5T/ST-029. Yes there is a Pikes Peak in Texas. The one in Colorado is worth 10 points, the Texas version is worth, the aforementioned, one point.

 I'd done my research and determined that there was a better than even chance these summits would be accessible. While on private land, these peaks are in sparsely populated areas that likely aren't posted. However you never know until you get there.

Bullhead Mountain, W5T/ST-007, is a limestone peak north of Vance (formerly Bullhead) and the intersection of Farm roads 335 and 2631 in far western Real County (at 29°49' N, 100°00' W). The summit, at an elevation of 2,042 feet above sea level, rises on the southern edge of the Edwards Plateau. Local vegetation includes open stands of live oak, Ashe juniper, and mesquite on the uplands and ridges and live oak and Ashe juniper woods on the hills and escarpments. 

The Trail up Bullhead, One of more open areas

Operating from Bullhead Mountain

The best approach to this summit is from the Farm Road 335 side or the south side of the mountain. The fence is deteriorated and it is not posted. The approach on the Hwy 2631 side is posted. This one pointer is no bargain. You will climb 400 feet in about 1/4 mile. Translated, that is steep and the extra bonus is that there are no trails. The slopes are covered with all manner of hard to get through trees and underbrush combined with loose rock to make for an adventurous descent. This is Bushwhacking with a capital B. We did finally summit and had some nice views.

View from Bullhead Mountain

The bands were a little finicky. Only made QSO's on 20 meters. Nothing on 12m despite the RBN hearing me at PJ2T.

Cris and I. Our Jeep is the black speck on the road

View from Pikes Peak

So after the descent of Bullhead Mountain, we made the short drive to Pikes Peak to discover what awaited us there. Pikes Peak, W5T/ST-029  is a mile north of Camp Wood in extreme southeast Edwards County (at 29°41' N, 100°02' W). It rises to a height of 1,904 feet, 470 feet above the nearby Nueces River. The summit was named for Zebulon Pike, whose exploring party passed near it on its return from the exploration of Colorado in 1807. The area's steep to gentle slopes are surfaced by variable soil that supports scrub brush and sparse grasses.

This summit was every bit as tough a Bullhead. There is a road that goes over the shoulder of the mountain which means you only have to climb 300 feet in about 1/3 of a mile. Again, that's steep and again no trails. I operated from the very top of the summit. A nice breeze cooled us down for the now 85F temperatures.

Operating from the Summit of Pikes Peak, Texas

Propagation had warmed up a little by the time we summited, but not much. I doubled my QSO count on this summit, but still most of the business came from 20m. I was able to work five summit to summit contacts which is always rewarding. Portable QRP to portable QRP, from mountain to mountain. Pretty cool. The high bands, 12m and 10m were not really productive, only one QSO on 12m and none on 10m.
We had contemplated doing Wildcat Peak also. Another one pointer, not too far from Pikes Peak, however, we were tired. These ascents and descents were taxing because of the steepness and the full time bushwhacking through brush and the temperatures were warming up. My thermometer in my jeep read 90F when we got down.  We had a nice Texas lunch in Camp Wood. A lunch buffet with Mexican food and Chicken Fried Steak. It doesn't get much better than that.:-)

Cactus Flowers

Texas Mountain Fauna

So, what about this Law of Averages? Well, in the SOTA world there are some easy summits. Some you can even drive up  to the summit or park near the top and take a nice trail a few yards to the summit. I have felt a little guilty about that in the past, getting so many points for so little effort, but no more. The Law of Averages does apply to SOTA. These one pointers were intense, difficult mountains to do. However, I suppose it all averages out. After doing these mountains, my guilt in doing an easy one has disappeared:-)

Photo credits to my XYL Cris, KC5HZQ
Excerpts above were taken from the Texas State Historical Association.

Nice SOTA Trip to New Mexico

I took a long weekend trip, Thursday - Monday over the Easter holidays, to travel to Santa Fe, NM to accomplish two things. The first, get a break from the day job and secondly to activate as many Summits as possible. It has been a while since I took a serious SOTA trip, way back in February to be exact and I was getting Summit fever. So I caught a plane on Wednesday night so I could hit the ground running, or climbing, on Thursday morning.

As the days passed, I activated 6 summits. Two each on Thursday and Friday and one each on Saturday and Sunday. Three of the peaks are mountains I had done before, Ortiz, Montoso and 7472 while the other three were new ones for me, Tetilla, Palomas and Escobas. Including the winter bonus I was able to collect 58 points to bring my total activator points to 349 or a little more than a third of the way to my goal of 1,000 points. On this trip I used the FT-817, pico paddle, Elecraft T-1 tuner and an LNR 40-20-10 EFHW mounted on my carbon fiber extendable 21' fishing pole. I operated 30 meters through 12 meters on most summits.

Operating on Palomas W5N/SI-010



Considering that I am a third of the way, what have I learned along the way. As I gave that notion some thought it brought to mind the following.

1. My activating process is much more efficient, i.e., pack weight, antenna configuration, set-up time.
2. I am much more confident in my previously rusty orientation skills. I don't need a trail to get to a summit and back.
3. I'm in much better shape than when I started. I've dropped pounds and added endurance.
4. I've explored much more of this country, getting to summits off the beaten path, than I would have ever done otherwise.
5. I've met a fantastic community of activators and chasers who share a common bond of a love a radio and the outdoors.

It is exciting when two of your hobbies converge into one activity and that is what SOTA is to me.

To add a star to this trip, my XYL Cris, KC5HZQ, was able to activate four of the summits on a combination of 2 meter and 10 meter QSO's. She now has 38 points. So she is off an running. I'm glad I got a 300 point headstart on her.

