Big news — I’m proud to announce that the Second Edition of my book VHF, Summits, and More is now available. I’ve received tons of positive feedback on the first edition, published in 2019, and I decided it was time for an update. This new version is printed in color, which greatly enhances the photos and graphics.
This book is an easy-to-understand introduction to VHF/UHF ham radio with an emphasis on mountaintop VHF operation. I’ve enjoyed ham radio and writing about it ever since I received my first FCC license. Although I’ve used the ham bands from 160m to 3cm (10 GHz), I find the VHF and higher frequencies the most interesting. This is mainly because of the interplay between mountains, Height Above Average Terrain (HAAT), and VHF propagation. VHF has lots of spectrum, lots of modes, and lots of fun challenges.
For the second edition, I gave everything a fresh look. I updated every chapter and added 100 pages of new material. In Part I, the VHF tutorial section, I added new chapters to improve the treatment of basic VHF/UHF: Popular VHF/UHF Bands, Antennas, Coaxial Cables & Connectors, and WSJT-X Digital Modes. Part II covers topics that originated from my blog, often based on questions I hear from newer hams. In Part III, which is focused on SOTA, I added several chapters on how to be successful doing VHF SOTA, and I added a few new trip reports. I also added some information on combined SOTA/POTA activations.
The book is available in two formats: a color print edition and a Kindle edition, both available from Amazon. The print version ships immediately; the Kindle version will follow shortly.
Order your copy now. Operators are standing by.
(Actually, just use the Amazon site.)
A few days ago, someone told me that a rumor is circulating that I don’t own any gear capable of operating on the high-frequency (HF) bands. I laughed out loud, wondering where this came from.
The K0NR ham shack (ACOM 1000, IC-9700, IC-7610).
Actually, I know where this comes from: most of my postings here at k0nr.com are oriented towards VHF operating, often from the top of a summit. I fully admit that VHF/UHF has always been my favorite part of the amateur radio spectrum.
And I do operate on the HF bands.
Home Station
The photo above shows my ham shack set up at home. The primary transceiver is an ICOM IC-7610, which covers the HF bands and 6 meters. To the left is an ICOM IC-9700 that I use for 2m, 70cm, and 23cm. An ACOM 1000 linear amplifier sits at the far left. It is usually configured for 6m, just waiting for the band to open.
The two ICOM transceivers: IC-9700 and IC-7610.
Here is a closer look at the two transceivers. Hey, look at that, the IC-7610 is listening to 20m CW. Yes, I even operate CW.
My antenna farm includes two towers but they are used for VHF/UHF antennas. For the HF bands, I use wire antennas. This article describes the end-fed wire antenna I have been using for the past 5 years. It covers 40m through 6m with one antenna.
Operating Results
I run hot and cold on chasing DX, but over time, I have made many DX contacts and worked quite a few countries. I favor the DX potential of the higher bands: 20m, 17m, 15m, 12m, and 10m. Recently, I discovered that the 30m band can be a lot of fun, too. My current stats are: 205 DXCC Entities and 39 (out of 40) CQ Zones. Still looking to work Zone 34, Northeastern Africa. I’ve also been working on Worked All States (WAS) for each band, having completed 40m, 30m, 20m, 17m, and 6m.
Update – 21 Dec 2025: I just worked and confirmed Z81D in Zone 34, completing mixed WAZ.
Going Portable with HF
The Yaesu FT-991 all-band radio works well for POTA.
Joyce/K0JJW and I are often operate portable on the HF bands, almost always a Parks On The Air (POTA) activation. Our favorite radio for POTA is a Yaesu FT-991, which covers the HF bands along with VHF/UHF. Almost all of the POTA work is on HF, but sometimes we do make a few VHF contacts.
We also have an ICOM IC-705, covering all bands, that is especially useful for backpack portability. We favor VHF/UHF for SOTA, but sometimes we will use the IC-705 to make some HF SOTA contacts. We have a variety of wire antennas, all different types of end-fed designs. The IC-705 does not have a built-in antenna tuner, so we take along a small manual tuner.
The IC-705 radio is handy for backpack portable operating, covering HF/VHF/UHF bands.
Wrap Up
So there you have it, I do have some HF gear and I do use it!
Remember, the universal purpose of amateur radio is to have fun messing around with radios…using whatever amateur band and mode you choose.
Many of you already know about this wonderful alert tool: HamAlert. From the HamAlert website:
HamAlert is a system that allows you to get notifications when a desired station appears on the DX cluster, the Reverse Beacon Network, SOTAwatch, POTA, WWFF Spotline, or PSK Reporter. No need to keep checking these resources manually if you’re looking for a certain callsign, DXCC, CQ zone, IOTA island, SOTA summit or WWFF/POTA reference.
HamAlert is quite versatile, allowing you to tune its alerts to meet your needs. You do this by defining triggers that, well, trigger an alert. I won’t cover all of the possibilities here, but I will show you how I have my triggers set:
Most of these are just ham friends and family that I want to keep track of, see when they are on the air: K0JJW, KF9EY, KB9DPF, & W0BV. W0BV is a special case because he is an active DXer not too far from me, so it is helpful to see what he’s doing on 6 meters and HF. W0CLA and KV0CO are the callsigns of clubs I belong to. For these callsigns, the trigger is set for any activity on any band.
K0GU is a noted 6m enthusiast in Colorado that I follow because if something is happening on 6m, he is usually in the mix. (A major part of the challenge of 6 meters is knowing when the band opens.)
Probably the most important trigger for me is the Summit Association W0C, which alerts me whenever a SOTA activation is spotted in Colorado (W0C). I am only interested in working Activators on VHF/UHF, but I set the trigger for any band. Many times, activators are spotted only on HF, but they may still operate VHF/UHF. Similar to this is the POTA trigger for parks in Colorado. I just want to be alerted to park activations happening only in my state.
I have my callsign K0NR on the list because it is helpful to know where I am getting spotted. This can be very helpful when trying to work DX or activating a SOTA summit. If I am looking for a particular DX callsign, entity (country) or zone, I can add that to this list as well. When we travel, I may adjust these for local activity, depending on the situation.
I generally set up the triggers via the web interface and then receive the Alerts on my iPhone, via the HamAlert app, as shown below.
Anyway, take a look at this handy app and let me know how you use it.
Ofu Island is not easily accessible, so it was a key decision on whether to include it as part of the trip. The more I read about American Samoa, the more I noticed that many of the best photos were from Ofu Island. It has a huge beach that stretches along the south side of the island, located within the national park. Not only that, Ofu has an attractive SOTA summit with an excellent view. So, yeah, we needed to go there.
Ofu Beach with Sunuitao Peak and Piumafua Mountain in the background.
Getting There
Flights from Pago Pago to Ofu are scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday mornings on Samoa Airways. We wanted more than two days on Ofu, so we arrived on a Thursday with a return flight on the following Tuesday. These are small planes with strict weight limits on baggage: 5 kg (11 lbs) for one carry-on bag and 15 kg (33 lbs) for one checked bag. The airline weighs everything and everybody going onto the flight. You can pay for extra luggage, but you risk having it left behind for a later flight if your flight happens to be overweight.
We opted to take only the essentials to Ofu, repacking our gear to fit into just a few bags. Only the lightweight SOTA station went with us, along with snorkel gear and minimal clothing. Everything else was stored at the Tradewinds Hotel.
This is the aircraft that flies between Pago Pago and Ofu.
Lodging
There are limited lodging options on Ofu. We chose to stay at the Vaoto Lodge, right next to the airstrip. The rooms at the lodge are very basic but do have air conditioners. There are no restaurants on the island. The lodge offers a shared kitchen for its guests to prepare their own meals, as well as a limited but adequate selection of groceries for purchase. This may not work for everyone, but Joyce was able to come up with some excellent meals for us.
Four people were staying at the lodge when we were there, including us. One person was there to work on a government-sponsored project. The other was a tourist from New Zealand. So there were probably only three tourists on Ofu at that time.
The best information I found concerning Ofu is: The Ultimate Guide to Ofu Island, American Samoa. This was very helpful, but also double-check the details concerning lodging and airline flights, as things do change with time. Based on the advice of the locals, we concluded that Tumu Mountain was our only SOTA option on Ofu. Sunuitao Peak and Piumafua Mountain (on Olosega Island, connected to Ofu by a bridge) are not considered hikeable.
Tumu Mountain (KH8/MI-003) The trail to the summit is 3 miles one-way, with 1500 feet of elevation gain. This trail used to be a road, starts out wide and narrows as the elevation increases. It is overgrown in spots, and there is a rope assist in one difficult spot. This video provides a good overview of the climb. This trail is not in the national park.
