Trip Report Beacon Firetower W2/EH-003 15 Apr 2011

Old Reflector
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It turned out to be a great windless day at this site overlooking the Hudson River about 30 miles north of New York City. The abandoned US Forest Service firetower, now under renovation after years of neglect, was an ideal support structure for my Buddipole dipole. It’s amazing how well a dipole works on 20m at 80 feet! In the 3 on-site hours, I had over 60 qsos with folks from California to European Russia and in some cases with fantastic signal reports for a K2 QRP operation! Too much fun! 20m was the “money band” but I should have tried more on 17m and 15m.

I’ll certainly go back but only on a windless day. This tower does “move” even in the lightest wind gusts. Can’t imagine what it would be like on a windy day! You can see a number of my pictures at http://tinyurl.com/4yxcb5h I’m in the process of creating a short video of this effort and will post that url when completed.

Thanks everyone for the qsos! Always a lot of fun working SOTA, especially when you can optimize your qrp signal!
73, Guy/N7UN

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In reply to N7UN:
Nice report Guy, handy having a big tower up there to get even more height.

Adrian
Mm0tai

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In reply to MM0TAI:
I was thinking along the same lines, A SOTA summit with built in tower! The possibilities are well not endless however far greater having the use of a tower as well as the height advantage of the summit.

NA SOTA activations seem to have stepped up a gear in the last few weeks, Lets hope I can make my first S2S across the pond this year :slight_smile:

Sean M0GIA

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In reply to M0GIA:

I was thinking along the same lines, A SOTA summit with built in tower!
The possibilities are well not endless however far greater having the
use of a tower as well as the height advantage of the summit.

There are a few summits in the UK with that feature! G/WB-015 and G/SE-002 come to mind.

73,
Walt (G3NYY)

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In reply to G3NYY:
Thanks for that info Walt, I will look into those summits.

Sean M0GIA