It’s another beautiful cloudless day in southern British Columbia (16 Sept, 2024).  My goal for today is to activate Buse Hill Lookout, located in Buse Lake Protected Area CA-3287, before the weather turns too cold and wet to venture into the area.

Buse Hill is about a 2.5-hour drive NW from Kelowna, BC where I live.  The last ¾ hour of the drive is on gravel range roads.  My wife Alexis (VE7LXE) is accompanying me on this trip, as always.

While planning for the activation, I closely studied Google Maps Satellite view, as well as Garmin GPS Birds Eye views of the activation area.  This helps me evaluate the terrain and access routes.  I also study the Gov’t of BC Mineral Titles online maps which give both satellite views and topographic views (before POTA, gold panning was my summer hobby and the BC Mineral Titles online maps were essential for knowing where to legally pan).

From these maps I can see that the last 1.5 Km is an undefined off-road access route.  From the satellite views, it’s very difficult to assess the viability of a route that my Forester can handle.  So, I knew there was a 50-50 chance I may be able to drive all the way up that last 1.5 Km.  With this in mind, we came prepared for two eventualities:  4-wheel it up, or backpack it up if necessary.

That means having two prepared POTA back packs; one with the KX3 for near car activations, and my KX2 backpack for hiking situations.

The elevation gain from here to Buse Hill Lookout is about 200m, or ~656 ft.

We arrived at the junction point 1.5 Km from Buse Hill Lookout.  Here I had to think hard about whether to just park here and backpack it up or risk driving-up an unknown uphill back country gravel road with unknown risks.

Over the past few weeks, we have already completed 4 backpacked activations.  From what I can see from where we currently are, I’m thinking why not give this 2016 Subaru Forester a chance to show what it’s made of?  (gulp)

I don’t make this decision lightly.  While I don’t consider my Forester a true backcountry 4-wheeler, I have been truly impressed with many of the places it has been able to get me to in past years of remote activations and gold panning outings that traverse numerous remote forestry roads.  So, today I decide to go with my gut and drive up – realizing that we may only make it part way, and then backpack up the rest.  Here we go….

I’m glad for the dry weather lately.  If there had been much rain recently, this mostly dirt road would not be viable for me to drive at all.  The other reason I’m a little hesitant of this drive-up is that my Nokian All-Weather tires are 4-years old and only have about half or less of their original tread left (I’m buying new Nokian WRG5 tires this fall before the snow flies).

There are a couple notice signs along the way that say stay on the road and do not drive off-road. Well, I’m trying to obey the rules, but some spots I must drive around (just enough to not get stuck).

We made it up about 0.5 Km with minimal issues.  However, there are some significant washout trenches in the road that we need to be careful of.   If my wheels fall into one of those trenches, I could bottom-out and get stuck.  So, I carefully straddle the trenches.  I’m not a speed daemon – I’m traveling slow and carefully upward trying to avoid all the little gotcha’s. (2D photos don’t really give a good sense of depth.)

It looks like free sailing ahead, but I am still straddling some low spots the left side.

While still straddling trenches on the left side, we’re greeted by some of the local free-range cows. This whole area outside the park is free-range ranchlands.  Free-range cows are actually a common sight throughout BC when driving the forestry roads.

Just a short distance beyond the cows we are greeted by the Buse Lake Protected Area Park sign.

While we could park here and operate in this area, I really want to get to the top.  The more altitude the better.

This section ahead is steeper than it looks. I walked uphill first to the crescent to make sure it was safe for the Forester to continue up (in case there’s no room for turning around).  I concluded that it is doable even though it’s full of little run-off trenches which must still be straddled.

Tip:  Clicking on an image will enlarge it for better viewing.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take any more photos of the road up past the crescent above.  I was too focused on safely navigating the steep rocky slopes that were borderline doable for the Forester.  That final ascent was the true test for the Forester.  At one point, Alexis elected to get out of the SUV and help direct me so as to avoid some of the alternating deep trenches we had to navigate around.  Some of this area was solid rock mountain outcrops.

Success!
Finally, we safely made it to the top – and what an amazing view! Worth the effort for sure.