This map shows the hiking route up Tumu. Note that many trails are displayed on the map, but most of them don’t exist.
Our host at Vaoto Lodge dropped us off at the trailhead and picked us up afterward. The hike begins in some 18-inch-high brush that includes some plants with stickers. I wore shorts and accumulated quite a few scratches on my legs. If I do this hike again, I would start with long pants or gaiters and switch to shorts at the first trail marker, about one-half mile up the trail. This trail marker indicates a left turn that starts the climb up the side of the mountain. As the map shows, there is a big switchback that keeps the slope of the trail reasonable.
Near the summit, we noted a sign indicating a trail to the left for the viewpoint, but we continued to the summit. The actual summit is covered by dense vegetation, so we stopped where the trail faded out, labeled “Operating Location” on the map, within the activation zone. There is a small radio installation here. To get to the actual summit would require a serious bushwhack through the tropical forest.
We set up the SOTA station using our smaller antenna mast (fishing pole) and fired up the IC-705 on 17m FT8. Conditions were not great, but we both worked four stations on HF plus each other on VHF/UHF. We were running behind schedule for our pickup time, so we did not operate any longer than necessary.
The best view from anywhere in American Samoa, from the summit of Tumu.
On our descent, we took the side trail over to the viewpoint, which was fantastic. This is the best photo we took in American Samoa. We are accustomed to hiking in the Rocky Mountains, where reaching a high summit always provides a great view. Tropical forests are a lot different…the vegetation may not allow you to see anything of interest on a summit. Finding a good viewpoint can be challenging.
We found a nice spot on Ofu Beach (-14.17776, -169.65428), about a one-mile walk from Vaoto Lodge that is a great place to snorkel and operate ham radio. There is a little shelter there that provides some protection from rain. We did seven POTA activations from this location using the smaller SOTA station with 10 watts. These QSOs were mainly on 15m and 17m, using digital transmissions (FT8 via the iPhone app and the IC-705).
Our favorite snorkel and POTA operating spot on Ofu Beach, with a small shelter.POTA station at Ofu Beach, antenna tuner, IC-705, and battery.
We were supposed to leave Ofu on Tuesday morning, but our flight was delayed until the afternoon. We were aware that flights to/from Ofu can be delayed or cancelled, and we planned some flexibility into our schedule to mitigate this risk. We still made it to Pago Pago that day, returning to the Tradewinds Hotel. After our wonderful stay on Ofu, this felt like a welcome return to civilization.
We were delighted to have visited Ofu Island and highly recommend it. However, it did add six days to the trip, so it may not work for travelers with a more limited schedule.
Wrap Up On the Whole Trip
This concludes our KH8 trip report. Joyce and I had a fantastic time in American Samoa and enjoyed the ham radio aspect of the trip. The only stations we worked on VHF/UHF were each other, which was not a big surprise, but still disappointing. Oh, well, I guess that’s why we have access to the HF spectrum.
We arrived at Pago Pago (pronounced “pango pango”) around 9 pm and were met by the shuttle van from Tradewinds Hotel. We stayed there for three nights, then took our 5-day side trip to Ofu Island, returning to Pago and the Tradewinds for another 6 nights.
The next morning, we rented a small SUV from the Tradewinds Hotel, which worked out great. Our first stop was the National Park of American Samoa Visitor Center, a 30-minute drive from the hotel. We received some good information about hiking trails and potential summits. The visitor center is located outside the park, so we made a point to drive a bit further to actually set foot in the park. We were thinking that if our trip got cut short unexpectedly, we wanted to make sure we checked the box on being in the park.
The next stop was Olotele Mountain. My research on this summit was not conclusive. To start with, I found that some maps showing its location incorrectly, something we worked out when creating the KH8 Association Reference Manual (ARM). Some websites suggest that the summit could be hiked, but they did not provide any details. By studying a variety of maps and satellite photos, I concluded there was probably a road to the top, to support a developed radio site. This summit is not in the national park.
A single-lane road leads to the summit of Olotele Mountain, accessible from Route 2 en route to Aasu.
We headed toward Aasu on Route 2 and turned off at (-14.31473, -170.76616) to follow the road leading south to the summit. The road is not well-marked, but easy to spot once you know it’s there. This road passes through a residential area with plenty of barking dogs (they seem to be everywhere in KH8). At the top is a well-developed radio site.
The radio site on Olotele Mountain.
We planned to set up the HF SOTA station and make some contacts from the summit, but the clouds moved in, producing heavy rain. At this point, we opted for a quick VHF activation, just working each other with handheld radios, checking the box on activating the first KH8 summit, but without points. Again, the thought was to get the first KH8 activation in the log, just in case. We also figured we would come back another day and do a more proper activation, earning the 4 points for this summit. And we did return to this summit after our visit to Ofu. We both worked quite a few stations on 10m and 15m using FT8.
Both times we activated Olotele, crews were working at the radio installation. We just chatted with them about what we were doing, and they were fine with that. One guy asked me what frequency we would be on and I said 21 MHz. He replied, “no problem.” We also saw a tour guide bring a group of tourists to the summit, which surprised us because the view is mostly blocked by high vegetation.
The evening view of Mount Alava from the Goat Island Cafe.
The next day, we activated Mount Alava. This is a well-known summit and hiking trail, promoted by the national park. The trailhead is relatively well-marked, starting at Fagosa Pass. The trail to this summit is 3.9 miles one-way, with 1,300 vertical feet of elevation gain, located inside the national park. This trail used to be a road, generally wide but overgrown in spots, narrowing as the elevation increases.
The trail for Mount Alava starts at Fagosa Pass.
While planning the trip, I noticed that the National Park Service had posted an alert on its website that said the trail to Alava was closed. Later, information was posted stating the trail is open, but the summit is off-limits. During our visit to the visitor center, the NPS staff told me that the main trail from Fagasa Pass is usable, with no problems. The specific thing that is not allowed is ascending the broken-down stairs that go up about 30 feet to an old structure, which provides an excellent view of the area. Often, this structure is referred to as “the summit,” and folks will simply say that “the summit is closed.” Trail conditions do change frequently in the tropical climate, so it is best to inquire locally for the latest information.
The summit of Alava Mountain has a broad activation zone.
We activated Alava from near the bottom of these stairs, inside the activation zone. We saw some local folks climb over the locked gate and go up the stairs to get a better view, but we opted not to do the same. I am sure it provides a better view, but we were mostly after radio contacts.
As shown on the maps above, Alava sits on a long ridgeline that the trail follows, making the activation zone quite broad. We stopped about 500 feet west of the actual summit location indicated by the SOTA ARM. The trail seemed to end at this point, at the bottom of the stairs mentioned above. There should be a path that continues to the east, but I was unable to find it. No worries, we were within the activation zone, so we set up and made radio contacts.
K0NR on the Mt Alava trail.
This was a challenging hike due to the muddy conditions and the overgrowth of vegetation on the trail.
When we arrived in Pago Pago, I expected to find many suitable locations for POTA activations. It turned out to be not quite that simple. Many of the roads skirt the national park instead of going through it. After studying the map a bit more, we settled on the Pola Island Viewpoint on the northeast side of the island. This is a convenient turnout on Route 6, heading to Vatia, also known as the Lower Sauma Ridge Trailhead.
This is where we did our POTA activations on Tutuila Island.
We did seven activations here as KH8/K0NR and KH8/K0JJW. Most of the activity was on 15m and 17m, using FT8, FT4, and SSB. We tried 20m, but the propagation wasn’t all that great and we would get covered by stateside QRM. Bob/W0BV was usually listening and gave us valuable feedback on band conditions and whether our frequency was clear in the US. This was extremely helpful when operating from a remote location. We worked plenty of stateside stations, VK, ZL, JA, HL, B, South America, and the Caribbean.
W0BV recorded some audio of me working POTA on 15m SSB, quite a bit of fading at the time.
Typical POTA setup, operating out of the back of our SUV.
The POTA radio setup had the FT-991 in the back of the SUV, connected to my notebook computer for logging and digital operating. We just stood at the back of the vehicle under the hatch, which provided rain cover during the occasional storm. This was not super convenient, but we managed.
This power analyzer monitored the 12 VDC voltage level and battery condition.
We used the power analyzer shown above to monitor the battery voltage, so we didn’t run down the battery. The end-fed antenna was supported by the SOTAbeams pole and connected to the radio using 50 feet of RG-8X coaxial cable. We kept the antenna as far away from the radio as possible and inserted a common-mode filter in line with the coax. This avoided the EMI issues we experienced in Hawaii, so we were able to use the notebook computer running WSJT-X.
