K9OZ ham radio blog

 I just returned from a month-long road trip west that included 17 summits in Black Hills and Wyoming.  That brings me to 1,154 points, 168 activations of 95 unique summits activated,  When you do that many summits in a short time, they start to run together.  So I'll run through my log and photo album with some notes on each summit.  I'm going to start with my second-to-the last summit, Red Mountain W7Y/SW-022.  This was the high point of my trip, hiking up to the summit at 10,500 feet.  That's the highest altitude I had hiked to, and cam almost three weeks into the trip.  Living at 500 feet, it's safe to say I'm not used to high altitude.  A few years ago the wife and I spent a day hiking in the Medicine Bow Mountains at 9,000 feet just a few days after leaving home.  That got me a mild case of altitude sickness, and reminder that you can't just to to high altitude and hike.  So this year I started by spending 10 days in the Black...

 It's been nearly two years since the last blog post, so time to get busy again.  I did have some posts up on the Wordpress version of this blog, but since it has disappeared I'm back to the blogger version.  It's been an exciting two years.  I ramped up my SOTA activity in 2019 and had big plans to be very active in 2020 the the world turned upside down in March with the pandemic.  After a couple of months of sheltering in place, I got back out in the field again later in the year and have done many summits here in Arkansas since then.  Today I have 842 points working toward my goal of reaching Mountain Goat status at 1,000 points sometime this summer.   I'll use this blog to track the progress. My last activations was a set of four 10 pointers in western Arkansas that I did over two days.  Two were simple drive-ups and two were  hikes -- one a 1/2 mile bushwhack and one a 5 mile roundtrip hike on the Ozark Highland Trail. You can see h...

Well, so much for me getting active on the blog again.  Every week or so I think, "I should put something on the blog," yet don't do it. Now its June, and my last post was in February.  So I've got some catching up to do. I have been busy and have quite a few new activations in, so it's been a productive spring.  I'll try to summarize.  In February I had about 240 activator points after a year and a half of activating. In Nune I have 350 points, so it's bee a productive spring.  I give a few of the high points, pardon the pun. During the month of March I mainly activated some of the local (Arkansas) summits I had done the year before.  Under the rules of SOTA, you can activate a summit for points once a year.  So with the new year you have a clean slate.  So I went back to some nearby summits and had a good time doing it.  In late April I took another trip to the Ouachita Mountains on the Oklahoma/Arkansas border.  There are a lot ...

On Monday we were having another 70-degree day so I hopped in the pickup to do another Summits On The Air activation in Arkansas.  My destination was Petit Jean Mountain, which is about 10 miles south of Mount Magazine and on the south side of the Petit Jean Valley.  This is not Petit Jean State Park, which is actually on Mud Mountain, which creates some confusion. I had read the notes on the summit.  It sounded like there was good National Forest Road right to the summit, although the last mile might require hiking.  That's a common scenario here in Arkansas.  Many of the summits had fire towers on the top in the past, which have long been abandoned. But the roads often remain, either as trails or as rough roads that are probably above the capabilities of my Ford Ranger. I left home around 8:30 with plans to do Petit Jean Montain, then may swing over to Mount Magazine for a two-summit day.  The National Forest Roads were good -- much better than they a...

February is a good time for SOTA in Arkansas.  The leaves are off the trees, so you actually have some views from the summits, the chiggers and ticks are dormant, the poison ivy is gone for the winter and the temperatures are often in the 50s and 60s. Yesterday, February 2, was a good example.  The high in the afternoon was 62, so it looked like a good day to head for the hills. I did the two easiest and closest summits to my house -- Crystal Mountain (W5A/OA-008)  and Oak Mountain (W5A/OA-006).  They are a few miles apart on a well maintained -- for Arkansas -- National Forest Road and both require a quarter-mile hike or so. I had done both summits in 2017 and 2018, but decided to knock the pair of them out early this year. It was also good practice in doing multiple summits in a day.  Crystal Mountain has a jeep road going up, and often has other people or Jeeps at the top.  After I got set up, a young family came hiking up.  I spoke to the fat...

For those who are wondering what Summits On the Air, or SOTA, works here's a quick summary. SOTA got is start in the United Kingdom, and has been popular in Europe for years. It has gained popularity in the US the last few years.  The object is to make two-way communication with another amateur station that is being operated portable on a summit.  People activating from a summit are activators, those working them from home or other summits are chasers. Summits are designated by location. Summits in Arkansas are W5A (US fifth call area and Arkansas) and a alphanumeric designation.   When I refer to summits I'm activating, I will give both the common name and the SOTA designation. Every summit is assigned a point value given that is awarded to chasers who work the station and to the activator. An activator has to make four contacts to count it as a an activation.  Lots of information is available at  SOTA's web site , which is comprehensive and very well o...