Capturing the Art of Nature
Mt. Woodside on the Air
Ralph and I returned to Mt. Woodside to operate our radios in the Summits on the Air program
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
Summits on the Air
2017
Click on image to view gallery
This was Ralph’s first SOTA event of the year and he wanted to do an easy one so he could test out his Buddipole in the Canada Day Contest. We decided on Mt. Woodside as there is a road to the sub-peak where there is an old abandoned repeater station. The main peak is a short hike from the station and would be fairly easy to haul our equipment to. So we loaded up the truck and set off for the start of the forestry road. Once on the road we switched into 4x4 mode and tuned in the road frequency on our radio. The radio was quiet and we made fast time up the road.
The side road to the old station was heavily overgrown with the alder trees squeezing the life out of the road. Some ATV users had cut a few branches in the early section of the road but soon we were pushing through some serious overhang! Though it is only a couple km long this section does have its challenges but we soon pushed through the worst of it and the old building was in view and the way clear. Once on site we checked the location and elevation and determined that the sub peak was within the activation range of the SOTA stipulations so we opted to set up near the old station. This made carrying our heavier gear quite easy.
While Ralph got his Buddipole setup I worked on my 2m yagi and got it on the air. I started making some calls and found the call-in frequency dead. I did eventually reach a chap in the US but there was no one else around. Meanwhile Ralph started calling out on CW with my KX2. He was also having trouble but eventually reached a US station as well. This lack of response continued for the next hour. Eventually Ralph tried his own KX1 radio to see if that helped – it didn’t. I threw up my random wire antenna in a tree but that also failed to reach out.
While Ralph took a rest I switched the KX2 to SSB and sought after some contest stations I could hear. I was hearing a reasonable number but they all had pile ups and were unable to hear me. After much calling and searching I did finally get 3 HF contacts in the log. So I had made my four contacts and successfully activated the summit. Ralph then continued on phone and made a further 3 for himself. Now we were both done and we decided to pack up and head down.
As we descended we opted to pay a short visit to the hang-glider launch area. This was harder to find than previous thanks to some logging in the area which added some roads and clear-cuts. We did eventually find the spot and met two chaps who were just about to take off. So Ralph was able to watch them from the top end of the trip for once. After the two pilots had launched we returned to our truck and drove back down to the pavement and then home. It was a great day to be in the fresh air and we both enjoyed our radio event and then watching the flyers! On to the next hike.