The number of POTA contacts (including Ofu Island, described in Part 3) were:
KH8/K0NR: Phone 39, Data 213, Total= 252
KH8/K0JJW: Phone 18, Data 21, Total= 39
For decades, Joyce/K0JJW and I have working towards visiting all 63 of the US national parks. We are nearing the end of the list, with just a few parks left. One of the most challenging places to visit is the National Park of American Samoa, located in the only US territory south of the equator. That would be number 61 for us, with only Crater Lake NP and Lassen Volcanic NP left to visit.
Obviously, if we are going to travel to a distant island, we should consider doing a Slacker DXpedition™. American Samoa is a US territory, so FCC radio licenses are valid there. It is also a separate entity for DXCC, with the prefix KH8. KH8 is listed at #87 (out of 340) on the Most Wanted list at Clublog, so it is a bit rare in terms of DXCC. Parks On The Air (POTA) has already been set up for KH8 and the national park there has been activated a number of times. I checked into the Summits On The Air (SOTA) situation and discovered there were summits that qualified for the program, but that a KH8 Association did not exist. The next thing you know, I am the KH8 Association Manager working with the SOTA Management Team to establish the KH8 association.
Bob/K0NR and Joyce/K0JJW with national park sign.
Travel
We usually try to pack light when traveling. On a typical airplane trip, we can generally get by with each of us having one carry-on bag. But once you add snorkel gear, camera gear, binoculars, hiking boots, radio gear, and a few other items, it becomes necessary to check a bag — or two. Still, we focused on keeping the amount of luggage to a minimum so we could navigate the airports without assistance.
To get to KH8, we connected through Hawaii, to catch the main flight to Pago Pago on Hawaiian Airlines. This flight only goes two or three times a week and is the only option coming from the 48 states. We decided to enjoy four days on the island of Kauai, which turned out to be an excellent idea.
Radio Gear
We normally only use frequencies above 50 MHz for SOTA, but given the lack of VHF activity in KH8, we compromised and took along HF gear. Our Icom IC-705 is a good choice for that as it also has the VHF/UHF bands included. We also packed a pair of handheld radios, which were useful for basic communications on and off the trail.
We had two main radio setups: a backpackable station for SOTA and a higher power station for POTA. Scoping out our likely SOTA summits, we definitely needed a compact station that could be carried up some summits that would involve a challenging hike. For this station, we used the IC-705 (10 watts output) driving an end-fed multiband wire antenna from PackTenna, supported by a carbon fiber fishing pole. The IC-705 does not have a built-in antenna tuner, so a small, manual external tuner did that job. A Bioenno 4.5 Ah battery supplied the power to the radio.
Icom IC-705 transceiver with small tuner and battery.
The antenna system travels in a small pouch and consists of the Z-match tuner, RG-174 coaxial cable, and the end-fed wire antenna. The antenna can cover 30m up through 10m, using a tuner, so it was an efficient way to cover the bands we planned to use.
The HF antenna kit: RG-174 coax, PackTenna end-fed wire antenna and Z-match tuner.
With the remote location and QRP power levels, we concluded that SSB might be a limitation. Our solution was to utilize digital modes (FT8 and FT4) to enhance our weak-signal performance. I sometimes operate CW, but I don’t think I can handle the pileups we expected at KH8. Joyce doesn’t do CW at all. Our plan was to use my Windows laptop, running WSJT-X, for digital processing. I would have taken this computer along on the trip anyway, so it made sense to have it do double duty, even though it’s a bit large to carry up the summit—more on that below.
POTA Station
We could have used the SOTA station for POTA as well, and we did in a few situations. However, we opted to take along a Yaesu FT-991, with 100 watts output, thinking that would help us when running SSB and if band conditions are poor. This is our normal POTA radio, powered by a 20 Ah Bioenno battery that can supply 30 amps continuously, providing a decent margin for the FT-991 (max current spec is 23 amps). However, FAA regulations don’t allow large batteries to be taken on an aircraft. I am used to carrying smaller batteries while flying, so this was all new to me. The short story is that you can carry on two lithium batteries, each limited to 160 watt-hours. (Read the regulations carefully yourself to understand the fine points.) For a 12-volt battery, 160 watt-hours corresponds to 13 amp-hours. So maybe I could carry two 13-amp-hour batteries and get by with that. Well, the Bioenno battery, which is the closest in size (12 amp-hour) has a maximum continuous discharge of 20 amps, which is a little light for the FT-991 keyed down at full power. I was also worried about the battery capacity and how long we would be able to operate. (In retrospect, this approach might have worked and deserves further consideration in the future.)
Another option was to take an AC power supply along, which might have been useful, but AC power was not likely to be available at a typical POTA spot. Ultimately, our solution consisted of a power cable with battery clips that connect to the battery in our rental car. We already had our radio gear set up with powerpole connectors, so crafting a cable with battery clips and powerpoles on it did the job. From experience, I know that it is possible to get excited about making radio contacts and overlook the fact that your car battery is now depleted. To avoid this, I inserted a 12-volt power analyzer inline with the DC cable, allowing us to monitor the battery voltage. I was vigilant in monitoring the voltage and running the car engine regularly.
Rounding out the POTA station were two 25-foot lengths of RG-8X coax and an end-fed long wire antenna from MyAntennas. This antenna was needed to handle the higher power level of the FT-991. For antenna support, we used a SOTABeams 32-foot Travel Mast.
The National Park of American Samoa is POTA AS-0001. This park had already been activated 33 times, primarily by KB2FMH and KH8RRC. There are two other POTA parks in KH8 (both unactivated), but we did not operate from them.
Alerts and Spots
Our operating schedule was fluid, so we used the SOTA and POTA websites to post our activations once we decided to go out, and to spot ourselves once we were on the air. Some of this could be done from our hotel room using an internet connection but at the operating location, we typically did not have a network connection.
We did have a Garmin Inreach satellite communicator that works anywhere on the planet, so we sent messages via the SOTAmat system. This requires some preplanning to set up access and learn the system but it performed well. The only disadvantage to this method is that Inreach messages can take 5 or 10 minutes to send, depending on when the satellite passes over.
There are 11 SOTA summits in KH8. Many of these are not accessible due to rugged terrain and dense tropical vegetation. The most accessible summits are listed below. See the SOTA database for more information and specific activation tips. In all cases, assume the trail condition can change and inquire locally for the latest information.
Tutuila Island
Olotele Mountain (KH8/TI-004) – Drive Up Summit.
Olotele Mountain is a developed radio site with multiple towers on it. There is a single-lane paved road to the top, making this a drive-up summit. This is the easiest summit in American Samoa. It is NOT in the national park.
Mount Alava(KH8/TI-003) – 3.9 miles one-way, 1300 vertical feet, in the national park.
This is a well-known summit and hiking trail, promoted by the national park. The trailhead is relatively well-marked, starting at Fagosa Pass. This trail used to be a road, generally wide but overgrown in spots.
Matafao Peak (KH8/TI-001) Steep trail, 1500 vertical, 1.5 miles one way
The highest summit on Tutuila. There are widely varying reports on whether the trail to the summit is hikeable or not. Trailhead is at Fagosa Pass. We did not attempt this summit.
Ofu Island
Tumu Mountain (KH8/MI-003) 3.0 miles one-way to the summit with 1500 feet of elevation gain. This trail used to be a road, generally wide but overgrown in spots, rope assist in one spot.
Let’s Go!
So that was the basic plan. Fly to Hawaii, hang out there for a few days, then continue on to American Samoa. Activate a few summits on Tutuila and then travel to Ofu Island to activate one more. Interspersed would be POTA activations, lots of snorkeling, and sightseeing.
We were not focused on SOTA in Kauai, but I looked up what summits were available and discovered the answer to be quite straightforward. Out of the 11 SOTA summits on the island, only one has been activated: Nounou Mountain (KH6/KU-011). The rest are very difficult to access.
So Joyce and I decided to do the summit. As advertised, the trail turned out to be muddy and had some difficult sections requiring some minor rock scrambling. The weather was hot and humid, making this a good warm-up for KH8. In particular, I discovered that my SOTA station had serious EMI problems. I thought I had worked this out back home, but my notebook PC was producing a high level of noise that was interfering with the receiver, and the RF from the transmitter was disrupting the USB data connection. This messed up the activation of Nounou, but it caused me to work on the problem before arriving in KH8.
