Hi All,
Well, I finally made it home again, after 975 miles and nearly as much in gas.
I did make it to the top of South Mountain at 7800 ft. Friday, but after dark,
and had to set up the tent using my vehicle headlights. No antennas were put
up Friday. Saturday morning, I started putting up everything else. I fired up
2M, and was showing a high SWR flashing in the display of the FT-897. I
thought that the antenna somehow got damaged in transit, so I took the 12
element down, and put up a 7 element M2 antenna I had brought as a spare. I go
back into the tent, checked again, and still had a high SWR. I finally noticed
that I had set up the 222 amp on the 2M radio, and the 2M amp on the 222 radio.
Boy, was I red faced and feeling stupid. Hey, they both look alike, and
without reading the labels, who knew. Well, I got the amps connected to the
correct radios. Then, I had to go out and take down the 7 element, and put up
the 12 element. I had other wiring problems and it to
ok a lot of time to get those worked out. It took me until 3:30 pm (4:30
Idaho time) to get all the radios, antennas and accessories plugged in
correctly and turned on and get on the air. Conditions were not great from the
mountain on Saturday, but I made a few contacts. Unfortunately, I had S9 noise
on 6m, so no contacts on 6m. Also, I was getting reports of hum on my signal.
This was puzzling, because the radios were connected to an earth ground, and
the generator was grounded as well. The only thing I can think might have
caused the hum is perhaps the power supply may have lost the filter caps.
My first contact was at 23:35z with W7ID in Boise. My next contact was an hour
and a half later with KD6OSV in CN93. Then worked W7EME on 2m. That is kind
of how the whole weekend went. I pointed at California and called CQ for 1 1/2
hours and got no response. I called to the NW, and finally got KD7UO in CN87.
After working Dale, conditions seemed to open up a bit. I worked W7IUV and
W7MY and later worked W7CE. VA7ISL had a nice signal from CN88 as usual, and
managed to work them in CN78 on Sunday. Most of my contacts were with the
Idaho guys on the various bands. I worked K7CW on 2m and he asked me to go to
6M, but the noise was bad there. On Sunday, I moved the 6M antenna from the
FT-920 to the FT-897, and was able to work Paul on 6M. The noise was down to a
tolerable level Sunday morning, and for some reason, the FT-897 handled the
noise better, but only for a couple of hours. I did manage to work KE7NR in
DM33, K7JIZ in DN40, W7CE in CN87, W6OUU in DN22, and
KR7O in DM07 on 6M WSJT, but did not copy anyone else. When Clay was
answering my CQ on WSJT, the fire lookout came down and was talking to me about
various things including a wild fire that cropped up Saturday night to the SW.
The Fire lookout called in a plane to dump water on the fire. Fortunately,
only about 25 acres burned. I was not in danger as the winds were blowing away
from the hill. The Fire lookout also mentioned that there was a controlled
burn going on to the SE, which created some haze. The wind would blow at night
causing the tent to flutter and make all kinds of noise which made sleeping
difficult. During the day, it was pretty much calm, but at night was a
different story.
I didn't break any antennas this time, but had some other problems. On the way
home, I stopped at a Rest Stop to get rid of some coffee. I had the radios
stacked on the passenger seat because there was no room anywhere else. I went
to get something out of the passenger side, opened the door and the FT-897
tumbles out and bounces across the pavement. No prognosis on it's condition
yet.
I had the same problem with the vehicle that I had the last time I went to try
to find this spot in July. the engine started sputtering and coughing and
loosing power, but found that if I just stopped for a few minutes, it would
start up and run just fine for another 300 miles or so. All in all, it was a
frustrating time, but at least I provided a new grid to some.
One thing, I found out that the entire mountain is now privately owned and
there are mining companies drilling and mining the minerals that are found on
South Mountain. The hilltop is now split by a barbed wire fence to separate
the property lines. The Forest Service still maintains the Fire Lookout there,
but everything else is privately owned. Even South Mountain road is private.
I only made 40 contacts on five bands. Here is a summary of my DN12 activity:
6M 10 Qso's 7 Grds
2M 19 Qso's 11 Grds
222 5 Qso's 4 Grds
432 5 Qso's 3 Grds
1296 1 Qso 1 Grd
52 Qso Points
26 Mults
Claimed score: 1352
Bruce, KI7JA CN85rl / DN03bk / DN12nr
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