The Many Calamities of SOTA-ing Mount Ag-A-How-The-Heck-Do-You-Pronounce-It-Cus?
It was a lovely 82 degrees on top of Mount Agamenticus (W1/AM-381 and K-8448). AA1F, Nellie, and I had taken a Saturday drive up to Maine to see if we could secure a few new bicycles. That did not go the way we hoped. But we did decide to get on the air on the way back home, and the drive-up single point summit in York, Maine seemed like a good idea.
AA1F set up near the van, while I found an awesome grove of trees. I convinced AA1F to make his activation on 17M, whereas I wanted to test the length of an antenna radiator wire on 20M. The day was sunny, bright, and slightly cooler than the rest of boiling New England.
I found a picnic table and took my chances near a warning sign of I guess potentially killer bees.
We had never heard of Mount Agamenticus before. It was a kayaking trip to the Portsmouth New Hampshire Harbor, and a kayak-mobile qso with members of the Wireless Society of Southern Maine activating it as WS1SM that put the peak into our cognition.
I set up my antenna between two trees, a radiowavz balun with a half-wave 20M radiator that I had recently replaced. This would be my first field test. (If you look really carefully, you can see Nellie our dog under the table!)
The summit of Mount Agamenticus, or Mount Aggie as we heard the WS1SM calling it, is really a delightful park full of trails, flora, views, and creature comforts like porta-potties and picnic tables. I was using my very favorite Yaesu FT-891A along with an LDG Z-100 Plus tuner and a 15AH Bioenno LifePo battery. This is hands down my favorite portable set-up and a carbon copy of AA1F’s which we tend to share on summits these days. My 891 has been benched because I have been using other transceivers for variety. That said, what a joy to turn my old friend on an get on the air!
If you take a look below, you can see my rebuilt antenna on the RigExpert analyzer. The vertical blue band is 20M, and the SWR curve crosses through it at around 1.3 at the lower frequency end at and at about 2.5 at the higher frequency end. In short, the antenna radiator looks electrically long, with the most resonant frequency at 14.000 MHz. I was using two runs of 25′ RG8X coax mated together with a SO-239 to SO-239 connector. As you can see, I have a coil of 6 loops of zip-tied coax at the transceiver end of the cable. I use this particular coil as a choke, or 1:1 balun substitute for my DIY 20M no-solder dipole.
So, the question is (and I never got a chance to answer it…stay tuned…) did the coil create enough inductance to electrically lengthen my radiator wire? Or is the radiator wire simply too long? I needed to remove the coil and take another SWR measurement…
I figured I would retest after making my activation. I found a free frequency, spotted myself for SOTA and began calling CQ. My response was fairly brisk and propagation was fabulous! AA1F I later learned hit much of Europe on 17M. I was making it to all corners of the United States. And to Spain to boot. I felt like I could spot myself on POTA and be at that picnic table all night. And then I heard it… The rumble of thunder. Only a few minutes and 20 contacts in and the activation was over. I looked up from my picnic table and saw a giant thunderhead rolling in, getting ready to swallow up the sun.
And the thunderbolts were getting closer and closer together. I called AA1F and told him to pack it up. He hadn’t even heard the booms.
AA1F finished packing up first and raced across the summit meadow to help me out. Of course, we did find a moment to pose him in front of a sign randomly stating one of his favorite herbs…
And sure enough, we could see the rain falling in the distance. If you look through the clearing in the trees, you can make out the gray haze of falling rain on the left, and the pinkish precipitation-free sky on the right.
Another view… In fact, storm chasers sporting giant cameras with weatherproof shrouds had driven madly up the mountain to photograph the unfolding event. I wish I had snapped their picture.
Well, we got our SOTA and POTA points, even if we were cut short. The many calamities of Mount Agamenticus — bees and lightning storms galore! But, wow, what a beautiful gem of a park!
The amazing thing about radio is the backdrop of reasons it gives me to go and explore new places, like Mt. Aggie. I feel like I am a local now, so I am going to go ahead and call it that too. Thanks as always hunters!
KM1NDY