The workaround I came up with was to use my iPhone with the SDR-Control Mobile app, connecting to the IC-705 via Wi-Fi. This eliminated the need for the USB cable, which was acting as an EMI radiator. The iPhone display is relatively small for running FT8, and the app has a few anomalies, but it did the job. On the plus side, the iPhone is a lot less to carry up a summit.
Recently, I’ve been getting questions about whether a ham needs to log radio contacts, whether they need to submit a log, and how to do it. Logging is a complex topic that can require a long and detailed explanation, but I am going to focus on the questions I’ve been hearing lately. I’ll also provide some links for further investigation. For starters, the ARRL has a good introduction to logging.
A paper ham radio log
Why Keep A Log?
The FCC does not require you to log your amateur radio contacts. Many radio amateurs, especially if they just operate casually on 2m and 70 cm, don’t bother to keep a log. Probably the most common reason for having a log is to have a record of your radio contacts, in terms of stations worked, on what band and what conditions. This might be just for your own personal satisfaction or you might want to keep track of these contacts so you can get credit for an award, such as the ARRL Worked All States (WAS) award.
Paper or Electronic?
The Old School way of keeping a log is on paper as shown in the figure above. This approach is simple and reliable technology but is quite limited in the information age. These days, most hams that record log information store it electronically. Imagine that you log thousands of contacts over time and then want to find a particular callsign or location. Much better to do this electronically. There are many good software programs available, too many to list here. I currently use Amateur Contact Log from N3FPJ. The good news is that there is a standard file format for storing and moving ham radio contact information: Amateur Data Interchange Format (ADIF). If you want to change logging software, you export an ADIF file and import into the new program.
I Worked a Contest Station, Do I Have to Submit a Log?
Sometimes radio ham works a few stations that are active in a particular contest and they wonder if they must submit a log to the contest sponsors so that these these stations get credit for the contacts. The almost universal answer to this is: No. Don’t worry about submitting a contest log if you aren’t really “in the contest.” The stations you work still get credit for your contact with them. (This is true for all major contests…I am still looking for a contest where this is not true.) Contests are designed to encourage activity, so they want everyone to join in, even if they aren’t all that serious about contesting. (The contest sponsors will appreciate any and all logs submitted, so consider that.)
If I Am Actively Working a Contest, What Do I Do?
If you are actively participating in a contest, you should use a logging program that is tuned for that particular contest. This is important because the contest logging software knows about the scoring for the contest and lets you know if you have already worked a station you hear. The most popular logging software for contesting is the N1MM Plus software. There are other programs you can consider. Typically, you would use N1MM during the contest and then export the info into an ADIF file, which is imported into your “main” logging program.
What is a Cabrillo File?
While the ADIF file format is most universal in ham radio logging, there is another file format used for contesting. This is the Cabrillo file format. Your contest logging software can generate a Cabrillo file for submitting to the contest sponsor. You may also want to generate an ADIF file to import into your normal logging program.
I Worked a POTA Station, Do I Have to Submit a Log?
Parks On The Air (POTA) is set up so that only the activator station submits a log. If you are working an activator station, you are a hunter station. The POTA scores are all based on the activator logs and hunters cannot submit a log. What you can do is register on the POTA website to see the contacts that the activators have submitted for you.
I Worked a SOTA Station, Do I Have to Submit a Log?
Summits On The Air (SOTA) is set up so that both activators and chasers submit logs to the SOTA website. However, the SOTA system operates on the honor system, so an activator can claim a contact with you without you submitting a log. So if you hear a SOTA station, go ahead and work them. You don’t have to submit a log. On the other hand, if you want credit for chasing a summit, you need to submit a log. So that activator is fine not having you submit a log but you may want to do that to get credit for you.
How Do I Get Credit For Working A Country?
The gold standard for chasing countries, I mean entities, is DX Century Club (DXCC). If you are interested in DX, you should register with Logbook of The World (LoTW) with the ARRL. To get credit for working an entity (country), you need to submit your log and it must match the log submitted by the DX station. This is a higher level of confirmation because both parties must submit the log info and it must match within reasonable error limits.
There are other award systems for working countries, offered by QRZ, eQSL, etc.
How Do I Get Credit For Working a Grid on VHF/UHF?
The VHF UHF Century Club (VUCC) is the VHF/UHF equivalent to DXCC. Here the emphasis is on working maidenhead gridlocators on the bands above 50 MHz. Again, Logbook of The World is the database that authenticates confirmed contacts on these bands. Both parties must submit the log info and it must match within reasonable error limits.
What If Someone Needs My Log Submitted?
Most of the time, us normal hams are not considered DX. That is, that other station in the Cayman Islands doesn’t really need our contact confirmed. But there are exceptions. You might be in a state the other station needs confirmed. Or maybe it’s your county they need. In such a case, you might want to make a special effort to provide your log information to the right database. It will depend on what the other station needs…if they are going for an ARRL award, then Logbook of The World is the right place to upload your log. But they might be after a QRZ award or eQSL award, in which case you would need to provide your log to those websites.
Wrap Up
These are some of the questions I’ve been hearing.
What did I miss?
Anything else to add?
I don’t need much but I do need a reason to get on the air. This can take many forms as I wrote in this blog post some time ago. I see quite a few new hams struggling with the problem of “I got this license but now what?”
Operating goals or awards are a fun way to keep focused on accomplishing something via ham radio. Really, it’s a specific reason to get on the air and make radio contacts. I am not big on idle chit chat via the radio (“the weather here is 65 deg and raining”) so having a reason to make contacts helps me get on the air. I’ve tended to pursue awards in a serial manner…once I hit some level of accomplishment, I usually declare victory and move on to something else.
Way back in the wayback machine, the first award I pursued was Worked All States (WAS). It does take some effort but I was pretty active on the HF bands at the time, so many of the states just showed up in my log. But to really drive it home, I kept track of which states I still needed and actively looked for opportunities to work them. Later, I pursued Worked All Continents (WAC), which obviously requires working some DX. But then I decided that if I had any DX cred at all, I needed to get DX Century Club (DXCC). Recently, the popularity of FT8 has been a game changer and I currently have about 175 entities confirmed (thank you, Logbook of The World). I don’t chase paper QSL cards anymore, which is just too much trouble for a Slacker DXer™.
The VHF and higher bands have always been a passion for me, so I pursued the VHF/UHF Century Club (VUCC) awards. First, it was 6 meter VUCC, the easiest one to get. A really good run during the ARRL June VHF contest can produce the 100 grids you need for the award in one weekend. Later, some mountaintop activity resulted in 10 GHz VUCC. At one point, I got into working the LEO satellites and confirmed the required 100 grids for satellite VUCC. (Hey, Technicians, this is something you can do right now!) I still don’t have very many grids confirmed on 2 meters, so that one is still calling to me.
Summits On The Air
If you read my blog, you know that Summits On The Air (SOTA) is my number one activity lately, both activating and chasing summits. This is a natural fit for me as I’ve enjoyed mountaintop operating in various forms, mostly on VHF and UHF. (See my SOTA blog postings.) My hiking partner and wife, Joyce/K0JJW is almost always activating with me. Her #1 ham radio activity is also SOTA. We both achieved Mountain Goat status (1000 activator points) using only VHF and higher frequencies. (Technicians can have a lot of fun with SOTA on VHF!)
The SOTA program has a wide variety of awards, supported by a comprehensive database used to record SOTA radio contacts and keep track of the scores. It is not really a competition but there is friendly rivalry between SOTA enthusiasts as they monitor each other’s posted scores. Here are the “badges” that pop up when I check my SOTA info.
Parks On The Air
In the past few years, we have added the Parks On The Air (POTA) program. It turns out that not all regions of the country have interesting SOTA summits but they all have state or national parks. This fits nicely into our outdoor hiking/camping/4WD activities.
Many of our SOTA activations are in parks (national forests, national parks and state parks), so we usually try to make the SOTA activation count for both programs. This means that many of our POTA activations are done using VHF/UHF only, if from a summit. More commonly, we use the HF bands for POTA activations. Our standard POTA setup is a Yaesu FT-991 driving an endfed wire antenna, usually on SSB or FT8.
POTA also has a great database, good tools and plenty of awards available. Here’s what shows up on my POTA awards page. Just like SOTA, POTA is not a competition but it is interesting to see what other hams are doing and compare you level of activity.
So those are my thoughts.
What motivates you to get on the air?
