How To Vacation Ham Radio Style: A Week’s Worth Of Portable Adventures

I am adventure-oriented. I make adventures out of everything. Even my walk to work is an adventure (trust me!) So whenever I get free time, it will be a de facto adventure.

What constitutes an adventure? First off, I need to establish a goal. You see, I need to have a reason for going on the adventure in the first place. Oh, you might think, that’s counterproductive, an adventure occurs when you do not have any set goals and you are just wandering aimlessly. Much like the last Caribbean vacation where you decided to just let whatever happen happen…and what happened was you sat in a lounge chair by the pool without moving for a week. Setting a goal in essence forces you to have an adventure in order to achieve your goal. And the adventure is simply whatever occurs before or after achieving that goal.

The “[Blank]-On-The-Air” programs are the perfect framework to hang a purpose on. I want to get my SOTA Mountain Goat Award. That means I need 1000 SOTA activator points. After climbing 42 mountains (okay to be truthful I drove up a handful of these), I now have 153 points. That’s it. So, a goal and many more adventures to go…

SLIDE MT.

Slide Mountain, the highest peak in the Catskills at 4190′, kicked off our day trip radio adventures for vacation week. I never took the Catskills seriously despite growing up just north of them, well, because they are not mountains. Or so I was taught. Apparently the Catskill range is a “dissected plateau” and therefore not real mountains. This is what I learned in elementary school and therefore growing up I had no desire to climb “not real mountains”. But since they count for SOTA points, I have been spending a lot of time in them lately. And you know what? They are very very real mountains–and very spectacular mountains–to me now.

We reached the summit as weather started making its way in. The week’s weather consisted of a heat wave interspersed with electrical storms. The 20M EFHW was strung between two trees on the viewless summit. And AA1F kicked off the activation.

The slow start and lack of cell service made us think we would have to chase in order to find our 4 contacts. We jumped on what we thought was a clear frequency to call CQ. Turns out it had been held by fellow park activator KA2YRA, who both let us have the bandwidth and kindly spotted us! The bands shifted and a boatload of European DX came in.

Nellie (our four-legged trail companion), after realizing we were going to be here a while, found a bed.

Of course, doggie nap time was a lot less interesting than doggie snack time. Nearly two dozen qsos in the log made for both successful SOTA (W2/CG-001) and POTA (K-8070) activations for AA1F and I.

WHITE
FACE MT.

Look, we drove up Whiteface Mountain (W2/GA-003). It’s a SOTA 10-pointer at 4867′ elevation this time in the Adirondacks. I take my points where I can get them. You still have to walk 1/5th of a mile to reach the summit via an extremely humanly controlled “nature walk” to the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center Whiteface Mountain Field Station (i.e., Whiteface Observatory).

AA1F is posing with his characteristic pointing and Nellie in front of the Station.

The summit perch is quite tightly packed with very limited space for antennas. The arrow points to my operating position. This view pretty much sums up the entire available area of the summit.

We chose the most out of the way location that we could to set-up the 20M EFHW on a bamboo telescopic fishing pole. I have been using this mast a lot lately.

Just a closer-up view of how I secured the antenna to a shrub. Another activation complete, including a POTA of the Adirondack State Park (K-2001).

A BIT OF FUN…

Our vacation QTH was in a campground in the greater Albany area of Upstate New York, so we spent a lot of time bouncing between the Adirondacks and the Catskills. Given the heat wave, we sought out a swimming hole in the Ausable River just outside of Lake Placid. That is not a giant beaver or a bear cub…its Nellie cooling off.

For the record, Nellie hasn’t moved from the couch since we got home! Here is Nellie snoozing after her swim…

And, boy, I have never seen anything like this in my life! A cruise through Old Forge in the Adirondacks led us to this little lakeside park. And a young deer strutted across the field. You can see the man taking its picture. Well, that deer got closer and closer to that guy who decided it may be best to leave it alone. What happened next was unbelievable!

The deer crossed the street and headed to a motel that had direct access from the rooms onto the lawn. The deer went from patio to patio begging (and getting!) handouts from the stunned tourists. That lady in the white shirt below kept throwing the deer treats. This happened in front of at least three other hotel rooms! I truly have never heard of a begging deer before! It reminds a bit of the giant rabbit we saw on the top of Blackhead Mountain. The critters are sure weird in New York!

…And then we spent time POTA-ing the Adirondack State Park. We found a parking area near Marcy Field with some gorgeous scenery. Take note of the looming clouds. While we never operated in thunder, static crashes were a constant companion this entire week. We just kept dodging the actual storms due to mostly luck.

We ran two stations simultaneously from the bed of AA1F’s truck. We operated 20, 40, and 80 meters using band pass filters and two antennas. Of course, one of the antennas was the trusty Radiowavz 20M EFHW.

I am just proving I am here with this shot. As you can see, AA1F required the use of all of the radios, haha!

I spent a lot of time this trip setting up and testing the MFJ-16010 random wire tuner that I hope to use with a kite some day.

This radiator is somewhere around 30 feet long, and never is up higher than about 8 feet in a tree.

I put two half knots in the wire in order to get some strain relief. I need to figure this part out still… I tied the wire to the cinder block. It worked fine even if its not too pretty. A TRS connector on the end of the random wire plugged into the antenna UHF jack of the tuner.

Coaxial cable connected the tuner to the transceiver.

But only after running through a 1:1 RF choke (by LDG). The random wire worked well, with contacts made on 20, 40, and 80 throughout the week. Despite it being such an obviously compromised antenna!

…And don’t think for a second I forgot about flying that kite! More on this particular adventure to come!

HUNTER MT.

What can I say about Hunter Mountain (W2/GC-002), the second highest peak in the Catskills? We took the “difficult”-rated Becker Hollow Trail up. And you know what? It was grueling.

The trail ascended 2100 in 2.5 miles. In fact, nearly all of that vertical gain occurred within the last 2 miles. Although rather short, the trail was straight up with no breaks, and consisted of a whole bunch of loose rocks.

The summit, however, was quite rewarding. AA1F, an herb farmer, took a picture of this St. John’s Wort on the top. The climbable fire tower was the main feature of the peak.

I attached some paracord to the top flight and we strung the 20M EFHW antenna in the air.

This bug ruined my selfie and bit my forehead!

Here you can see the antenna tied off on the fire tower at the free end, and tied to the posts of the summit cabin on the balun end. That is AA1F operating from the porch of the cabin where we could get a bit of relief from the 90 degree heat.

While there was no view from the ground, the tower offered a spectacular view of the Catskill Not-Mountains.

Here I am now operating from the porch of the ranger station.

The hike up was so grueling and unpleasant…meaning that the hike down was going to be equally grueling and unpleasant. AA1F, Nellie, and I wondered if we should just move in to this fine little house…squatters rights????

We did make it down Hunter Mountain intact. In fact, no sooner did we get in the car than we could see thunderheads billowing up over the summit. Again, we managed to play radio on a peak while avoiding a storm. We drove home through the valleys and hills with Mama Nature’s light show glittering across the sky.

All in a week’s adventure….

Always,

KM1NDY