Morning All,
I am heading for Phoenix AZ at the end of March, and will have most of a weekend free! Looking at mapping there are many qualifying peaks in the area.
Could anybody point me towards easy walks/drive ons or otherwise in the Phoenix AZ area please. I will be traveling with a KX2, compact pole and wire antennas, so at most 12w SSB, and will need to wear my walking boots on the airplane - looking forward to that pleasure!
Thanks
73
Tim
G4YTD
3 Likes
Here are several peaks that I do every year
W7A/AW-060 North Mountain, paved trail/road to antenna tower complex. MANY hikers, not a drive up
W7A/MN-138 Shaw Butte, next to North Mountain, antenna complex, fewer hikers, QRM on VHF
W7A/MN-144 Lookout Mountain, dirt trail, not nearly as many hikers
W7A/MN-143 Scarlett Mountain, dirt trail, few hikers
W7A/MN-131 Union Hills North (trailhead map identifies peak as Dixie Peak)
1 Like
A few other choices are:
Deem Hills W7A/MN-142 has a good trail and park at the trail head with facilities
Peak 51 W7A/MN-145 Fewer hikers at the summit crowded at the trail head with multiple trails
If you have a 2m handheld there is SOTA activity on 144.410 FM in Phoenix. This is useful during activations and for information with a number of us retired hams monitoring this frequency.
73 Burke
KF7NP
1 Like
Thank you James, will take a look at these on the mapping
73
Tim
Thanks Burke, good advise.
I have a handie that can come with me.
Hope to be active Sunday 31st March, and maybe if things go well Wednesday 3rd April also.
Fitting this in around the day job!
73
Tim
G4YTD
Hi Tim,
Here is another link that will be helpful when looking at summits in the Phoenix area. Parks and Recreation Locations Many of the summits that have been recommended are part of the Phoenix Mountain preserve system. This link has information about parking and trail descriptions including distance, elevation and difficulty.
73 Burke
KF7NP
Thanks Burke, that’s a really helpful link.
looking forward to activating in a new region.
73
Tim
G4YTD
Take a look at Humboldt Mountain W7A/AW-040 its just north of Cave Creek (part of the valley of the sun), its a great drive up with incredible views. It remains one of my favorites that I have done.
Hi Tim,
I have another link for you or anyone interested in some of the local Phoenix Arizona summits. This is a link to a Microsoft One Drive Folder. Microsoft OneDrive - Access files anywhere. Create docs with free Office Online. In this folder are 9 folders each containing pictures and a track to the summit. The tracks are .kml files that can be opened with Google Earth. If you right clip on the track in the “Places” window you can display an elevation profile which also shows the distance. I do not have a track for Goat hill. The Shaw Butte track shows both the ascent and decent so half the distance. In some of the pictures there may be a sequence of pictures taken in a 360 sequence starting from approximately north. Unfortunately I did not always pan in the same direction. In some cases the pictures of the mountain may have been take after the decent. In some cases like Scarlet mountain which is my local go to peak there are pictures from several activations. Some folders also have short videos. The video in the W7A MN-145 Peak 51 gives a good view of the Phoenix area.
Bring a hat and sunscreen with you. We had a warm day yesterday with a high of 85 degrees. By 1 PM I was ready to get off the mountain since there is little shade on Lookout Mountain.
Before attempting to activate North Mountain you should check to see it the tower road project is completed. This was posted on the park’s department web site.
Tower Road Improvement Project
Project start: Winter 2018, Projected completion: Summer 2019
North Mountain Tower Road and 7th Street Tower Road (only) parking area will be closed to all user traffic throughout the duration of this project. Trail users may still hike to the top of North Mountain from Trail 44 from the Quechan Ramada in North Mountain Park, but must return on the same trail.
For more information and project updates call 623-825-3444 or e-mail northmountainproject@gciaz.com.
73
Burke
KF7NP
Thanks Dan
Thanks everybody for your assistance with this. I only have two days free, but will make the most of them. Great information that has saved many hours of internet trawling.
73
Tim
G4YTD
In addition to HF, bring a 2m handheld, most of the SOTA guys in AZ are on 144.410 FM too.
look also at AZ-SOTA@yahoogroups.com and AZSOTA@groups.io
weather should still be cool, but from G-land it may start to feel warm here, phoenix peaks are lower altitude and lower points, but ofter harder to get to. we have a bazillian much higher elevation 10 point peaks that are almost drive-up capable in the cooler mountains about 2 to 4 hour north of here. Might still be pretty cold for some of them though.
One of us should tell WA7JTM about this thread, we’re overdue for a SOTA happy hour! having an out of town visitor would be fun. Thursday 4-April will be the CADXA.org monthly meeting, not a SOTA group, but if you’re in town… AA4Q
Sorry for the late response Bill, day job intervention into the hobby…
Thanks for the information and invitation, Thursday is the last day of the expo I am attending and I will need to break down and pack the stand into the night unfortunately.
Hope to activate on Friday again if wx is favorable.
Thanks again for the invite, and hope to speak on the air.
73
Tim
G4YTD