Alaska Activations!

I have moved to Fairbanks, Alaska for a corporate pilot job. Just 120 Miles south of the arctic circle! The summits here are intimidating and appear to be very challenging. Any other Alaska activators out there?

12 Likes

That would put me to shame…

1 Like

You’ll be popular with those doing WAS*. Alaska and Hawaii are the States everyone needs.

  • Worked All States.
1 Like

Checking the SOTA database Honor Roll for the KTF (Fairbanks) Association, I see two activators listed. For the Anchorage Association there are 13. And then combing through the summit listings, you’ll find the peaks that visitors on vacation or business trips have found easy enough to activate during their visit. You might check the POTA website too… many SOTA folks also activate in Parks. Good luck! Oh, and the local hunters (most everyone), may know of some game trails suitable for hiking up.

2 Likes

Thanks for the input. Im going to start with some of the easier just to get the lay of the land, that being said my interest are in the tall stuff in Denali. Next year I may even try Denali! I’ll make sure I get some good pics and keep up with activations reports. Stay tuned.

4 Likes

You need to get a hiking partner. Then you need to make sure you can run faster than them. Then when being chased by a bear, you just need to keep running faster than your partner so the bear catches them not you. :wink:

3 Likes

Hello Rob,
The way I check for what peaks have been activated in these Associations with huge numbers of peaks is as follows:
Go to the Summits database, Sotadata3
Scroll down to the Alaska Associations KLA, KLF or KLS, Click on the association of interest, KLF, and open the list of 14 Regions. Open a region and click twice on the column heading “Total Activations” which will bring up a list ordered from most to least activations.
From there there are several well-known ways to find out who did what and when.

Good luck! You have tens of thousands of unactivated peaks waiting for you!
Ian VE6IXD

He has a sidearm.

Hi Rob,
As a pilot, you’ll no doubt love it. Alaska is where most of the REAL airplanes (Fairchild 71’s, Howards, Stinsons, C-47’s, etc.) wind up!

Will listen for you.
Ken

I’m so excited about the flying here, I flew in southeast Alaska last summer. Now that I have relocated to Alaska I’ll be spending spot out time in the far north and far west of the state, in some of the remote villages. I carry bear spray, .44mag, and I have a spry Australian Sheppard :dog2:

6 Likes

Rob,
My second trip to KL7 land was a road trip from Fairbanks to Homer in 2018. In Fairbanks, I activated two easy summits: Wigman Benchmark KLF/FN-204 and Ester Dome KLF/FN-182. It was a lot of fun working the regular chasers who were looking for me and over the pole into Europe. Later activated Lookout Mountain in Homer.

Hope to contact you as a chaser. I regularly check in to the Alaska Pacific Emergency Net on 14.292 MHz at 0830 Alaska time on weekdays.
Scott WA9STI & WA6LE (club call) Los Angeles

1 Like

Sounds like you had a great time, I think I live right next to Ester Dome. I’ll have to go do that one, maybe even this week. I’ll look forward to running into you on the bands.

As far as I know, KLF is the only American association not finished. When we (mostly N7UN) got Alaska data from John Kirk (listsofjohn), it was as much as was available. Later, he told us he found access to the rest of northwest KLF and offered it to us. N7UN had no bandwidth left, and we concluded no one would ever want to go there even if it was possible. The potential new peaks are North of Lat 69.3200

Elliott, K6EL

2 Likes

Thank you so much for the information, not only is Denali on the list KLF region just made it. I fly over it frequently and know plenty of people who land out there. Brooks range in the way to the northern slope :sunglasses:

1 Like

Flew over the Brooks Range (as a passenger), landed on a gravel bar on the Canning River. With Dr. Randy Brown, ex-NL7RF of Fairbanks, we put tracking radios in Dolly Varden for research Randy was doing. Didn’t get to activate, but would have loved to. Randy is nearing retirement from his work at U.S. Fish and Wildlife. He is v-e-r-y skillful and knowledgible having lived off the land on the Candik River for fifteen years! I see he let his license lapse, but he is still listed at QRZ.com Maybe you could look him up and rekindle his ham radio interests in retirement. Tell him I sent you. - 73, Fred KT5X / WS0TA (club call)

1 Like

Congratulations on your move and pilot’s job. I followed your radio adventures in Montana and excursions into Wyoming with special interest since I have relatives in Bozeman and Cody. I also enjoyed extracting out your life story of serving our country, moving to escape the crowds, meeting special friends, training as a pilot. It is good to see the work paid off, and definitely hope to add Alaska to my list.

Brian, NM5BG

2 Likes

I’ll keep an eye out for him. What an experience you had! Alaska is special.

Brian,

I am flattered you remember my adventures. The past 5 years have been wild, It feels great to have escaped the friction of society. I am enjoying life here at the moment, check back in this winter, that may change :grinning: I will look forward to chatting on the air.

2 Likes

a sidearm will only annoy a Grizz bear…Big Rifle or you are dinner :slight_smile:

1 Like

Yeah that’s a hard negative. We had a guy drop a full size female Griz with a subcompact 9mm and hollow points. Bear spray is always the best bet.