Are We Overthinking Our Antennas? The Killington-Pico Traverse And The Near-Tragic Tale Of The Forgotten End-Fed

By now it should be pretty obvious that Summits-On-The-Air, and attaining its elusive Mountain Goat award, is hard for New England activators. Summertime hikes up any given mountain with four successful summit QSOs, are only worth a maximum of 10 points a piece. And these 10 points are only reserved for the northeast’s most challenging peaks. I am currently in 14th place in the W1 region. So, figuring out a way to gain 20 points in a single day is a big deal.

AA1F and I were eyeballing Pico and Killington Peaks, both ten-pointers as a one-way traverse. Thinking it through, we decided to make the 2 1/2 hour trip up in a single vehicle. I would drop AA1F and Georgie (our dog) off at the Pico trailhead, along the Sherburne Pass across from the Inn at Long Trail on Route 4. I would then drive over to the Killington Ski Resort where I would park the van, and take the gondola to the top of the Killington. AA1F and I would activate are respective peaks, and then hike toward one another across the ridgeline section of the Long Trail (a.k.a. Appalachian Trail) that would pass by the Ramshead and Snowdon summits. We would meet somewhere along the ridgeline (see the pink dot?), where I would now take Georgie back to Pico Peak with me. AA1F would head toward Killington and its gondola back to the van, and I would hike down Pico after activating. We would use VHF radios to stay in touch (as well as get some SOTA contacts).

The night before, and in preparation for this mini-epic event, I decided that I wanted 100 watts. I had been using small experimental QRP radios for my last several SOTA CW activations. For this trip, where I would be mostly solo, I wanted to assure my success and packed up my beloved Yaesu FT-891. I went old school antenna-wise as well, grabbing the Radiowavz 20M EFHW.

This particular antenna is an absolute favorite of both AA1F’s and mine. AA1F generally hogs it, as well as 20M during our normal simultaneous operations. But since we would be on different peaks, we each would bring one this time. The only problem was that the radiator on my antenna had long since broken off due to the antenna’s only design flaw…a lack of strain relief. I needed to add another ring connector and build my now “old-hat” style of antenna strain relief out of a bowline knot, cable tie, and a couple lengths of heat shrink tubing. I built it all up, and my antenna was ready for the following day’s adventure!

In essence, everything started off according to plan. Marc was dropped off at the Pico trailhead, and him and Georgie summitted Pico three miles later by the time I was getting up Killington.

Now, here is the part where tragedy strikes… Or near-tragedy. Just remember, we have been playing SOTA for 5 years. I still need over 400 points to get the thousand I need for my Mountain Goat award. This would be a 5 hour drive round trip, a 7 mile solo hike, a gondola ride, and 20 SOTA points. I even had to wake up in the middle of the night (5 AM) to be sure that AA1F could make the gondola before it stopped running for the day. And so as I am setting up my station, rejoicing prematurely on how well everything was going, I realized that I forgot my antenna.

Yup. You read that right. My 15+ pounds of radio gear was one EFHW antenna lighter than I anticipated. I nearly cried. I could hear AA1F calling CQ SOTA on 146.52. I couldn’t even call it quits and head back to the van…AA1F would not be able to get on the gondola with our dog.

Collecting myself, I thought, what can I use for an antenna? Can I make entirely 2M contacts, since I only need four? I had no extra wire. Just coax. Uhmm…just coax. Didn’t I just write a blog on how I used the center conductor of coax attached to my LDG Z100 Plus autotuner and was able to both tune up and receive really well with it?! This blog here.

Absolutely desperate, I tied one end of the coax (two 25′ lengths connected together with a barrel connector) with paracord and hoisted it over a tree branch.

I used a piece of electrical tape to insulate the shield from the center conductor. I essentially rested the center conductor in the center hole of the SO239 antenna port of the tuner. I dropped the wattage on the transceiver to 40, and pressed the tune button. The. Damn. Coax. Tuned. Up. I spotted myself, called CQ, and within minutes had 7 or 8 contacts on 20M. I was even told I had the best SOTA signal that he’d heard all day.

My despair quickly lightened into giddiness. I had a summit-to-summit contact with AA1F on 2M.

And off I went, confident now that I could repeat this over on Pico.

I found the Killington spur trail, and took the extremely steep 0.2 mile descent to the Appalachian Trail camp in its saddle.

The camp was marked by this awfully sinister sign. It seemed I could easily turn around and climb back up Killington at any point, so I wasn’t sure why the false threat.

I met AA1F and gathered up Georgie just as we planned. AA1F arrived at the summit of Killington again at nearly the same time as I did on Pico. I managed to get 3 VHF contacts, but unfortunately could not get one more to clinch the activation. I set up the un-antenna in a manner similar to Killington, and quickly got two more contacts. Ten more points in the bag!

AA1F had managed to drive back to the Pico trailhead before Georgie and I even packed up. He would wait about an hour and 45 minutes for us to hike the three miles out. It is hard to walk downhill with a 25 pound back pack and a 60 pound shepherd pulling you down a hill. When we made it back to the van, someone was a little bit sleepy…

Now back to the title question. Are we overthinking antennas? I am hearing more and more stories, especially from KX2 owners with onboard tuners, that they are using a pair of wires, one inserted in the center conductor slot of the coax attachment, and the other to the ground lug, on their KX2. They let the tuner do the work of matching impedances. And then they activate away, apparently with success. Is it possible that this actually is a better system than an EFHW with a transformer? I certainly have some experimenting to do!

Forever here,

KM1NDY