Ham Radio and Fitness

Unfortunately, to many, ham radio and fitness are mutually exclusive. We are all passionate about a hobby whose major milestones can be accomplished setting in a comfortable chair in front of our radios. Our major competitions include 24 - 48 hours of sitting. We've even developed software that eliminates the need to even operate a CW paddle or press the button on a microphone. Needless to say our hobby or at least many facets of it promote physical inactivity. You will never mistake a Hamfest for a Triathalete convention.

There are notable exceptions, within the hobby, that will get you out. Expeditioning, fox hunting (outside), Summits on the Air and I'm sure there are a few others. In fact, and I may be a little biased, I think that the SOTA Goat award is one of the toughest awards in amateur radio. The SOTA Goat is an activator award, you must earn 1,000 activator points with the highest value summit worth 10 points. There are some bonus points available during extreme weather conditions, but suffice it to say you will have to summit at least 100 peaks and operate to earn the award. Normally it takes several years to earn this award and you have to do it on your feet.

However, if you aren't into Summits or other outdoor forms of radio there is device that you can wear on your wrist to motivate you to get up and around. These devices count your steps in a day and depending on the device will nudge you to get up when you have been sitting too long. All of these devices have accompanying apps that will sync with the device to give you statistics on your day including steps and the quality of your sleep. I currently use a device made by Jawbone and although I have a somewhat regular exercise regimen, it reminds and motivates me to keep it up. An extra walk around the block or around the office, if done regularly can make a difference in your overall fitness.

I blogged here several months back about the backpacker mentality of saving ounces in our packs while we were carrying extra pounds on our bodies. Since that blog I have lost ten pounds and signficantly improved my stamina. The higher fitness level we can achieve improves our odds to live long enough to achieve some of our sedentary goals.

The First Activation of a South Texas SOTA Summit - Peak 2002

The SOTA Management Team recently authorized a group of qualifying summits in South Texas. These summits are located generally west of San Antonio in the Texas Hill Country. The elevation of these summits range from ~1700 - 2200 feet ASL. All of these new summits are only 1 point summits, however, they are new and have never been activated which begs for someone to do them for the first time. So today, I was the first to activate a South Texas Summit.

I have only done limited research and actually stopped looking when I found the first accessible summit. The summit, named "2002" for it's elevation because it is otherwise unnamed. The summit is an escarpment, which is defined as, "a long precipitous, cliff-like ridge of land, rock, or the like, commonly formed by faulting or fracturing of the earths crust".  Peak 2002 is just that with a summit ridge that runs for nearly a mile. Accordingly it has a large activation zone. (In SOTA, the operator doesn't necessarily need to transmit from the actual summit, in Texas the activation zone is anywhere within 150 vertical feet of the summit). The majority of the summit ridge is on private land, however the eastern third of the summit lies within the boundries of the Texas Hill Country State Natural Area. So an easy, state park hike, should be easy.

View from the Trail

Looking at the layout of the park, the ranger told me which trail would get me to the summit ridge, trail 4B. I downloaded the map and the trail was in the middle of the park, but I would be able to drive to the trail head right, wrong. The Ranger informed me that because this is a Natural Area I would have to walk. What I thought was, at most, a 2 mile round-trip was now a 6 mile round-trip. Wait a minute this is just a 1 point summit. But I was there, but I knew I didn't have enough water for 6 miles, so I bought a bottle of water at the Park Office, got directions and took off.

South Texas Fauna

So what was a 2 mile round-trip which had now become a 6 mile round-trip, turned out to be nearly 8 miles. I missed a trail due to a poorly marked trail sign and was almost a mile down that trail when I realized my error. So I had to back track and get on the right trail. Finally 1 hour and 40 minutes after leaving the trail-head I reached the summit ridge.

From that point, it was a fairly normal activation. I used my MTR and a 20/40m EFHW and my Pico Paddle. I managed 22 QSO's with the first being AE4FZ and the last being KD5KC, Mike who did the bulk of the work to get the additional Texas Summits approved. Thanks Mike. I was also able to work a little DX with OK1CZ calling in on 20m.

A Selfie from the Trail

So this was another SOTA first and I'm glad I was able to be the first to activate a South Texas Summit. I will have to say though, this was the toughest SOTA point I ever earned. Eight miles of hiking for 1 point, the miles per point is pretty high. If you extrapolated that ratio to a 10 point summit a person would have to walk 80 miles. Well as they say, everything is bigger in Texas.

Thanks to all the chasers and thanks again to Mike KD5KC who was a catalyst in getting these summits approved.

I'm Back

Recent weeks have been extremely busy from both a professional and personal perspective. However, I seem to be getting back to a little more sane schedule that will allow me to blog a little more, which is very therapeutic for me. So some radio things that I am involved in.

I couple of weeks ago I hosted the annual IOTA Bash in Boerne, Texas. If you are into IOTA at all, it was a great gathering. Presentations from EA3NT, K6VVA, K9AJ and AB5EB. It was the 10th annual event and it's always a good time. Monitor www.islandradio.org for updates on next years BASH.

I  bought a K3. I needed to reclaim some real estate on my desk in the shack. I had an FT5000, which is a fantastic rig, but it is big. I will move it to my ranch station to upgrade my equipment there. So, far the K3 has lived up to all I've heard about it. It is a very flexible rig with a great receiver.

The SOTA powers that be have recently established more qualifying summits in Texas, some only 40 minutes from my QTH. While only 1 point summits, it is fun to activate any summit as the chasers are there and pile-ups are what we like. I plan to activate the first South Texas summit this afternoon. Maybe I will write it up after I'm done.

So, it's good to be at the keyboard again, thanks for reading this stuff.