Introducing Georgia The One-Eyed Pirate Puppy, And The Worst SOTA Ever (North Uncanoonuc)
After a pretty tough spring, the radio adventures are ready to gear up, and we have a new family member! Meet Georgia! Poor Georgia, a rescue from Buddy Dog Humane Society in Sudbury MA is some sort of shepherd-ish mutt. When she was a baby, her eye was bit out by another dog. Now, at nearly 5 months old, she has spent the last week living with us. I’ve come to think of her as Georgia, The One-Eyed Pirate Puppy.
And of course, it goes without saying that Georgia’s fate is to be a hiking radio dog. We decided to take a stroll up North Uncanoonuc for a Summits-On-The-Air adventure. It was our first time up this peak, and as you might imagine, we had no idea how to pronounce it. Cue HowToPronounce.com. And at grave risk of committing a horrible copyright infringement, I have recorded one of the pronunciations and posted it hear so that I can have it around for perpetuity. It is now MANDATORY that Uncanoonuc is pronounced this way by law. Oh gosh, I can’t stop giggling… C’mon, say it with me now!
We followed Ryuji AB1WX’s instructions on the SOTA website for parking and trail info. Chose to go up (and down) the steepest and shortest red trail. Overall, a very easy walk. Georgia was doing great for a little pup! We took lots of breaks and splashed her with water to keep her cool. The early May day had reached the late 70s, and the sun was beating down. I was looking forward to settling in and practicing some morse code.
We reached the peak. I kept track of Georgia, while AA1F set up his rig off in the distance. I figured it would be nearly impossible to get my radio station on the air while trying to manage a rambunctious puppy. But, she wasn’t too bad and I had my Yaesu FT-818nd up and running in short order. A 49:1 end fed half-wave antenna for 20M was strung between the trees. I could hear AA1F’s contacts booming out. Me on the other hand…
Remember how I had built the cw filter for the 818? Well, when I had the “Narrow” filter on the radio turned off, predictably I could hear a boatload of beeps in the cw portion of the 20M band. But when I put my 500Hz filter on, I could hear nothing accept some severely attenuated morse code. Something was amiss.
In the mean time, AA1F had finished his activation and shown the One-Eyed Pirate Puppy the memorial bench on the summit. She sure bears a striking resemblance to Nelly, doesn’t she? Gosh I miss that dog.
Unfortunately I had to give up on the 818. No way could I activate with an SSB filter, and a hundred different signals going at once. I resignedly brought my key and notebook over to AA1F’s trusty Yaesu FT-891 and got myself on the air. You’ll notice below that I look extremely unhappy. Or at least I know I am absolutely miserable. Even in this photograph, you can see I am covered with the hungriest black flies that ever lived. Millions of tiny, chomping insects swarmed me. The entire summit was covered in these vicious little beings. I do not think I had any blood left in me by the time I finished my 5 minute activation. I couldn’t bear to go on any longer! I kept messing up my cw sending…not because I actually am that bad at it (okay, I am that bad…) But because I felt like my entire body was on fire.
At one point AA1F asked me if his lips were swelling up, he had been bit so bad. I took one look at his now triple-sized smoochers and wondered if I would need to use my pencil for an emergency tracheostomy.
I righteously declare this to be the worst SOTA experience I have ever had.
But I made the activation… So, all I can say now is…
UN. CAH. NEWWWWWW. NEWWKK!!!!
Swatting killer bugs that had hitched a ride in the van with us, we left the parking lot and made our way back through the small mountain roads. Along the way, we noticed a self-serve maple syrup kiosk. So we stopped and bought a bottle of spring’s sweet liquid sunshine.
This little mountain had a lot of potential to be a boatload of fun. The spring bugs were horrendous, and I am left with rather unpleasant memories of the Pirate Puppy’s first hike. Not to mention a thousand welts on my hands and face.
But Uncanoonuc, I will never ever forget you, And I am sure we will be back…in winter.
73s,
KM1NDY