The photo below almost reminds me of an advertisement for a Subaru Forester. Perhaps I can sell it to Subaru for one of their ad campaigns?  Ok, so it’s a 2016.  With the magic of modern AI, they can probably overlay a 2025 version, and no one will be the wiser. 😊

Now that we have accomplished the first half of our adventure, it’s time unpack the POTA gear.  As we didn’t backpack up, I’ll be unloading the KX3 shack-in-a-pack.

I think the extra weight of all this gear helped with traction on the steep inclines (and having all-wheel drive doesn’t hurt either).

As usual, Alexis sets up our Helinox furniture while I erect the antenna system.

Today, once again I’m using my recently acquired Chamaeleon CHA Porta-Mount Wheel Mount to support my Gigaparts 34’ (actually, ~ 32’) carbon fiber telescopic mast.

I hoisted the telescopic mast with my homebrew ½ λ vertical coaxial sleeve dipole cut for 17m, attached.  I’ll be operating the antenna on the 20m-10m bands.  The KX3 ATU does an amazing job of bringing the multi-band SWR down to less than 1.2 in most cases.

I attach a 3’ plastic tube at the bottom to move the antenna away from the carbon fiber mast.  As carbon fiber masts do have some conductivity, mine significantly detunes the antenna if the antenna is allowed to drape too close to it in the vertical plane.  I verified this when I was tuning the antenna at home with the aid of my Rig Expert Antenna Analyzer.

This view is facing to the NW (i.e. Alaska and the Arctic), but I’m hoping for good propagation to the SE where I tend to get most of my POTA contacts.

Alexis is comfortably relaxing and taking in the views.

Later while I was operating, Alexis took a short walk back down the road to take a snapshot of the last 30 yards or so of our climb to the top (This wasn’t the most challenging portion, but it is a bit on the steep side).

I’m all setup and ready to start calling QRL; and then CQ POTA.

Uh Oh…….Mission Control, we have a problem!
When I plugged-in my Bioenno 4.5 Ah battery and turned on the KX3, I noted that the voltage was down to ~10.5V.  Not good.  It usually floats at ~13.2V.  I didn’t want to be in the middle of a contact only to have my battery die.  I will be up here for the next 5.5 hours, so I need a reliable power source.

Luckily, I carry a portable battery Go-box in the Subaru as a backup.  It’s a Powerwerx PWRbox (older version from 6 years ago).  As an add-on, I installed my own Dakota 18 Ah LiFePo4 battery in the Powerwerx power box.  So now this is my emergency comms power source for today.

In the meantime, because I also carry inside the box various cables, I happened to also have a PowerFilm 10W Foldable Solar Panel in there too.  I thought, this would be a great opportunity to test it out to charge the drained Bioenno battery while I’m busy activating.  And part of my modifications to the Powerwerx box was that I had previously added a Genasun 5A Solar Charger, attached to its side.

So, I hooked up the Solar Panel to the Genasun Charger and connected the Bioenno battery to the charger to let it charge the rest of the day in full sun.

Ok, time to get down to business to do what I came here to do.
I will be operating with the KX3 at 10W CW and using it with KXPD2 attached paddle for keying.

As always, I start on 20m, the bread & butter band, until I get at least 10 contacts.

Here is my play-by-play of how it went:

My first contact was with VE3KZE in Ontario at 18:28 UTC (11:28 PDT) – not a bad easterly hop for starters from the Pacific NW.

However, things seemed to be off to a slow start this morning.  It took about 55 minutes to log my first 10 contacts.  This 20m session included contacts in UT, CA, AZ, MB, ON and a bonus contact in Alaska (AL7KC).

After a while  I thought, I think I will temporarily take down the 17m coaxial sleeve dipole and see how the N9SAB 20m ½ λ  Rugged QRP Nano Dipole performs in its place for a while.  This will be a switch from a vertical polarized antenna to a horizontal polarized antenna.  Although, due to lack of tall trees for end supports, it is really an Inverted Vee configuration, which I suppose is a mix between vertical and horizontal polarization.  And, as always, I orient the dipole such that it is perpendicular to the SE direction in hopes of best USA coverage.

With the N9SAB dipole erected, I make its first 20m contact at 20:15 UTC (13:15 PDT).  Again, this first contact is in Ontario but this time with VE3XN.