I was happy to contribute an article to the recent ARRL Parks On The Air (POTA) book. This piece is based on my Pikes Peak mountain topping article that appeared in the June 2023 issue of QST. This book is a collection of articles about POTA from 14 different authors, each writing about a different aspect of the program. The articles are all easy to read and generally provide a first-hand account of how the author has experienced POTA operating. There is plenty of beginner information and operating tips sprinkled throughout the book. More experienced POTA enthusiasts will probably pick up a few new ideas as well.
The Table of Contents below lists the articles and authors, giving you a good idea of the material covered. The meat of the book is only 118 pages long and it is quite easy to read.
My piece covered the triple activation I did from the summit of Pikes Peak, combining POTA, SOTA, and the June VHF Contest into one mountaintop adventure. For POTA, the park was the Pike National Forest (K-4404). I’ve done this type of combo activation in the past, sometimes just SOTA + POTA or just SOTA + VHF Contest. This time I did all three.
The book is available directly from the ARRL or from the usual book outlets such as Amazon.
A view of the W0C/RG-169 summit from the Continental Divide Trail. Look closely to see the game trail heading up to the right towards the saddle.
Lobo Overlook is an excellent summit and tourist spot near Wolf Creek Pass, one of the most scenic passes in Colorado. I’ve been up there for VHF contests and other mountaintop operations and initially thought it might be a SOTA summit. No such luck, as it is superseded by a higher summit nearby (W0C/RG-169). No problem, we’ll just activate that one instead. Lobo Overlook is accessed via an easy 3-mile gravel road just off the pass. The road leads to two small loops at the top, one of which is the actual Lobo Overlook while the other goes to an obvious radio site. The trail to RG-169 is best accessed from the radio site, so we parked there. Wolf Creek Pass and Lobo Overlook sit right on the Continental Divide and the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) passes through here just a bit to the west.
The Lobo Overlook road starts slightly east of Wolf Creek Pass.
Lobo Peak
This unnamed summit is listed as 11820 in the SOTA database. However, Lists of John (which was used to create the W0C SOTA database) shows this summit as 11831. My topo map seems to agree with 11831, so this might be an error. Of course, such a cool summit near the CDT deserves a name, so Joyce/K0JJW and I decided to call it Lobo Peak, for obvious reasons. (I looked for an existing nearby Lobo Peak and did not find one.)
Near the radio site, we started at the marked trailhead and headed west on Lobo Trail (878), actually going downhill to intersect the CDT about a half mile down the trail. At the trailhead, it was not obvious which summit we were headed to and it might not even be visible at that point. The summit did reveal itself as we headed down the CDT (see first photo above). We followed the CDT to a visible game trail that takes off steeply to the right (lat/lon 37.49765, -106.81515). There are several game trails that split off, heading up towards the saddle to the left of the summit and we stayed on the most established one. We set up our station within the activation zone just below the actual summit, avoiding the rock scrambling to get to the top.
The trail from Lobo Overlook to RG-169 mostly follows the Continental Divide Trail.
The one-way distance on the trail is 1.2 miles with an up-and-down profile. Lobo Overlook is only slightly lower in elevation from “Lobo Peak”. The trail starts at about 11,770 feet, descending to a low point of 11,500 and back up to 11,800 at the summit. So that produces a net ascent of about 300 feet, maybe more, one way. Of course, you get to repeat this on the way back.
The sign at the trailhead calls this Lobo Pass.
SOTA and POTA Activations
Once in the activation zone, we deployed the IC-705 on 2m FM, driving the 3-element Yagi antenna. We worked Travis/KB9LMJ on 146.52 MHz, who was mobile in Pagosa Springs. Further calling on 2m FM did not yield any contacts, but K0JJW and I did work each other on VHF/UHF. We had anticipated that this might be a tough place to activate on VHF, so we brought along the HF gear and set up an EndFed Halfwave antenna for 20m. Propagation was good and we soon worked 11 stations on 20m SSB.
This summit sits right on the dividing line between the Rio Grande National Forest and the San Juan National Forest, both valid for Parks On The Air (POTA). We opted to operate from the Rio Grande side (K-4405) because that was a new one for both of us.
This is the radio site as seen when you return from the summit, so no excuse for getting lost.
Continental Divide Trail
I’ve hiked sections of the Continental Divide Trail before, including some pre-SOTA backpack trips with Denny/KB9DPF. It is a great trail because it runs along the backbone of the Rocky Mountains. It is often accessible via roads to high mountain passes. (Another example is Wander Ridge, just off Cottonwood Pass.) Once you hop onto the CDT, you are hiking an established trail that is literally on top of the world.
This is an excellent, easy-to-access summit in the Wolf Creek Pass area. So if you are in the area, this might be one to activate. The road to Lobo Overlook is closed during the winter.
Argentine Peak (W0C/SR-019) is a high 13er (13,738 ft) in the Sawatch Range of the Rocky Mountains. I had my eye on this summit for a Summits On The Air (SOTA) activation for quite some time now. This summit is a short distance from Argentine Pass, which is the fourth-highest road in Colorado at 13,207 feet. A non-radio goal I have is to drive the Jeep up the twenty highest roads in Colorado, so Argentine Pass is on that list. Not only that, Argentine Peak sits on the Continental Divide, separating the Arapaho National Forest and the White River National Forest, so it can also be activated for Parks On The Air (POTA).
Bob/K0NR and Joyce/K0JJW on the way up Argentine Peak in the background.
So the plan emerged: Joyce/K0JJW and I would take the Jeep to Argentine Pass and then climb up to Argentine Peak for a SOTA and POTA activation. The road is usually blocked by snow for much of the summer, making it a late summer/early fall adventure. Somehow September slipped away and it is now October, but fortunately, the road is still open. Note that the more common way to hike Argentine Pass is from Silver Dollar Lake trailhead (see KX0R trip report).
The 4WD route is shown above in orange, starting out as FS 248.1 leaving Guanella Pass Road.
The Road
The 4WD route starts with FS 248.1 as it leaves Guanella Pass Road, about 3 miles south of Georgetown, CO (see map above). The forest service road takes off at a point where the Guanella Pass Road takes a very sharp bend. You should have a good topo map to guide you on this route as there are quite a few roads in the area. In general, you follow FS 248.1 which has some subvariants such as 248.1B and 248.1K. The exact choice of roads is not critical but, eventually, you need to get on FS 724.1 which sports a few wide and steep switchbacks up to Argentine Pass. The one-way distance is 9 miles and it took us about 1.5 hours to make the drive.
This road and route is considered moderate 4WD and FS 248.1 provides a good taste of that right after you leave the paved road. Many other sections of the road are easy 4WD but there are some challenging spots along the way. This is a real 4WD road, so you’ll need a decent high-clearance 4WD vehicle in the class of a Wrangler, Bronco, 4Runner, etc. We drove a stock Jeep Wrangler and had no trouble. However, at one spot, the wheel placement was very critical, so Joyce spotted me as I drove through it. Not that difficult…unless you screw it up.
The Climb
As shown below, the climbing route up Argentine Peak (blue line) follows the Continental Divide ridge line as it heads south from Argentine Pass. The road up Argentine Pass ends kind of high in the pass, so at first, we were walking downhill. A faint trail follows the top of the ridge but fades out in many places. Looking at the topo map, I underestimated how much up and down there would be on the ridge but it was not too difficult.
The route to Argentine Peak follows the Continental Divide ridge line from Argentine Pass.
The hike is about 1 mile with 650 feet vertical (one-way). We had fantastic weather in October: sunny, with temperatures in the 40’s F and some light wind (10 to 15 mph). This is one of those top-of-the-world hiking experiences, right along the Continental Divide.
Joyce/K0JJW on the summit of Argentine Peak.
As you can see from the photos, there were some patches of snow on the ground, but it was not an issue for hiking. A real Mountain Goat (not a SOTA Mountain Goat) wandered by and paid us a visit.
This mountain goat wandered by while we were on the summit.We used our standard 2m/70cm FM station: Yaesu FT-90 running 30 watts to a 3-element Yagi for 2 meters or a 5-element Yagi for 70 cm. We worked stations mostly on 146.52 MHz FM and a few on 446.0 MHz. With downtown Denver about 45 miles away, we easily worked stations in the greater Denver area. We were also successful working stations out to 60 or 70 miles, often with good signal reports in both directions. We both made 20 QSOs using VHF/UHF.
For POTA, we were right on the dividing line between White River NF and Arapaho NF but needed to choose one for our activation. We had previously activated Arapaho, so we chose to operate from White River NF on this trip (K-4410) which is a new park for us.
Summary
We had an absolute blast on this activation. I think it was the combination of a Jeep trip, hiking, SOTA, and POTA all wrapped into one adventure that made it so good. As a bonus, we had excellent weather and a visit by the mountain goat!
