Appalachian Trail’s 100th Anniversary: Celebrating Ham Style with AT-On-The-Air

There would be no way for you to know that my lifelong dream is to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail. So when Mike WB2FUV put out the call to celebrate Benton MacKaye’s 1921 inspirational publication “An Appalachian Trail: A project in regional planning” by lighting up the AT, Marc AA1F, Nellie the Dog, and I were ready to respond. We joined four dozen other Summits- and Parks-On-The-Air operators to make some RF noise for AT-On-The-Air. You can read Mike’s “Summary Post-Event Report” here.

Our target SOTA peak was 1-pointer, Mt. Everett in oddly the town of Mt. Washington, Massachusetts. Nope, you read that exactly right.

You can drive most of the way up the 2602′ mountain, with a short hike to the top. The Appalachian Trail crosses directly over the top of Mt. Everett (which you can see me standing next to the summit sign-post below).

The shrubby viewless peak made for a difficult radio set-up. AA1F stayed near the summit sign and set up on a convenient chunk of bedrock. You can see his 20M bandpass filter next to the tuner below.

I walked down the AT a bit and set up in another small clearing. The shrub behind me was about as big as they got. I pretty much laid my 40M OCF on top of the bushes, which made for a very challenging and sluggish activation. Luckily, Nellie was there to lick away my tears and cheer me up.

In total, AA1F and I did secure a total of 35 qsos on 20M and 40M. It was great to be a part of this special event…the very remarkable Appalachian Trail deserves to be celebrated!

Always Yours,
KM1NDY