We’ve been doing an Appalachian trail on the air event these past few years in October . We were wondering if anyone would be interested in organized a pacific coast trial on the air event to coincide?
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Try K6TW, who has done significant parts of it, ISTR. So has N6ZA, the former AM in W6.
Elliott, K6EL
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Hello AJ-
We’ve tossed around some ideas for a Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail (PCT) SOTA event for several years - both chaser and activator focused - but have not come up with an approach that would sufficiently engage folks as has been done on the AT. For one, not a single W7O or W7W SOTA summit is actually ON the PCT, so some kind of adjacency criteria is needed. We’ve thought perhaps that you either need to use the PCT or cross the PCT to reach the summit…or perhaps the summit is within some number of miles of the trail. Or perhaps provide guidelines for a PCT SOTA summit rather than strict criteria.
In Oregon and Washington there may be about 40 summits each that meet some criteria for PCT adjacency. Especially in Washington, only a few of these have ever been activated due to trail or road access, steep terrain, difficult bushwacks and time to reach. Activator safety is a serious consideration for some peaks.
Combining a day of Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail and Appalachian Trail activations is a nice idea, but three time zones and mediocre propagation of late would limit S2S potential. If anyone has an idea to make the Pacific Crest Trail work for a SOTA event, please let me know.
73, Etienne-K7ATN
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This sounds like a lot of SOTA fun. Great idea AJ2I ! As to criteria: 1. A peak has to be within the Natl. Park/Forest or State Park/Forest that contains the PCT.
Ability to propagate over the distance is always going to be an issue. However, many would participate. Scoring is strictly gained SOTA points.
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