The FT8 station consists of an iPad, Icom IC-705, MFJ-902 tuner, a battery pack, and one of many wire antennas.
In a previous post, I described getting the IC-705 set up for FT8 using the SDR-Control app on an iPad. My objective was to have a portable FT8 station for use during SOTA and POTA activations.
To save time, let me get this out of the way:
Yes, I do know that making contacts via FT8 is not as personal and may not be as much fun as running a pileup on SSB or CW. Still, it is Real Ham Radio and enjoyable in a different way.
I’ve used this station on multiple activations now but I have to admit that these have been mostly for POTA. It seems that whenever I get on top of a SOTA summit, I tend to focus on making VHF contacts which consumes the available time and the HF gear remains stashed way in my pack. This is more about my operating habits than anything else. Looking at spots though, there is a lot of FT8 on POTA and not nearly as much on SOTA. The SOTA crowd tends to have a lot of traditional CW enthusiasts and maybe POTA has fewer of them. Also, SOTA operating is usually backpack portable so carrying a compute device for FT8 may be considered an unnecessary hassle. POTA stations are often in or near a vehicle, so station size/weight is less of a concern.
For POTA, I make sure my activation is posted at pota.app, indicating the park number I am activating. When calling CQ, I modify the standard FT8 text to be “CQ POTA” to indicate that I am doing an activation. When my signal is detected by the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN), a spot is created that shows me doing a POTA activation from that park. Pretty cool. If I have an internet connection, I monitor my spots using the Ham Alert app. This provides useful feedback about where my signal is showing up around the world.
But what are the main reasons that FT8 is useful for POTA?
FT8 is popular
In case you haven’t noticed, FT8 has emerged from being just a niche activity to now being very popular on most ham bands. At times this can be a problem with the standard FT8 frequency slice being overloaded with signals. There is a lot of FT8 activity on the bands, for general ham use and SOTA/POTA.
FT8 works well with low power
FT8 and the other WSJT-X modes are designed to work well with weak signals, so they are a great match for low-power operation. Of course, QRP power levels are very common for backpack portable activations, mostly due to the limitations of carrying a reasonable-size battery.
FT8 signals are spotted on RBN
As mentioned earlier, FT8 signals are picked up and spotted by RBN. For better or worse, people have come to rely on spotting for many types of ham radio operating. When on a SOTA or POTA activation, you really want to be spotted as such. For phone activations, I usually do that with a smartphone but that requires some extra effort and a mobile phone connection. FT8 and RBN take care of that for you.
FT8 logging is automated
The various FT8 software applications automatically log the QSO information, which means it is easy and less error-prone. After the activation, I just pull up the ADIF log file, check it for obvious errors, add in the SOTA/POTA info, and submit it to the appropriate websites.
FT8 is campsite friendly
This last one may be a bit subtle but I’ve found FT8 to be campsite friendly. By that, I mean I can get on the air at any time (early, late or at nap time) and not disturb anyone else. (On SSB, I would likely be enthusiastically yelling into the microphone trying to work a pileup.) Besides the audio noise factor, FT8 operation allows for multitasking. I can converse with my fellow campers while still keeping up with the FT8 flow. Alternatively, I can cook dinner, make a fire, or pack my backpack while the FT8 QSOs roll in. This may sound a little bit like cheating but, hey, whatever works.
Wrap Up
So clearly, I’ve been having fun with FT8 for POTA. I consider it to be another tool in the toolkit. There are times when I will make good use of it but there will also be times to use other modes.
This past year, Joyce/\K0JJW and I did quite a few Summits On The Air (SOTA) and Parks On The Air (POTA) activations, often as part of an RV camping trip. During this time, we made some improvements to our portable gear. For SOTA, we primarily use the VHF/UHF bands but we have been sprinkling in a bit more HF activity. For POTA, we often don’t have a Height Above Average Terrain advantage, so we definitely use the HF bands.
The ICOM IC-705 is a great backpack portable rig for SOTA and POTA.
Our main goal was to have a backpack portable station for SOTA and POTA that can cover HF through 70 cm, on the most popular bands/modes including CW, SSB, FM and FT8.
Using The IC-705
This 4.5 Ah battery from Bioenno is a compact, lightweight battery for portable operating.
The Icom IC-705 is a great transceiver for covering most HF, VHF and UHF bands. With an external battery, the transceiver puts out 10 watts of RF power. (This is a bit less than the 50 watts from our Yaesu FT-90, which is our default choice for 2m and 70 cm SOTA.) We have accumulated a number of Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries from Bioenno. They are all set up with PowerPole connectors and are easily interchanged. See a previous post, My SOTA Battery Journey.
Arguably the biggest weakness of the IC-705 is the lack of an internal antenna tuner for the HF bands. Of course, you can operate without a tuner by making sure your antenna is always 50 ohms. I find that limiting, especially under portable conditions where the antenna configuration might be compromised. Also, some common end-fed antennas that cover multiple bands are not a good match for all bands. There are external automatic antenna tuners available for the IC-705, so initially those looked like a good solution. Then I remembered that I had a small MFJ-902 Travel Tuner that could do the job. The MFJ-902 is a classic T-network with two variable capacitors and one variable inductor. I gave it a try and was impressed with how easy it was to tune using the SWR meter of the IC-705. This thing is simple and it works.
The MFJ-902 Travel Tuner is a simple T-network antenna tuner.
The rear panel of the tuner has two SO-239 connectors, one for the transceiver and one for the antenna. I put a BNC adapter onto the transceiver port and used a short BNC cable to connect to the IC-705.
The rear panel of the Travel Tuner, with an SO-239-to-BNC adapter installed.A typical picnic table setup using the IC-705 with the MFJ-902 tuner.
The Travel Tuner is compact and not very heavy, so it works out well for backpack portable use. It can handle up to 150 watts, which is overkill for the IC-705 but it may come in handy when used with a higher power transceiver. Still, I am on the lookout for an even more compact (probably lower power) manual antenna tuner.
A typical end-fed half-wave wire antenna for 15 meters.
We have collected a variety of HF antennas, focused mostly on 20 meters and higher. These are typically end-fed, including single-band half-wave designs as well as multiband random-length antennas. These are used in the classic SOTA configuration with one end of the wire supported by a lightweight fishing pole and the coax connection on the ground, fed by a 25-foot length of RG-8X coaxial cable.
FT8 Solution
With the popularity of FT8 on the HF bands as well as 6 meters, I figured we should include that mode in our portable kit. My first thought was to use a compact Windows computer running the standard WSJT-X software. Ultimately, I chose the SDR Control app for the Apple iPad (by Marcus/DL8MRE), which supports specific Icom radios. The iPad connects to the IC-705 via its WiFi connection, which simplifies the connection/cabling challenge. The SDR Control app does cost $49.99, so it is not your inexpensive iOS app but I have found it to be worth the price. Because this app is focused only on iOS and certain Icom radios, it is well-tuned to be a no-fuss solution. I am currently using the app only for FT8 but it has other features and modes for me to explore.
The portable station for FT8, running SDR Control on an iPad.
The Powerwerx PWRbox is shown in the photo above, which we often use for operating POTA. (This box is a bit heavy for hiking.) The PWRbox holds a 20 Ah battery as described here. Also shown in the photo is a handy little stand for the IC-705, the NEEWER Folding Z Flex Tilt Head. It does a great job of holding and stabilizing the radio at a variety of angles. (Hat tip to Kyle/KD0TRD.) It is also a little heavy for backpack portable, so it usually gets left behind on a hike.
The Maxpedition bottle holder case works well with the IC-705.
For a protective case for the IC-705, we use the Maxpedition 12-Inch X 5-Inch Bottle Holder. I’ve seen other IC-705 users recommend it and OH8STN mentioned it on his blog. At first glance, the case seems a bit large but this provides enough room inside to stow a small Bioenno battery and other accessories. The side pouch is a good place for storing the microphone and power cord.
Wrap Up
This post shares some new equipment configurations we are using for SOTA and POTA, mostly focused on the IC-705. I really like that radio for portable ops as it is the best solution for operating HF through UHF. The SDR Control software on an iPad has also turned out to be a win for us.
What are you using for your portable station?
Do you have any tips or other operating ideas?
There is a SOTA summit next to Wilkerson Pass called The Pulverizer (W0C/SP-092). With such an inviting name, of course, we had to activate it.
