Today’s expedition was to Antelope Mountain,
aka W7A/AE-022. I wanted to be setup by
1000 so that I could catch Adam, K6ARK while he was on a summit in
California. I’ve been up here before and
knew not to try to get to the top of the mountain via the road. Last time I almost got stuck up there by
becoming high-centered on large rocks.
It was a pain because the only way down is to back down to a place that
is wide enough to turn around. Not a
problem hiking up though. It’s a bit
steep but only a half mile from where I parked.
See Greens Peak SOTA chart.
[click on image for larger]
Once spotted I had a huge pileup working with
all of the usual suspects chasing my station.
After working down the pileup, I checked the spotting network and was
just starting to tune a station in when I could hear thunder rumbling behind me
and in front of me. There was a cell
about 2 miles behind me moving away with a good downpour working. The one in front of me was about 5 miles away
and moving toward me so I figured it was time to get off the mountain,
quick.
I pulled down my lightning rod and packed up
as quick as I could, then headed out.
About 100 yds down the hill, I realized I didn’t have my phone. I went back up and couldn’t find it. I have an Apple Watch, which will ping the
iPhone. Using that feature, I found the
phone in the dirt. Darn good thing I had
that combo, the phone blended in pretty well with the dirt. I have tile on my keys that will do the same
thing but it’s not as reliable. When I
got to the car, the lightning was about 2 miles from me.
A vehicle with decent clearance can make it up
to where I started (see track) but if it’s been raining, you’ll
want good tires, AWD or both. I may
still be up there it it weren’t for the AWD pulling me through some of the
muddy areas.
I netted 25 contacts which included a few
summit to summit contacts. When I
arrived back at the villa, there was thunder in all directions. We had few nice cells pass over with hail and
lighting. The total hike was about a
mile with about 560 feet of elevation gain.
No pictures this trip, but I did do some
video.
Contacts
| Own Callsign | Date | Time | Summit | Band | Mode | Station Worked | Notes |
| N1CLC | 02/Aug/2019 | 17:06 | W7A/AE-022 | 10MHz | CW | N1ZF | S2S |
| N1CLC | 02/Aug/2019 | 17:20 | W7A/AE-022 | 10MHz | CW | KX0R | S2S |
| N1CLC | 02/Aug/2019 | 17:25 | W7A/AE-022 | 14MHz | SSB | K6RIN | S2S |
| N1CLC | 02/Aug/2019 | 17:29 | W7A/AE-022 | 14MHz | SSB | W6ODS | |
| N1CLC | 02/Aug/2019 | 17:32 | W7A/AE-022 | 14MHz | SSB | K0LAF | |
| N1CLC | 02/Aug/2019 | 17:33 | W7A/AE-022 | 14MHz | SSB | WW7D | |
| N1CLC | 02/Aug/2019 | 17:34 | W7A/AE-022 | 14MHz | SSB | NS7P | |
| N1CLC | 02/Aug/2019 | 17:35 | W7A/AE-022 | 14MHz | SSB | W0MNA | |
| N1CLC | 02/Aug/2019 | 17:35 | W7A/AE-022 | 14MHz | SSB | K6EL | |
| N1CLC | 02/Aug/2019 | 17:35 | W7A/AE-022 | 14MHz | SSB | W0ERI | |
| N1CLC | 02/Aug/2019 | 17:36 | W7A/AE-022 | 14MHz | SSB | K6QCB | |
| N1CLC | 02/Aug/2019 | 17:36 | W7A/AE-022 | 14MHz | SSB | K7GT | |
| N1CLC | 02/Aug/2019 | 17:37 | W7A/AE-022 | 14MHz | SSB | K6LDQ | |
| N1CLC | 02/Aug/2019 | 17:38 | W7A/AE-022 | 14MHz | SSB | K6CPR | |
| N1CLC | 02/Aug/2019 | 17:38 | W7A/AE-022 | 14MHz | SSB | N0EMU | |
| N1CLC | 02/Aug/2019 | 17:39 | W7A/AE-022 | 14MHz | SSB | KE6MAK | |
| N1CLC | 02/Aug/2019 | 17:39 | W7A/AE-022 | 14MHz | SSB | K6YK | |
| N1CLC | 02/Aug/2019 | 17:40 | W7A/AE-022 | 14MHz | SSB | N4EX | |
| N1CLC | 02/Aug/2019 | 17:41 | W7A/AE-022 | 14MHz | SSB | KC0PBR | |
| N1CLC | 02/Aug/2019 | 17:42 | W7A/AE-022 | 14MHz | SSB | VE7EA | |
| N1CLC | 02/Aug/2019 | 17:42 | W7A/AE-022 | 14MHz | SSB | VA6FUN | |
| N1CLC | 02/Aug/2019 | 17:42 | W7A/AE-022 | 14MHz | SSB | N6DNM | |
| N1CLC | 02/Aug/2019 | 17:43 | W7A/AE-022 | 14MHz | SSB | K6TQ | |
| N1CLC | 02/Aug/2019 | 17:44 | W7A/AE-022 | 14MHz | SSB | KB1RJC | |
| N1CLC | 02/Aug/2019 | 17:45 | W7A/AE-022 | 14MHz | SSB | N0RZ |
Loadout for the multiple summits:
NOTE: The links for these were broken, I've updated them on my equipment loadout page.
NOTE: The links for these were broken, I've updated them on my equipment loadout page.
● Gregory Zulu 40 backpack
● First aid kit. Make sure it’s a good one... like ability to patch up an impalement wound. ● CHA MPAS with spike and additional MIL mast (and version 2 of the top section)
● 30’ of coax feed line
● Yaesu FT-2DR HT
● Slim Jim dual band antenna for my HT.
● 3 L of water (8 lb)
● iPhone with All Trails, MotionX GPS and sota goat
● LDG Z-100 plus auto antenna tuner for the FT 891
● Trekking poles
● Jetboil MicroMo cooking system
● Extra LiFePO Battery
● AnyTone AT-868UV DMR radio for testing.
● Custom wiine bottle cork paddles for CW (crafted by K6ARK)
● American Morse Porta Paddle for CW
● Delorme Inreach satellite tracker and communicator.
73,
N1CLC
Christian Claborne
(aka Chris Claborne)
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