Many thanks to all the SOTA activators and chasers who crowded the bands on Saturday for AT on-the-air (and also W7A s2s Madness). I am sure that some records were broken with the number of summit contacts and the number of s2s contacts by individual stations.
My summit (W2/GC-054, West Mountain) is on the original section of the Appalachian Trail. On October 7, 1923, this first section of the trail, from Bear Mountain west through Harriman State Park to Arden, New York, was opened to hikers. Benton MacKaye, who conceived the idea for the trail in 1921, immediately saw the potential and called for a two-day Appalachian Trail conference to be held in March 1925 in Washington, D.C The rest is history.
Being only 42 miles north from Manhattan (New York City), this section of trail gets plenty of use. Today I was passed by more than 45 section hikers, day hikers and hiking clubs, many of whom stopped to talk while I was trying to decode Morse. Ham radio, SOTA and Appalachian Trail all got equal billing.
Thanks a lot to all of you activators of the AT and the W7A madness. I lost a few of you but it was a lot of fun chasing you from the Eastern side of the Pond.
These got into my basket:
Thanks for organizing the event, Mike, and I was glad to work you S2S from the AT in Georgia.
The weather forecast for Saturday called for morning fog and then partly sunny. So imagine my surprise when, on the drive to Big Cedar Mountain, W4G/NG-023, I was greeted by a light mist that progressed to a gentle sprinkle and then, as I turned into the parking area, a full downpour!
By 45 minutes later, however, the rain had stopped and I started up the mountain. From then onwards, it was a great day:
two AT summits activated (after Big Cedar I moved over to Sassafras Mountain, W4G/NG-040);
met two other hams on Big Cedar and two more on Sassafras;
2m FM with other SOTA friends on summits in Georgia and NC;
6 pages of QSOs filled in my 3×5 inch “write in the rain” logbook, including many S2S along the AT and with the 7-area S2S Madness activators;
and all under partly sunny skies and comfortable temperatures.
Thanks to all for participating yesterday. It was sure bedlam out here in Arizona. The best W7A 10-point s2s Madness ever!
Unfortunately I did not work any Europe stations, likely because there was so much action/QRM here in the USA.
I ended up with:
139 QSO’s
75 s2s contacts
51 unique summits worked
27 Arizona summits
24 out of state summits
scored 433 s2s points
QSO’s on 160 Meters thru 1296 MHZ (16 different bands)
s2s contacts made on 15 different bands.
Still crunching numbers…
So thanks to all. It sure was fun and truly madness out here between the App Trail stations, the home stations, the Madness stations, and the Contest QRM.
With the two U.S. events going on, it was a fun day on the summit. The clouds never cleared over Standing Indian so it was a gray day, but still very pleasant. As I was making my final S2S, the clouds opened up and I quickly crammed everything back in my pack. Thankfully it didn’t rain for too long and I really think it was just the clouds lowering and the mountains tickling the moisture out of the clouds. I still need to unsnarl the mess of cables, wires and equipment that is still left in my pack. Conditions seemed to very good overall with good signal reports all day long.
107 QSOs
45 S2Ss - 37 distinct summits
6 W7A summits
13 AT summits
1 DX S2S with OE5EEP/P
A big thanks to Mike and Pete for organizing these events!
Hey Pete,
Here in the Northeast I could hear all the DX stations calling you!! It was a great SOTA day with so many “s2s s2s s2s” calls being made. Thanks for the 10 point s2s on busy 20M CW.
Stay well & 73!
Mike, WB2FUV
The Appalachian Trail Activations were also a big fun on our side of the pond. I went on a summit with good take-off towards North America and could catch two transatlantic S2S, one with Pat, KI4SVM on Standing Indian, the other with Frandy, N1FJ on Stratton Mountain. I have heard and called a few more, but with strong stateside stations it is hard to get through.
I was using a KX2 with 8W and vertical antennas. I have worked mainly on 20m and 17m CW. US stations were stronger on 17m than on 20m but most of the activity was centered on 20m. This event was certainly blessed with good propagation, something not seen in a long time.
I hope this will turn into an annual event. The timing at beginning of October is fine for me.
Thanks to more than 50 activators who participated in Appalachian Trail On-The-Air. A post–event Summary Report has been posted on www.ATontheair.com.
Stay well & 73!
Mike, WB2FUV