The Pulverizer (W0C/SP-092) viewed from west of Wilkerson Pass
According to its Summit Post page, this summit was named by well-known mountaineer and author Gerry Roach. Apparently, this name is an adaptation of the name of a nearby summit, Pulver Mountain. The Pulverizer does not have a trail to the summit and is known for having a lot of downed timber in the way. I found a trip report that said,
Overall, this is the kind of “hike” you only do if you really, really want to get these summits. It’s the kind of hike that you take someone on if you never want them to go with you on a hike ever again. Miserable downfall for pretty much the entire hike.
Having climbed the summit, I think this is an exaggeration but we did encounter plenty of downed timber. Many of our SOTA activations involve off-trail hiking, so we have been conditioned to expect the all-too-common dead trees on the ground.
Wilkerson Pass
Joyce/K0JJW and I followed the route identified by Walt/W0CP that starts at the Wilkerson Pass Visitor Center. (This summit can also be accessed from the east, via County Road 90.) We parked the Jeep on the east end of the parking lot and walked the trail (actually a sidewalk) to the south. At the “trailhead” waypoint, we left the sidewalk and headed south on a trail that quickly faded away.
Head south from the parking lot on the trail (sidewalk, actually) that loops around the picnic area.
Most of this area is in the Pike National Forest but there is a large piece of private property as shown on the map. The route to the summit is not critical but you need to avoid the private property, well marked with No Trespassing signs. The northeast corner of the property is shown on the map below as Fence Corner #1 (39.03252, -105.52364). We aimed for that corner, then followed the fence line heading south to Fence Corner #2 (39.02911, -105.52373). After that, you pretty much head to the summit, adjusting your route to avoid the worst sections of downfall.
Avoid the private property by skirting around it, then head to the summit.
The hike is 1.5 miles one way, with about 950 feet of elevation gain. There is a bit of up and down so the accumulated elevation gain may be higher than this. It starts out downhill, then flattens out but then provides a steep uphill section at the end. On the return trip, head for Fence Corner #2 and then follow the fence line north.
This shows the typical downed timber that has to be navigated.
On the summit, we had good luck with making VHF & UHF radio contacts. This was during the Colorado 14er Event, so we had other summits on the air for S2S contacts. Sitting right above Wilkerson Pass, it has an excellent radio horizon in all directions. Here’s the view from the top, looking east:
The view to the east with Pikes Peak off in the distance.
Final Impression
So the real question is did we like the summit and will we do it again? We are glad that we did it, kind of a check-the-box item for SOTA activations in the South Park area. This is not our favorite SOTA summit but we might do it again sometime. You might say “We Have Been Pulverized” and we are not in a hurry to do it again.
My article that describes last year’s SOTA/POTA/VHF contest activation from Pikes Peak appears in the June issue of QST magazine. This VHF/UHF activation occurred on the Saturday of the ARRL June VHF Contest and qualified for Summits On The Air (W0C/FR-004 Pikes Peak) and Parks On The Air (K-4404 Pike National Forest). The article highlights the use of the North America Adventure Frequency of 146.58 MHz.
I made 80 radio contacts that day, on the 6m, 2m, 1.25m, 70cm, and 23cm bands. Not a great score for the VHF contest but quite nice for a VHF SOTA and POTA activation. My primary piece of equipment was the ICOM IC-705, which enabled all modes on the main VHF/UHF frequencies.
If you are an ARRL member, look for the article on Page 58 of the print edition of June QST or the online version. Not an ARRL member? Darn, you should fix that if you want to read articles published in QST.
If you are an ARRL member, please look at the article and consider voting for it in the QST Cover Plaque Award. Thanks!
My standard SOTA setup is a Yaesu FT-90 compact VHF/UHF transceiver stuffed into a fanny pack with its Bioenno battery pack. The fanny pack is a pretty nice flyfishing pack that I position on the front side of me so I can easily see and operate the radio. I am usually holding the 2m or 70 cm Yagi antenna and talking on the microphone.
These clips used to be quite common on older cellphones (pre-Smartphone) and they fit the standard microphone button.
I’ve been looking for a way to clip the microphone onto the pack. Typically, what happens now is I drop the microphone and it gets banged up when it hits the rocky ground. I needed a way to easily hang it on the side of the pack. I recalled having an old cellphone belt clip that accepts the standard button on the back of a mobile microphone, but I couldn’t locate it. However, I did find one on Amazon.
Typical Yaesu mobile microphone hanging from the clip.
I clipped it onto my fanny pack and the Yaesu microphone hangs quite nicely on it. This clip can be used for other applications…anywhere you want to hang a microphone onto a backpack, belt, or whatever. Depending on your station configuration, this may be useful for all kinds of portable operating: SOTA, POTA, and satellites.
Setting operating goals has been useful for me in ham radio. They often provided a reason or incentive for me to get on the air and make some contacts. I followed the typical award sequence of Worked All States (WAS), Worked All Continents (WAC), DX Century Club (DXCC), and so forth. I wrote about it here: Pursue Radio Operating Goals.
Gamification
Over time, I’ve come to realize that some amateur radio activities include the elements of gamification. Gamification is a hot topic in user interface design, online learning, and other computer-based systems. The basic idea is to incorporate gaming techniques into activities to increase user engagement. From Wikipedia:
Gamification techniques are intended to leverage people’s natural desires for socializing, learning, mastery, competition, achievement, status, self-expression, altruism, or closure, or simply their response to the framing of a situation as game or play.
Gamification commonly uses these elements (also from Wikipedia):
Game design elements are the basic building blocks of gamification applications. Among these typical game design elements, are points, badges, leader-boards, performance graphs, meaningful stories, avatars, and teammates.
I first became aware of this topic after I became involved in Summits On The Air (SOTA). Before SOTA was a thing, I was often found on the top of some summit making radio contacts. So when SOTA was established in Colorado (W0C), I thought “this is interesting but I am already doing it.” It did strike my fancy enough that I started submitting logs into the SOTA database. Oh, guess what, many of my mountaintop operations were the first activation for SOTA. How about that? I am the first. I win. I have bragging rights, or something.
Soon I was accumulating SOTA activator and chaser points. My first objective was to qualify for the 100-point activator certificate. (SOTA has many certificates and awards.) Achieving 100 points took me about 15 activations, so it is not too difficult but does represent an accomplishment. It did not take very long to do this and soon I was focused on 1000 points for the coveted Mountain Goat award. That goal took several years to complete, but I got it done. I decided to only use the VHF/UHF bands for the Mountain Goat award, so that was my little personal twist on that accomplishment.
We can clearly see that the SOTA program has these elements of gamification: points, badges (certificates/awards), and leaderboards. For me, the leaderboard is the Activator Role of Honour, with the Colorado (W0C) Association selected:
At the moment, I am #12 on the list. I do not aspire to be at the top of the list but I do want to be on the list, somewhere above the 1000 mark. I also like to see how my fellow W0C SOTA activators have been doing. For example, it has been fun to watch Szymon/WV0X go from zero activator points to over 1800 in a short period of time. Also, Gary/W0MNA and Martha/W0ERI are a couple from Kansas (no SOTA summits in the state) that have both made it to Mountain Goat. Not an easy accomplishment. It is cool to see that we have 19 Mountain Goats in the association and more on their way. Pretty good!
SOTA does not specifically have any teams formed as part of the program but the camaraderie of W0C is essentially a team. We share information about various summits and encourage each other when new goals are achieved. Sometimes groups of activators get together for a joint activation. (Most areas that have significant SOTA activity also have this community/team effect.)
Parks On The Air
Recently, I have become involved with Parks On The Air (POTA), which also has gamification built into it. POTA has the advantage of parks being virtually everywhere. (Unlike SOTA summits, Kansas has parks to activate.) As Joyce/K0JJW and I have traveled around the country, POTA has been a satisfying activity to include in our plans.
POTA has many different award schemes, too many to mention here. I pulled up my awards page to see what I have qualified for:
The objective I have set for POTA is to activate all the parks in Colorado. I want to visit them anyway, so this is a good opportunity to blend ham radio with our travel plans. There are 187 POTA parks in Colorado, so this is going to take a while to complete.
Implications
Gamification can be used to make ham radio activity more fun and to more fully engage the participants. Traditional radio contesting is clearly a competition and has the elements of keeping score, having leaderboards (after the contest) and having teammates. However, most contests provide painfully slow feedback. The official results may not be posted until 6 months later. (The 3830 Scores website was created to bypass this delay by sharing scores immediately.) Contesting is obviously a game, so where’s the gamification? [Update: Justin/K5EM pointed out there are contests that have online live scoring: contest.run and contestonlinescore.com ]
Perhaps your radio club (or just your group of ham friends) can use gamification to have fun. You could leverage programs like SOTA and POTA to create a club activity. Pursue a club goal (activate 50 parks or summits this year), a friendly competition, whatever. POTA lets you activate with a club call while still providing credit for the operator, so that opens up some possibilities.
