Many due to John Hartzell (W3HN) and Zach Hartzell (NI4K) who share the next visitor publish:
by John (W3HN) and Zach (NI4K)
Someday in early 2024, my son Zach contacted me and stated, “Dad, the Georgia SOTA and POTA people are having a campout in October. Why don’t you go to us in Atlanta and we will go tenting, meet some fellow hams, and activate a SOTA peak or two?” It made sense, as Zach had change into probably the most lively ham within the household, had taught himself CW, liked an excuse to go tenting, was a pure organizer, and had been the impetus for my handful of POTA activations. And it was all simpler now that I had retired in December 2023.
The “campout” was the W4SOTA campout, deliberate for Wednesday, October 2 by means of Sunday, October 6, 2024, on the Lake Rabun Seaside Campground on the Chattahoochee-Oconee Nationwide Forest. Zach obtained his tenting automobile, Thor the Taco truck, prepared for the jaunt. A Taco truck (for the handful of parents on the market that don’t know this), is a Toyota Tacoma pick-up.
“Thor” is the title the truck acquired due to its imposing demeanor.
It has four-wheel drive, a three-inch elevate, the metric equal of 33” tires, a Go Quick Camper pop-up camper over the mattress, an electrical winch, a foolish variety of further lights up entrance, and is provided for a few of Zach’s hobbies. Air compressor for mountain biking? Examine. Again-up battery with separate charging system for ham radio and a 12-volt fridge? Examine. A pullout kitchen with a sink and two-burner range? Examine.
Each 2-meter FM and GMRS radios within the cab for speaking together with your mountain biking and tenting buddies on these weekends on western Bureau of Land Administration (BLM) lands? Examine.
It even has 12-volt DC accessible through Anderson energy connectors within the cab, since you by no means know once you is likely to be driving cross nation and are available to a lonely park in critical want of a POTA activation.
Zach emailed me spreadsheets with gear lists and choices. I ignored them, scribbled unintelligible notes on my yellow pads, and ended up bringing all the things which may arguably be used for SOTA, POTA, Winter and Summer season Area Days, or to run a Seventies period authorities emergency communications middle. Honestly, that’s an exaggeration – I didn’t pack the nice and cozy garments required for a Winter Area Day.
Zach paid for a campsite, and our journey south from Pennsylvania was deliberate, when all the things got here to a screeching halt on September 30, 2024. Hurricane Helene had severely broken areas of Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia. Zach quickly realized the unique campout was cancelled when he obtained an digital refund for the campsite. A number of the authentic attendees had been unable to make it, together with Thomas (K4SWL) who was reporting frequently on the devastation and challenges to his household and neighbors from his QTH exterior of Swannanoa, North Carolina, simply east of Asheville.
We couldn’t verify if there was a substitute campout. Regardless of this, we determined to push on with a modified weekend. My spouse and I drove south to Atlanta, Zach organized his gear, he helped me “kind” (i.e., drastically reduce) my gear from a number of plastic tubs, and we had use of a cabin close to Ellijay, Georgia, inside a brief drive to the summit and parks Zach had mapped out. We determined we may pull this off, and on Friday, October 4, Zach and I loaded Thor and had been quickly booming north from Atlanta on US-575.
Ellijay, Georgia is a pleasant city. After a beautiful rooftop dinner, a superb evening’s sleep in a cabin within the woods, and an awesome breakfast at an area restaurant, Zach had Thor headed to our vacation spot, Grassy Mountain, summit W4G/HC-007. Along with having two hams activating this SOTA summit, Zach had decided that Grassy Mountain was positioned inside two POTA parks, Chattahoochee-Oconee Nationwide Forest (US-4473), and Cohutta Wildlife Administration Space (US-7446). So, if we had been organized, we may present a double-triple – two operators and three places (a SOTA summit and two POTA parks).
In about 45 minutes Thor led us to a parking spot deep within the forest close to the locked gate to the Grassy Mountain entry path. We donned our GORUCK rucksacks full of radios, antennas, coax, water, sundry equipment, and a snack or two (we left the metal plates at dwelling). The route as much as the highest of the summit was a mile and a half hike on rutted double-track, with a switchback a little bit over half method to the summit.
As soon as atop the summit Zach and I assessed the location. It consisted of about one acre of cleared land, with what seemed like a former fireplace watch tower within the nook of the cleared space. Zach and I broke out our KX2 Elecraft transceivers. Zach hooked his to a Tufteln 40-10 EFRW, mounted to a SOTA Beams carbon fiber telescopic mast. I deployed a EndFedz EFT-MTR 20/30/40 antenna in a sloper configuration, and tuned it up utilizing the interior Elecraft tuner. These had been the bands I supposed to make use of. I additionally had my Mountain Topper MTR-3B QRP transceiver, which could get some use, too. We additionally used some untested QRP bandpass filters discovered on eBay. They appeared to work, however will bear extra scientific testing to substantiate their performance.
