On Wednesday, August 7, 2024, I planned to drive to Hickory, NC to spend part of the morning helping my father with a few tasks. I planned to stay for only three hours, leaving the afternoon open for a SOTA (Summits On The Air) activation of Bakers Mountain.

Bakers Mountain is one of the most accessible one-point SOTA summits in the area. Still, it requires about 2 hours of hiking, and I always allow an hour for activating as well. Herein lies the challenge of SOTA for me this year: finding those windows of time that are open enough to fit in an activation and hike is difficult.

I ended up spending all morning in Hickory helping my father—time well spent. However, by the time I left, my SOTA window had closed. I still had some time for an activation, but only a maximum of two hours.

Although disappointed about missing the SOTA opportunity, I decided to make the most of the remaining time and visit Table Rock Fish Hatchery (US-8012) en route home. I hadn’t been to that particular site in many months, so it would be a nice revisit. I knew I could fit in the detour and activation and still be home on time. A good consolation prize!

Table Rock Fish Hatchery (US-8012)

Upon arrival, I immediately noticed that a new bridge had been built over the creek. It’s funny how you get so used to some POTA sites that you feel a real connection to them and notice even small changes.

I had brought along my Elecraft KH1 with the idea of doing the SOTA activation (it’s with me all the time anyway), but earlier, I noticed that I still had the Penntek TR-45L Skinny in the back of my car, so I opted to use it for this POTA activation.

I quickly deployed my PackTenna 20M EFHW, connected it to the TR-45L, and hopped on the air, hoping 20 meters would serve me well.

Since the “Skinny” version of the TR-45L has no built-in ATU (Antenna Tuning Unit), and since I hadn’t brought along the Elecraft T1, I had no way of operating outside of the 20M band (the TR-45L’s coverage is 80, 40, 30, 20, and 17 meters).

I’d hoped I’d packed a 40M EFHW so that I would have two usable bands and that I could work my buddy Mike (K8RAT), but 20 meters it was! I hoped the band had a little life in it!

Gear:

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• Penntek TR-45L Skinny
• ABR Industries 25’ RG-316 cable assembly with three in-line ferrites (Use Coupon Code ABR10QRPER for 10% Discount!)
  
• Key cable: Cable Matters 2-Pack Gold-Plated Retractable Aux Cable – 2.5 Feet
  
• CW Morse “Pocket Paddle”
• GoRuck GR1 USA
• Bioenno 3 Ah LiFePo Battery (Model BLF-1203AB)
• Packtenna Mini EFHW antenna
• Weaver arborist throw line/weight and storage bag
• GraphGear 0.9mm 1000 Automatic Drafting Pencil
• ‎Rite In The Rain Top Spiral Notebook
• HEROCLIP Carabiner Clip (attached to my backpack–affiliate link)
• Camera: DJI OSMO 4 action camera with Joby Telepod Sport Tripod
• Nemo Chipper Foam Seat

On The Air

I hopped on the air and started calling CQ POTA. Within a few minutes, I started working a stream of hunters.

Within nine minutes, I had worked eight stations; a very respectable pace!

Then the bands went quiet. I eventually did a little P2P (Park-to-Park) hunting—I had just enough mobile phone coverage to load the POTA spots page a couple of times.

I was pleased to add a few park-to-park contacts (thanks, VA2IDX, W4LOO, and NN9K). Combined with N5ILQ’s P2P at the beginning of the activation, I had a total of four logged. Not bad for such a short activation!

I had a few minutes left, so I called CQ POTA again and added two more hunters for a total of 13 contacts in 31 minutes.

I’ll also add that it was wonderful to receive a visit from the Table Rock canine club during my activation. Typically, there are two dogs that pop by for a visit, but this time there were three!

QSO Map

Here’s what this five-watt activation looked like when plotted out on a QSO Map:

Activation Video

Here’s my real-time, real-life video of the entire activation.  As with all of my videos, I don’t edit out any parts of the on-air activation time. In addition, I have monetization turned off on YouTube, although that doesn’t stop them from inserting ads before and after my videos.

Note that Patreon supporters can watch and even download this video 100% ad-free through Vimeo on my Patreon page:

Click here to view on YouTube.

I do love this radio…

There’s something about the TR-45L series radios. They’re such a pleasure to operate. I love the simplicity of the controls, the receiver, and the amazing audio from the built-in speaker. The QSK (full break-in CW keying) is also incredibly smooth.

Again, this activation turned out to be a nice consolation prize, but admittedly, it would have been so much fun to fit in a little SOTA. No worries, though—I’ll squeeze some SOTA hikes into the schedule before too long!

Thank you

Thank you for joining me during this activation!

I hope you enjoyed the field report and my activation video as much as I enjoyed creating them! It’s a true labor of love for me.

Of course, I’d also like to send a special thanks to those of you who have been supporting the site and channel through Patreon, and the Coffee Fund. While not a requirement, as my content will always be free, I really appreciate the support.

As I mentioned before, the Patreon platform connected to Vimeo makes it possible for me to share videos that are not only 100% ad-free but also downloadable for offline viewing. The Vimeo account also serves as a third backup for my video files.

Thanks for spending part of your day with me! Have a brilliant week ahead!

Cheers & 72,
Thomas (K4SWL)