Mule Mountain is a drive up summit, very easy. I specifically picked it today because I wanted to test out a new antenna and get a feel for logging on my phone, instead of pen and paper.
I had an EFHW that worked brilliantly at home (before and after this activation), but turned into a dummy load on the summit.
Mistake #1: I didn’t hear or realize that there was a special event station on the frequency. I checked if it was clear, it appeared to be so I started calling.
This was the 3rd band with this antenna and I wasn’t hearing anything so I decided to swap it out for one I know works.
Mistake #2: I posted that I was swapping antennas, but I left the current frequency in the spot, instead of removing it so people would read the message.
When I got the other antenna set up I could hear people making contacts with the other station. At first I assumed that in the few minutes I was off the air, another station got on frequency and was doing it’s thing. I became suspicious when I made contact with W0ERI and not W0MNA, who I thought I heard a bit earlier. I see the confusion in hindsight.
Josh (WU7H) was nice enough to send me an email and fill in all the details.
To anyone/everyone that thinks they made contact with me on 14.039, unless you are W0ERI, you made contact with the special event station.
Those that chased me elsewhere on 20M, those contacts are good.
Thanks Josh for sorting me out.
To everyone else: sorry for the confusion.
TLDR: If you chased me on 14.039 on summit W7A/CO-035 (Mule Mountain), unless you were W0ERI, you chased a special event station that was also on the frequency. I did check the “who chases me” and at the time of this post, everyone on there actually chased me.