Many thanks to John Hartzell (W3HN) and Zach Hartzell (NI4K) who share the following guest post:
Activating Grassy Mountain, GA for SOTA and two POTA parks at the same time (all while figuring out what not to do next time)
by John (W3HN) and Zach (NI4K)
Sometime in early 2024, my son Zach contacted me and said, “Dad, the Georgia SOTA and POTA folks are having a campout in October. Why don’t you visit us in Atlanta and we can go camping, meet some fellow hams, and activate a SOTA peak or two?” It made sense, as Zach had become the most active ham in the family, had taught himself CW, loved an excuse to go camping, was a natural organizer, and had been the impetus for my handful of POTA activations. And it was all easier now that I had retired in December 2023.
The “campout” was the W4SOTA campout, planned for Wednesday, October 2 through Sunday, October 6, 2024, at the Lake Rabun Beach Campground at the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest. Zach got his camping vehicle, Thor the Taco truck, ready for the jaunt. A Taco truck (for the handful of folks out there that don’t know this), is a Toyota Tacoma pick-up.
“Thor” is the name the truck acquired because of its imposing demeanor.
It has four-wheel drive, a three-inch lift, the metric equivalent of 33” tires, a Go Fast Camper pop-up camper over the bed, an electric winch, a silly number of extra lights up front, and is equipped for some of Zach’s hobbies. Air compressor for mountain biking? Check. Back-up battery with separate charging system for ham radio and a 12-volt refrigerator? Check. A pullout kitchen with a sink and two-burner stove? Check.
Both 2-meter FM and GMRS radios in the cab for communicating with your mountain biking and camping buddies on those weekends on western Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands? Check.
It even has 12-volt DC available via Anderson power connectors in the cab, because you never know when you might be driving cross country and come to a lonely park in serious need of a POTA activation.
Zach emailed me spreadsheets with gear lists and options. I ignored them, scribbled unintelligible notes on my yellow pads, and ended up bringing everything that might arguably be used for SOTA, POTA, Winter and Summer Field Days, or to run a 1970s era government emergency communications center. Truthfully, that is an exaggeration – I didn’t pack the warm clothes required for a Winter Field Day.
Zach paid for a campsite, and our trip south from Pennsylvania was planned, when everything came to a screeching halt on September 30, 2024. Hurricane Helene had severely damaged areas of Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia. Zach soon learned the original campout was cancelled when he received an electronic refund for the campsite. Some of the original attendees were unable to make it, including Thomas (K4SWL) who was reporting regularly on the devastation and challenges to his family and neighbors from his QTH outside of Swannanoa, North Carolina, just east of Asheville.
We couldn’t confirm if there was a substitute campout. Despite this, we decided to push on with a modified weekend. My wife and I drove south to Atlanta, Zach organized his gear, he helped me “sort” (i.e., drastically cut back) my gear from multiple plastic tubs, and we had use of a cabin near Ellijay, Georgia, within a short drive to the summit and parks Zach had mapped out. We decided we could pull this off, and on Friday, October 4, Zach and I loaded Thor and were soon booming north from Atlanta on US-575.
Ellijay, Georgia is a nice town. After a lovely rooftop dinner, a good night’s sleep in a cabin in the woods, and a great breakfast at a local restaurant, Zach had Thor headed to our destination, Grassy Mountain, summit W4G/HC-007. In addition to having two hams activating this SOTA summit, Zach had determined that Grassy Mountain was located within two POTA parks, Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest (US-4473), and Cohutta Wildlife Management Area (US-7446). So, if we were organized, we could provide a double-triple – two operators and three locations (a SOTA summit and two POTA parks).
In about 45 minutes Thor led us to a parking spot deep in the forest near the locked gate to the Grassy Mountain access trail. We donned our GORUCK rucksacks filled with radios, antennas, coax, water, sundry accessories, and a snack or two (we left the steel plates at home). The route up to the top of the summit was a mile and a half hike on rutted double-track, with a switchback a little over half way to the summit.
