Many thanks to Jeff (VE7EFF) who shares the following guest post:
Hiking and Activating the Backcountry – Two Activations on one Day Trip
by Jeff (VE7EFF)
Today’s field report, and three more to come, outlines the outdoor hiking/activation adventures of Jeff – VE7EFF and his wife, Alexis – VE7LXE in the backcountry of south-central British Columbia, Canada.
On today’s hiked-in POTA activation, I will be accomplishing three firsts. This is my first backpacked-in activation this summer. As well, I will be the first person to activate White Lake Grasslands Protected Area, CA-4289, and I will also be the first person to activate Mahoney Lake Ecological Reserve, CA-3766.
Mahoney Lake is essentially located inside the perimeter of White Lake Grasslands and is on-route to my targeted activation area on a small mini-summit, about 45 minutes hike from the trail head. Once I successfully activate White Lake, we will try to activate Mahoney Lake on our trek back to the car.
The drive here is 1.5 hours south of Kelowna, BC where we live. It’s also about 15 minutes drive south of Okanagan Falls, BC. We park just off Green Lake Rd, across the road from the trail head.
This is the trailhead where today’s adventure begins, heading deep into the woods.
Realistically, I could have activated White Lake Grasslands Protected Area just past the fence boundary, right from the start. But, for me, that just isn’t very exciting or interesting. As well, being near a valley bottom and surrounded by mountains doesn’t make for the best radio propagation. My goal is to usually get as much altitude and line of sight to the horizon as practicable. This way I feel I’m more assured of a successful activation. At age 73, this isn’t as easy as it was for me and my wife Alexis, 30 years ago. Back then, I was a regular mountain goat frequently hiking the Canadian Rockies of Alberta, Canada.
Off we go. A short distance in we stop for a quick photo-op.
The beginning of the trek starts out fairly docile. We hiked on an established trail that passes by Mahoney Lake. I hope to stop in Mahoney Lake Ecological Reserve on our trek back. Continuing on, the trail mostly follows the valley bottom and circumvents nearby mountain slopes.
After following the trail for about 30 minutes, I decided it’s time to blaze our own route up a mountain side. Out here, elevation is the path to POTA heaven. And from what I can see from here, it looks like there may be a plateau, meadow, or mini-summit that I can operate from up there (fingers crossed).
The trek up turns out to be a fair bit of work. Not only is it steep but is also a scree slope which makes it even more challenging to make our way up. I don’t think Alexis is too happy with me right about now.
After a short rest, we press on.
`We have made good progress up the mountain side. Gaining some good elevation. I can see the horizon which means good low angle propagation.
After another rest stop and knowing that we are nearing the top, Alexis has gained her 2nd wind and is feeling much better about the situation (me too for that matter).
Finally, we have reached a plateau, meadow, or mini-summit (whatever it’s called). We have arrived (somewhere) !
I’m quite happy with the views and a good propagation path to the SE direction, which is right behind me in this photo. SE propagation tends to give me my preferred coverage towards the USA southeast coast.
Hiking just a short distance further up, I find my optimal activation spot amongst a few Ponderosa Pine trees.
Oh yes, the lake you see down below is Mahoney Lake Ecological Reserve, which I hope to activate on the trek back, if there is enough time (and if I have the energy left).
As far as the trek to this location is concerned, my Backroads Maps app indicates that we traveled only about 1.2 Km distance in, with an elevation gain of only 82m (270ft). Most of that elevation gain was due to the steep scree-laden slope up this mountain side. Either way, the views are great up here (and hopefully the propagation, too).
My antenna plan is to use the pine tree in the center as my antenna mast center support. I will be deploying a 20m dipole, so the pine trees to the left and right will support the dipole guy line ends. Stringing the dipole between these trees should give me my preferred optimal SE propagation that I’m looking for.
Ok, now that I have an antenna deployment plan, it’s time to unload my shack-in-the-pack.
I’ll be using my Elecraft KX2 and running at about 8 Watts into a N9SAB center-fed dipole. I’ll be keying with the Elecraft KXPD2 paddle.
I’ve used this 20m center-fed dipole many times in the past with good results. It’s made and sold by N9SAB on eBay [QRPer.com partner link]. I also use his choke balun at the feed point of the dipole. For my transmission line (when backpacked-in activating), I’m using EnviroFlex 316 (blue in color), a high quality RG-316 equivalent purchased through DigiKey.
And of course, I use the Weaver 8 Oz throw bag to get my antenna support line as high as I can into the treetops (I hope).
This is only my 2nd year of POTA activating. I was partly inspired by watching Thomas’ K4SWL POTA videos. I picked up some good tips from watching his videos. Things like using the Weaver Throw Bag and winding the antenna and coax using the figure-eight method. All good tips, plus many more.
A couple attempts gets the arbor line close to where I need it. The challenge here is to keep the dipole sections from getting tangled in those lower sprawling Pine tree branches. Continue reading Jeff activates two POTA ATNOs in one day trip!