The Four Year Ham-iversary.

This past weekend marked my fourth year as a licensed amateur radio operator. A SOTA activation of 2-pointer Mt. Kearsarge (W1/HA-010), complete with the 3-winter bonus point entitlement was in order. And of course, it counts as POTA entity K-2685 as well!

The hike is reasonably easy. A bit over a mile up when you can park up the access road in summer. In winter, you have to hike the mile-long access road. Still very reasonable…accept when the trail is a frozen waterfall. If you look carefully, you can see AA1F waiting for me to decide how I was going to scale this thing. Our usual Kahtoola MICROspikes were not cutting it. Honestly, we needed crampons and ice axes to scale this section. Marc relied on having extremely long legs and arms to make his ascent. I had to use…emmm…desperate praying…

Fortunately we both made it. It was one of only a handful of ascents that I was honestly afraid to look back down the path. One false move and it would have quickly become an Olympic event (hint:)

The summit was beautiful.

And a few shrubby pines made for an easy set-up of the 20M end-fed half wave antenna.

While it was no surprise the mountain’s telecommunications infrastructure was desensing our handitalkies, HF had fine propagation.

On the return trip, we avoided the ice-laden Winslow trail, and instead chose the longer Barlow trail. After a pleasant walk in the woods, we were back at the trailhead with 5 more SOTA points notched on our belt-clips.

In the world, there currently are little over ten thousand SOTA activators. I am ranked 1244. It is a lot more fun to look at the W1 association, i.e., New England, where I am ranked 14th. This is after getting up, usually but not always by foot, 99 summits. I am not even halfway to my goal of 1000 points, the coveted Mountain Goat award.

With a February day in the 50s, I take off to my secret spot to spend some time with Nellie and my Yaesu FT-818. The SOTA activation of the day prior has largely been filed away. There is always another adventure…

Four years into this hobby, and I cannot believe quite how transformative it has been for me. I think about the new skills I have learned, much in the way of electronics knowledge. I contemplate the variety of people I have encountered, the friends I have made. And those I have lost. The old adage, relationships for a season, reason, or lifetime dances through my mind. I am still not sure what radio is. But I think it may have to do with connection. The ability to tune in to a part of a world despite its tremendously high noise floor. To bridge the ether, touch someone despite time and space, only to be disunited by the slightest ionic shift. It is to cherish these moments, in all of their ephemerality. Those fleeting opportunities of connection in a world filled with a constant disinterested and unengaged background hum.

I make no mistakes in knowing nothing lasts forever. And of life’s teachers I have known and lost, sometimes for the better and some for the worse, I remember my lessons well. Radio is freedom. I can connect and disconnect at will. I am free to soar on the back of a modulated wave. And try as you might, you can’t stop me.

Forever grazing the skies,

KM1NDY