Yesterday I had a great hike outside of Durango CO. I attempted a activation of Smelter Mountain a summit that has many radio towers. I knew it might be tough with all the RF energy and it was. I tried HT and stock antenna HT and Rollup Jpole and moving around several times in the activation zone. 1 did eek out one QSO that came in 5/9 but from the very same spot my FT60R was completely overwhelmed with QRM from others trying to get through. Any tips for such locations?
We have a few summits like that here. Some guys around here swear by the SOTABeams 2m BP filter. Also I think that older 2m rigs that don’t have wideband RX tend to do better… search around the Reflector and you will find several threads where people have discussed which H/T is the best for high RF summits.
I usually just stuck to HF on summits like that. Good luck!
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Hi Erik -
Yes, a bandpass filter would probably do wonders - especially for the wideband DC to daylight radios we all own now. But, it’s more stuff to carry. A directional antenna might help some, if you can null out the interfering signals and emphasize those you want…but being anywhere near the towers I think the receiver would still be swamped with signals.
I think most of us try to get somewhat downhill from any towers to try to put some rock/dirt between us and the tower - yet stay inside the activation zone.
I just looked at the SOTABeams 2M BP Filter - it would cost a few bucks, but with all the 2M activations you do, I bet it would totally be worth it - plus it looks small enough to be very easily carried. If you go that route, let us know here how well it worked out for you. I would choose this rather than relying on a directional antenna - or better yet, use both!
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There’s a fairly recent, long conversation about this here: VHF handhelds that are less susceptible to intermod/overload?
I didn’t know about the filter I’ll check it out!