If you are getting stale in your ham radio operating, perhaps one of these gamified programs would be good motivation for you. It could be SOTA or POTA (both include chasing, so you can do it from home), or maybe some other program out there.
Rito Alto Peak is an easy 13er about 15 miles west of Westcliffe, CO in the Sangre De Cristo mountain range. This summit caught my attention because it was near Hermit Pass, one of the highest passes in Colorado at 13047 feet. We’ve been taking the Jeep up the highest roads in Colorado, and Hermit Pass was on The List. Looking around on the map, I noticed that Rito Alto Peak was an unactivated 10-point SOTA summit right next to the pass. Not only that, the summit is in the San Juan National Forest (K-4404), enabling a POTA activation as well. So how could we not do a trip up there?
Bob/K0NR climbing up Rito Alto Peak near Hermit Pass
Rito Alto Peak (W0C/SC-004) and Hermit Pass are about 15 miles straight west of Westcliffe, CO. To get there, take CR 160 (Hermit Road) west and then turn south onto FS 160. The turn-off is easy to spot and begins the 4WD portion of the trip. The 4WD road is not particularly difficult from a technical point of view, but the road is very rocky for most of the 9 miles. Every once in a while, the road has a smoother section, only to be followed by lots of rocks. I call these roads “moderate but annoying.” Any real 4WD vehicle should be able to handle this. We drove our stock Jeep Wrangler and it did fine. This is not a road for Suburu-class SUVs.
To get to Hermit Pass, head west from Westcliffe, then follow Hermit Road south.
At the end of the 9 miles of bouncing up the road, we parked at Hermit Pass and started the climb there. (It took us about 2 hours to drive this road.) Of course, you can always hike some or all of the road. Useful climbing info can be found here on 14ers.com. Hermit Peak, to the south of the pass, is NOT a SOTA summit. However, further south is Eureka Mountain (W0C/SC-007), which could also be hiked from Hermit Pass.
Climbing route shown in blue.
The figure above shows the track of our climbing route. There is no trail and there is plenty of talus to step over and around. The route is not critical but we tended to stay on top of the ridge line, sometimes deviating to find a better path. The distance was 0.7 miles one way with an elevation gain of 700 feet. So not too difficult, except for climbing over rocks. Trekking poles are highly recommended.
We spotted three bighorn sheep on the next ridge over.
On the summit, we set up our normal 2m FM station: the Yaesu FT-90 transceiver with 3-element 2m Yagi antenna, and started calling on 146.52 MHz. Joyce made the first contact so she has the honor of doing the first SOTA activation from this summit. You Go Girl!
Bob/K0NR and Joyce/K0JJW on the summit of Rito Alto Peak.
I was a bit worried about getting enough contacts to qualify for SOTA points but that turned out to not be a problem. We heard strong signals from the Buena Vista area (W0BV, KD0MRC) and Florrisant (K0MGL). We also made some Summit-to-Summit QSOs (S2S): WV0X (St Charles Peak, W0C/SC-031), W0ADV (Snowmass Mountain, W0C/WE-003), and W0CP (McQuaid Butte, W0C/SP-109). We also worked K0EEP, K9RZK, W9RIK, and W9NDR. Our Best DX for the day was 104 miles, with W0ADV on Snowmass. Thanks for all of the 2m FM QSOs!
Just one of the many fantastic views from the mountain.
As shown in the photos, the weather was excellent. We took our time on the mountain and never saw signs of thunderstorms. The climb down was easy and we returned to the Jeep. Then it was 9 more miles bouncing down the road and on to Westcliffe for a late lunch. What a great day for SOTA + POTA + Jeep trip.
This year, the Colorado 14er Event had the normal two-day (Saturday and Sunday) schedule plus two bonus days (Friday and Monday) for four activation days. Of course, Joyce/K0JJW and I decided to activate all four days using VHF/UHF frequencies. Frankly, we have not been doing that much hiking this year, so we were careful to lay out a plan that would work for us over four days.
Kaufman Ridge (W0C/SP-081)
On Friday, we hiked up Kaufman Ridge, which is a relatively easy summit near our cabin. I had an online meeting in the morning that caused us to get a late start this day, but we did chase some activators in the morning. On the summit, we worked a number of stations on VHF/UHF using the IC-705 transceiver. It was clear that most of the activators left their summit before noon, as is the usual practice for the 14ers and high peaks.
Normally, we focus our SOTA fun on VHF/UHF but this time I brought along an end-fed halfwave antenna for 20m and made a few 20m SSB contacts, including one with Elliot/K6EL on Mount Davidson (W6/NC-423). That’s right, a rare HF SOTA activation by K0NR. Joyce and I also turned in a log for Parks On The Air (POTA), which was San Isabel National Forest (K-4407).
Bob/K0NR on the trail up Kaufman Ridge.
Pikes Peak (W0C/FR-004)
On Saturday, I wanted to focus on making some 1.2 GHz (23 cm) contacts so we chose Pikes Peak as a good platform for that. Pikes is always fun because of its easy access (yes, we drove up) and its high location towering over eastern Colorado. We had Jon/KM4PEH and his wife join us on the summit, taking turns using the VHF/UHF bands. I made 42 QSOs on the various bands but my 23 cm contact with N0OY was the most exciting. I worked him in Salina KS on 1296.1 MHz using CW for a distance of 627km (392 mi). This is my new personal best for SOTA on that band. See this post for more detail on this contact.
Saturday was a good day for Summit-to-Summit (S2S) radio contacts, as I picked up 13 of them, all on VHF/UHF in Colorado. Joyce and I both worked Dave/W0ADV on Capitol Peak (W0C/SR-060) using 1.2 GHz FM. Capitol is a challenging climb, as shown in Dave’s video here.
Pikes Peak is in the Pike National Forest (K-4404), so we submitted our logs for POTA.
Bob/K0NR sitting down on the job, getting ready for a 23 cm activation.
Mount Antero (W0C/SR-003)
On Sunday, we got up early and drove the Jeep up Mt Antero Road, parking at about 13,600 feet in elevation. This cuts a large chunk of the distance and elevation off the ascent to 14,268 feet. Besides, who wants to hike on a 4WD road anyway? It is still a decent climb over the rocky trail to get to the top.
A view of Mount Antero, on the way up.
This was my fourth SOTA activation of Antero, including its first activation back in 2011. (Actually, I’ve activated this many more times during the Colorado 14er Event, which predates SOTA in Colorado.) The activity was down a bit from Saturday and we were much further away from the large population centers, which is a factor on VHF/UHF. Still, we both made 17 QSOs, including five S2S contacts. We submitted our logs to POTA for San Isabel National Forest (K-4407).
Bob/K0NR working 2m FM from the summit of Mt Antero.The 70cm Yagi-Uda antenna is vertically polarized for FM operation.
Wander Ridge (W0C/SP-042)
On Monday, we activated one of our favorite summits near Cottonwood Pass, SP-042. Usually, I would refer to this as an Unnamed Summit (12,792), which is the name the SOTA database shows. Dave/W0ADV pointed out this summit does have a name: Wander Ridge, so I’ve adopted it for this special peak. The USGS approved that name in 2017 but it has not yet made it into the SOTA database.
Bob/K0NR on the Continental Divide Trail and Colorado Trail, headed to Wander Ridge.
From an outdoor hiking perspective, this was the best summit of the weekend. The hike starts at Cottonwood Pass and follows the Continental Divide Trail south toward the summit. Then, a short off-trail hike takes you to the summit. The weather and views were excellent!
Bob/K0NR and Joyce/K0JJW on the summit of Wander Ridge.
The activity was a bit light but we both made 10 contacts, enough to qualify for a POTA activation (in addition to SOTA). This summit is right on the border of San Isabel NF and Gunnison NF, and we chose to activate it from the San Isabel side (K-4407). We only had one S2S contact, with Steve/K5SJC on Pikes Peak.
All in all, it was a fantastic weekend with four excellent summit activations. It was wonderful to work our old and new SOTA friends on the VHF/UHF bands. My special thanks go to Pete/N0OY for firing up his mega 23cm station to work me on Pikes Peak.
Big news — I’m proud to announce that the Second Edition of my book VHF, Summits, and More is now available. I’ve received tons of positive feedback on the first edition, published in 2019, and I decided it was time for an update. This new version is printed in color, which greatly enhances the photos and graphics.