Zach was racking up contacts on CW, however I used to be having issue on SSB. I had been making an attempt to function the antenna on 20 and 40 meters when it was configured for 30 meters – which we solely realized after we took a gander on the antenna guide again on the cabin after we regained cell service. The SMA connector is eliminated to allow 30-meter operation, not put in. Bing! It’s a testomony to Elecraft that their antenna tuner is strong sufficient to deal with that mismatch. Additionally it is a wonderful instance of why you must learn the gear manuals for gear you don’t function fairly often earlier than your subject effort!
Zach had prompt we use 2 meter FM for the SOTA activation, along with HF, so we climbed the tower so far as we may and referred to as on the 2-meter simplex calling frequency, 146.520 MHz. We every obtained two or three contacts on this frequency, as there have been sufficient people activating summits from the unique plan for the W4SOTA weekend. Apparently, they included N5FY, the proprietor of Tufteln, the producer of Zach’s HF Antenna.
Zach was ready to make use of FT8 for a QSO utilizing an Android Utility referred to as FT8 Radio on his cellphone, which was linked to his KX2 by means of a Digirig Cell. My CW was nonetheless rusty regardless of some latest apply, so I stayed on HF SSB. We loved the superb climate, some good radio circumstances, and had happy the necessities for all three activations after 90 minutes or so. We quickly packed up, hiked down, and had been quickly buckled into Thor and navigating the filth roads of the nationwide forest.
Classes Realized:
- Normal Dwight D. Eisenhower, in discussing World Struggle II, is alleged to have stated “plans are nugatory, however planning is all the things.” Ike was a sensible man. A bit extra planning (at the very least on my half) would have made issues extra environment friendly.
- It was a pleasant day for not simply hams, and we had some guests to the summit. Zach placed on his public relations hat and adroitly educated these people whereas I continued to attempt to contact people on SSB with a 30-meter antenna tuned to twenty meters. We should always have foreseen this and been higher ready (word: see merchandise
- Zach thought a superb strategy could be to contact people on the 2-meter simplex calling frequency (146.520 MHz), after which to QSY to the 2-meter journey frequency (which is 146.580 MHz). We didn’t do that, as we shortly had many QSOs on the calling frequency. It was a good suggestion, as it might maintain the calling frequency from being over used for routine communications. Nonetheless, I feel there are two doable bugs on this ointment: (a) I’m not certain hams know of the journey frequency in order that they’ve it of their 2-meter reminiscence financial institution; and (b) if not of their reminiscence financial institution, may hams shortly QSY to the frequency? It isn’t intuitive to vary frequency for me on my HT, and I carry a laminated cheat sheet to assist me with frequency adjustments (word: Zach will attest that radios extra difficult than an HealthKit HW-16 trigger me challenges, together with many with dropdown menus, so this may very well be a private hardship and never one shared with different hams).
- Logging is necessary, proof of the adage: “should you didn’t write it down, it didn’t occur.” I used to be a bit flustered after we obtained began, and my log quickly seemed like a Bletchley Park cipher sheet. A number of extra minutes at first would have saved plenty of time on the finish when piecing collectively the logs for add to our associates at SOTA and POTA.
- We had been with out cell protection on the summit. We prospectively scheduled the activation with SOTA and POTA websites the evening earlier than, however we had been off by just a few hours after we began working. Wouldn’t it have been higher to not spot ourselves, after which simply begin working? I’m not certain. In all probability the very best resolution would have been to offer sufficient lead time in our plan to make sure the occasions included in our spots aligned with the precise working occasions, even when it meant we needed to wait on web site earlier than beginning our activation.
- This was the primary time we used among the gear, predominantly the 20/30/40 antenna. We advocate a apply meeting of all of the gear with SWR meters, manuals (cell service to entry lacking manuals), culminating in QSOs utilizing the gear and modes desired for the activation (word: see once more our pal, merchandise 1). This occurred the day after the activation for the HF kits by means of “bother capturing,” however we had been in a position to program our 2 meter radios previous to departure which saved a while and frustration on the summit.
- We had enjoyable. Pushing your self in a brand new route could cause a contact of tension, however it additionally develops new concepts on the way to deal with issues sooner or later and offers a way of satisfaction when you’ve achieved it. I’m glad Zach had this concept. Maybe we’ll strive it once more subsequent 12 months with all of the regional SOTA and POTA people!
