Peaked Mountain – 2021’s First SOTA Point

The first summit of the 2021 is actually an old friend — Peaked Mountain in Monson, Massachusetts. Well-traveled, the short 1 mile summit trail consisted of a few inches of hard-packed snow, making microspikes the choice footwear accessory. Especially given that temperatures creeped above freezing most of the day, assuring a slick refreeze for our twilight descent.

While of course activating a peak for Summits-On-The-Air (SOTA) is a goal unto itself, I always like to use these radio adventures to test myself on different skills. Challenges for this particular afternoon were: 1) hike up two complete radio stations for simultaneous operation along with all necessary winter gear, and 2) operate a band other than 20 or 40 meters. My beloved JanSport knapsack was left behind in favor of an internal frame pack with a waistbelt, in order to climb the nearly 500 foot elevation gain in luxury. Admittedly, (pretend) kissing the summit marker after a 40 minute walk in the woods may peg me as melodramatic, but the weight of a 100-watt radio, 50 feet of coax, a tuner, a 15ah lifepo battery, a dipole antenna, 3 band pass filters, silpoly tarp, a rain suit, abundant paracord, notebook, gatorade, ground pad, and additional fleece jacket add up! (Okay, we both know I just did this to get a laugh…)

WX1MAR set up his station along with a 20M endfed antenna that he twisted up into a pine tree. Whereas I strung a 10M double bazooka between some shrubs.

Unfortunately the only abracadabra I experienced while pursuing the magic band was a radio so quiet that I wondered if it was broken. I called CQ until WX1MAR’s contacts dried up on 20M and his SOTA activation was complete. I then took over his radio.

As the sun began to set and we got well into the radio gray zone, the 20M band started behaving its usual brand of wonky. Fortunately, some of my (and everyone else’s) favorite SOTA chasers came through for me, and I got my exactly one activation point. Only 934 more and I too can be a SOTA Mountain Goat!