OK, this is kind of amazing (for me at least); over a 15-minute period, I logged 11 more contacts in the following locations: ON, MN, UT, AZ, ID, CA, NE, WY, and TX.  I note that my RST reports seem to be stronger than with the 17m vertical dipole.  Perhaps that makes some sense as the N9SAB is tuned for 20m and the 17m vertical dipole isn’t.

There are always so many factors affecting propagation:  time of day, solar activity, the number of hams that are actually chasing at a particular time, etc.  I have always had generally good results using N9SAB dipoles.  I’ve also used his 30m dipole multiband with good results across all bands using the KX3 with it b/i ATU.

Time to move on to the 17m band; and switch back to my homebrew 17m vertical coaxial sleeve dipole hoisted back up.

Wow! Over the next 28 minutes I log 12 contacts.  Not bad for the 17m band.  Here, I pick-up AL, UT, CO, ON, MO, VA, ON, TX, and KD4JO in MD (I rarely get Maryland contacts).  But wait – there’s more… my final bonus 17m contact of this session is with JH1MXV in Japan!   I’m getting psyched-up now.

To be honest, 17m band is becoming my favorite band, which is one reason why I tuned the coaxial sleeve vertical dipole for 17m.  I’m finding that often 20m is too crowded – and I get stomped-on a lot there and have to frequently QSY.

Time to check out 15m band.
15m wasn’t quite as productive as 17m.  Just 3 contacts here in SD, ON, and TX. However, it only took 10 minutes to get those contacts.  Not sure why I didn’t try harder and stay longer.  Perhaps because it was getting later in the UTC day and I wanted to see what 12m and 10m were doing.

On to 12m band.
Over the next 15 minutes I snag 6 contacts in IL, WI, TX, KS, AR, and OH.

On to 10m band.
Spent 21 minutes here and reined-in 6 more contacts in TX, OH, OK, PA, and AR.

When I have the time after I’ve worked my way up to 10m, I often work my  way back down just to see if band conditions have changed very much.  It’s around 22:50 UTC, so I don’t have a lot of time to spend on each band on the way back down.

Back to 12m.
Between 22:54 and 23:01 I pick up 4 more contacts in ON, NM, MO, and IL.

Back to 15m.
From 23:08 to 23:14 I grab 5 more 15m contacts in VA, TX, VA, and CT (Connecticut is another rare state for me).

Back to 17m.
Between 23:20 and 23:30 UTC I nab 6 more contacts in VA, LA, TX, MA, and WI.

And to finish off the day I grab 4 more contact back on 20m with NY, OH, AR, and TX.

 (You can click on the image for a better view)

It’s been a great day playing POTA while  Alexis enjoyed her time relaxing, reading, and just taking-in the beautiful views on such a wonderful day.

Time to descend back down the access road to the range roads and then the 2.5-hour drive ahead of us to get back home.

Note:  This photo on the way down makes the car look level, but in reality, we were on a tilted slope of about a 15° angle.  (Notice the trees are slanted to the right by about 15 ° angle) Blame the photographer (me). 😊

Thanks for following our adventures.
(I hope I didn’t bore you too much with the long write-up)

Equipment List:

Elecraft KX3 with internal antenna tuner
Elecraft KXPD2 paddle
Chameleon CHA Porta Mount – Wheel Mount
Gigaparts Telescopic Mast, 34ft, Carbon Fiber
17m ½λ Coaxial Sleeve Slanted Vertical Dipole, home brew
N9SAB 20m ½λ Rugged Nano Dipole
N9SAB 1:1 Low Power Choke for CMC/Noise Reduction Gen II
Bioenno 4.5 Ah LiFePo4 battery
PowerFilm F15-600 10W 600ma 15.4V Foldable Solar panel
Powerwerx PWRbox Portable Powe Box (no battery installed)
Dakota LiFePo4 Batteries (18Ah version replaced by 20Ah version)
Helinox Table One Hard Top
Helinox Speed Stool
Helinox Sunset Chair

Cheers/72/73,
jeff-VE7EFF and Alexis-VE7LXE
Kelowna, BC