2020-07-12 Another New Mexico FA

Today’s mission was for me to be the first activator of another New Mexico Summit, W5N/AP-007.  I’m happy to report, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.  This is the 4th “First Activation” (FA) that I’ve completed in New Mexico.  I was thinking of doing this summit along with W5N/AP-015 last week but I didn’t have my plans solid enough on it.  I charted it but hadn’t really done the research well enough to be comfortable with it and I didn’t know what I would run into on AP-015.  BTW, getting FA for a summit is only good for the ego because you are listed first on the summit page.

I spent some time looking at the summit yesterday and decided that it was totally doable.  I charted a way to get to the landing zone (LZ), popped it into Google Maps just to make life a little easier and headed out at 7AM.  It was kinda hot yesterday at the cabin and I didn’t want to hike in the rain.  Also, more moisture is getting pulled up into this area as the weak high pressure zone aloft moves east meaning thunderstorms could form so I wanted get the activation completed before the possibility of thunderstorms. 

The drive to the LZ was one hour, 15 minutes from my cabin.  According to Google, I had two possible routes to the LZ, one through Springerville and come in from the north, or go east from here to Luna and come in from the south.  I decided to go via Luna since that will be more scenic and I was more comfortable that it would work out as I couldn't really tell how Google was routing me in from the north.  The route was scenic, changing from forest, to high desert, to lush forest again.  The road leading up to the LZ was closed off a little early.  It had a marker set in the middle, indicating no motor vehicle traffic beyond that point and some berms not far from there.    No big deal, it only added tenth or two to the total hike.  I was willing to hike a lot farther than that.  For these kinda unknown hikes I expect to find some roads closed once in a while or impassible with my Highlander which has very little clearance.  The planned hike up per my chart was only .8 miles so I had a lot more that I could add. 

After looking at the chart showing the plan (HERE), I expected some steep parts and I was not disappointed.  The elevation gain was ~800 ft over .8 miles.  Once on top, I setup the K6ARK wonder antenna on my pushup pole and found an open spot on 40.  I had put out an alert but it took a while calling CQ before I started picking up any chasers.  I was about to send a spot out using my Inreach when my first caller, NW7E, rang me up.  I had a steady stream of chasers on 40m and then went to 20m CW where I had a pretty good pileup.  I could see weather moving in and could hear thunder in the distance, so I worked the pileup of chasers as fast as I could.  Today was the first time since I’ve been up here that I worked W0MNA, and W0ERI.  I worked stations as long as I felt comfortable.  The thunder cell wasn’t super raucous but when the thunder was almost ontop of me it was time to leave.  The main cell was to the west of me and at one point it looked like the rain might miss me but more were forming in the north and moving toward me.  It was time to leave.  I felt bad as I still had chasers calling, but being on the summit with lightning and a wire in the air didn’t seem like a good idea.  I wanted to try 60m and SSB to get some contacts that prefer that mode but it wasn’t going to happen today.

I packed up as quick as I could, hoping to beat the rain and did a “lightning extraction” to the LZ.  It did start raining but not hard enough to make me want to stop and put my shell on.  I took a bit of a different route down, putting me on a different dirt road that I didn’t expect.  I was a tad turned around and a quick check of the Alltrails map showed the car about a quarter mile away.  The road was a small spur that came off the one where the car was parked.  The rain had cooled the air down to 61 according to the car’s temp sensor.  My actual hiking track is HERE.

It was a nice drive back to Luna, New Mexico.  There were several thunderstorm cells dumping rain to the south-east and west.  The temperature supposedly rose to 81 as I dropped into a valley.  It’s interesting how the ecosystem changes from woodland to high desert, then back again to woodland.  Back at my cabin it was 72f and overcast.  The rain missed us this time :(.

Yet again, I was pulled into an area that I would have never otherwise explored.  It was very enjoyable.  First activation of W5N/AP-007?... Check!  Fun hike?... Check!  Fun day on the mountain?... Check!

Contacts:

Date:12/07/2020 | Summit:W5N/AP-007 (9334) | Call Used: N1CLC | Points: 8

Time	Callsign	Band	Mode
16:42	NW7E	7MHz	CW
16:43	WA7JTM	7MHz	CW
16:44	N6WT	7MHz	CW
16:44	AC7P	7MHz	CW
16:47	KX0R	7MHz	CW
16:47	AA7DK	7MHz	CW
16:48	WC6J	7MHz	CW
16:50	N1SMB	7MHz	CW
16:51	K7TP	7MHz	CW
16:53	NG6R	7MHz	CW
16:54	W5ESE	7MHz	CW
16:55	K6LDQ	7MHz	SSB
16:56	WA7JTM	7MHz	CW
17:03	AC1Z	14MHz	CW
17:04	W0MNA	14MHz	CW
17:05	K6YK	14MHz	CW
17:06	W0ERI	14MHz	CW
17:07	K8LJG	14MHz	CW
17:09	WB7BWZ	14MHz	CW
17:10	W5ODS	14MHz	CW
17:11	NS7P	14MHz	CW
17:12	KI5WA	14MHz	CW
17:13	W7HO	14MHz	CW
17:14	WA2USA	14MHz	CW
17:15	AB6SO	14MHz	CW
17:16	K0LAF	14MHz	CW

Loadout:

●      GoPro Hero8

●      Gregory Zulu 40 backpack

●      First aid kit.  Make sure it’s a good one... like ability to patch up an impalement wound. 

●      Elecraft KX2 10 watt HF Radio

●      The K6ARK Spider Thread Antenna

●   30’ of coax feed line (not needed

●      Slim Jim dual band antenna for my HT.

●      3 L of water (8 lb)

●      iPhone with All Trails, MotionX GPS and sota goat

●      Trekking poles (not today)

●     LNR End Fed multi-band antenna

●   SOTAbeams Tactical 7000hds Compact Heavy-Duty Telescopic Mast TAC7000HDS

●    MFJ MFJ-1714 144 MHz 1/2 Wavelength Antenna for my HT

●   AnyTone AT-868UV DMR radio for testing.

●   Custom wine bottle cork paddles for CW (crafted by K6ARK)

●   American Morse Porta Paddle for CW

●   Delorme Inreach satellite tracker and communicator.

●      Jetboil MicroMo cooking system (left at the car this trip)

●      Yaesu FT-2DR HT (backup left in the car)

●     Packtenna. (did not take)

●     CHA MPAS with spike and additional MIL mast (and version 2 of the top section) (left in car)

●      Yaesu FT-891D HF Radio at 100 watts  (left this in the car :) )

●    Extra LiFePO Battery (not needed)

●     Helinox Chair Zero Ultralight Compact Camping Chair.

73,

N1CLC

Christian Claborne

(aka chris claborne)