Once atop the summit Zach and I assessed the site. It consisted of about one acre of cleared land, with what looked like a former fire watch tower in the corner of the cleared area. Zach and I broke out our KX2 Elecraft transceivers. Zach hooked his to a Tufteln 40-10 EFRW, mounted to a SOTA Beams carbon fiber telescopic mast. I deployed a EndFedz EFT-MTR 20/30/40 antenna in a sloper configuration, and tuned it up using the internal Elecraft tuner. Those were the bands I intended to use. I also had my Mountain Topper MTR-3B QRP transceiver, which might get some use, too. We also used some untested QRP bandpass filters found on eBay. They seemed to work, but will undergo more scientific testing to confirm their functionality.
Zach was racking up contacts on CW, but I was having difficulty on SSB. I had been trying to operate the antenna on 20 and 40 meters when it was configured for 30 meters – which we only realized when we took a gander at the antenna manual back at the cabin after we regained cell service. The SMA connector is removed to enable 30-meter operation, not installed. Bing! It is a testament to Elecraft that their antenna tuner is robust enough to handle that mismatch. It is also an excellent example of why you should read the equipment manuals for gear you don’t operate very often before your field effort!
Zach had suggested we use 2 meter FM for the SOTA activation, in addition to HF, so we climbed the tower as far as we could and called on the 2-meter simplex calling frequency, 146.520 MHz. We each got two or three contacts on this frequency, as there were enough folks activating summits from the original plan for the W4SOTA weekend. Interestingly, they included N5FY, the owner of Tufteln, the manufacturer of Zach’s HF Antenna.
Zach was able to use FT8 for a QSO using an Android Application called FT8 Radio on his phone, which was linked to his KX2 through a Digirig Mobile. My CW was still rusty despite some recent practice, so I stayed on HF SSB. We enjoyed the excellent weather, some good radio conditions, and had satisfied the requirements for all three activations after 90 minutes or so. We soon packed up, hiked down, and were soon buckled into Thor and navigating the dirt roads of the national forest.
Lessons Learned:
- General Dwight D. Eisenhower, in discussing World War II, is alleged to have said “plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” Ike was a smart man. A bit more planning (at least on my part) would have made things more efficient.
- It was a nice day for not just hams, and we had some visitors to the summit. Zach put on his public relations hat and adroitly educated these folks while I continued to try to contact folks on SSB with a 30-meter antenna tuned to 20 meters. We should have foreseen this and been better prepared (note: see item
- Zach thought a good approach would be to contact folks on the 2-meter simplex calling frequency (146.520 MHz), and then to QSY to the 2-meter adventure frequency (which is 146.580 MHz). We did not try this, as we quickly had many QSOs on the calling frequency. It was a good idea, as it would keep the calling frequency from being over used for routine communications. However, I think there are two possible bugs in this ointment: (a) I am not sure hams know of the adventure frequency so that they have it in their 2-meter memory bank; and (b) if not in their memory bank, could hams quickly QSY to the frequency? It is not intuitive to change frequency for me on my HT, and I carry a laminated cheat sheet to help me with frequency changes (note: Zach will attest that radios more complicated than an HealthKit HW-16 cause me challenges, including many with dropdown menus, so this could be a personal hardship and not one shared with other hams).
- Logging is important, evidence of the adage: “if you didn’t write it down, it didn’t happen.” I was a bit flustered when we got started, and my log soon looked like a Bletchley Park cipher sheet. A few more minutes at the beginning would have saved a lot of time at the end when piecing together the logs for upload to our friends at SOTA and POTA.
- We were without cell coverage on the summit. We prospectively scheduled the activation with SOTA and POTA sites the night before, but we were off by a few hours when we started operating. Would it have been better to not spot ourselves, and then just start operating? I am not sure. Probably the best solution would have been to provide enough lead time in our plan to ensure the times included in our spots aligned with the actual operating times, even if it meant we had to wait on site before starting our activation.
- This was the first time we used some of the gear, predominantly the 20/30/40 antenna. We recommend a practice assembly of all the gear with SWR meters, manuals (cell service to access missing manuals), culminating in QSOs using the equipment and modes desired for the activation (note: see again our friend, item 1). This occurred the day after the activation for the HF kits through “trouble shooting,” but we were able to program our 2 meter radios prior to departure which saved some time and frustration at the summit.
- We had fun. Pushing yourself in a new direction can cause a touch of anxiety, but it also develops new ideas on how to handle things in the future and provides a sense of satisfaction once you’ve done it. I’m glad Zach had this idea. Perhaps we’ll try it again next year with all the regional SOTA and POTA folks!
