Radio On Mount “Moose-Uh-Lock”

The pronunciation of Moosilauke is debatable. Some say “lock”. Some say “lock-key”. I prefer the former. But no matter what you call it, Mount Moosilauke at 4802 feet tall and the 10th highest peak in New Hampshire is big! And the Carriage Trail, beginning at the end of a washed out road leading to the oddly named “Breezy Point”, is an 11.2 mile walk scaling 3200 feet of vertical gain to reach the summit. And when you are playing Summits-On-The-Air (SOTA), it is all with an extra 18 pounds of radio gear (at least if you like to run ssb at 100 watts like I do!)

This bridge was not really foreshadowing. The trip was hardly miserable. But it was long and arduous at times. AA1F, KB1REQ, and I spread out along the trail, with me last. I was a bit surprised when I rounded a corner to find them both sitting on another bridge…and we were only less than a mile in!

Of course Nellie (our dog) was with us too.

The mixed woods at the base gave way to a montane spruce-fir forest, with a scree trail passing through it like a well-healed scar.

AA1F and Nellie reached the summit first, followed shortly by KB1REQ. They hung out while I finished the last of my ascent…nearly a mile behind them! We kept in close contact using our handitalkies.

The summit was crowded, but the vast giant bald mountain, fit with the remains of long disintegrated camps, made it easy to find a place to set up an HF radio. (You are looking south down the Appalachian Trail by the way…)

In order to elevate the free end of the 20M halfwave endfed, I attached a bamboo fishing pole to a signpost. (Don’t fret, we stayed off of the alpine meadow!) The unun was secured to the ground with a tent stake.

Some sort of old foundation was used as our radio shack.

You can see the radio set-up (and AA1F) a bit better here…

And here you can see KB1REQ, AA1F, Nellie, and me all hanging around the new temporary QTH.

After I made eight contacts, thus securing my ten SOTA points, I took a moment to look around…

KB1REQ stayed off of HF, but managed to have a 2M qso. He also listened in on someone making 2M contacts with California by taking advantage of a radio phenomenon known as tropospheric ducting.

AA1F, an herb farmer, found this yarrow plant particularly intriguing…

We joined the crowd mingling around the summit sign and took some last minute pictures before our descent. Freed from the restraints of normal civilization, everyone is always so nice after walking nearly a mile into the sky. We may as well have landed on the moon.

There is a reason I climb mountains. You’ll just have to find out what that is for yourself.

Yours as always,

KM1NDY