Capturing the Art of Nature
Walking Eagle Mountain – Abbotsford
A new summit on our radio list to visit
Category
Summits on the Air
2021
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This little summit in the midst of the Abbotsford residential area has a huge cell tower on its summit. The tower is easily visible for the highway and one has often confused this summit with the taller McKee peak to the east. Just a couple weeks back the Summits-on-the-air list was updated and it now includes Eagle mountain. It is a small hill with homes built right up to the summit, so though not a challenge for hiking it is still a nice view and location to play radio.
Since it had never been activated yet, Ralph and set out to explore the area and put the ‘mountain’ on the map. We left my place at 9am and arrived on the summit around 10. A quick drive and short walk from the car to the fenced area surrounding the tower and water reservoir. Right next-door construction crews were building a new luxury home with a great view of the valley below. Ralph started to assemble is Buddipole and I my 2m yagi.
In around 10 minutes I was set up and ready to make some calls. I putout my first call for contacts and quickly had a stream of responses coming in. So, the summit was now officially activated. Ralph soon was also making contacts with his lower power (QRP) set up and even worked a station in France. Not bad at all for a compromised antenna and 10 watts. After around 30 minutes my calling frequency got busy with a few other activators calling from other summits, I worked two of them and since I had more than enough contacts in my log and left the frequency for them.
Ralph continued for awhile longer, enjoying the good propagation conditions of the morning. The rain was holding off and we had decent weather to be out on the summit. I was quite enjoying the view of the valley below, some farms were burning refuse and the smoke had formed a thin haze layer a bit below us across the valley.
It felt good getting out onto a new summit and making the first activation. I had long lamented the lack of lower summits on the list in the region. Now we can work a number throughout the cooler season and before the taller summits are clear of snow. So we should be working this little guy again in early spring.