Thanks Mike @VE7ESE . I’m vaguely aiming for max points in the limited time I have there. Been a busy week work wise, and the possibility of sloping off early on Friday has been scuppered by an afternoon meeting
Current plan is:
Friday evening
W4V/SH-002 Stony Man
(I’m staying right next door at Skyland. Treated myself to a fancy, well located place to stay, as I’ve had to postpone a planned trip to the Caingorms next week due to work being so busy).
Saturday (order TBD depending on weather, looks like it might rain so I’ll try and be driving when it’s raining)
W4V/HB-021 Trayfoot
W4V/BR-009 Big Flat Mountain
W4V/SH-006 Hightop
W4V/SH-004 Hazeltop
Sunday (again order TBD, although this time once I’ve worked out which way I’m driving to the airport afterwards!)
W4V/SH-005 The Pinnacle
W4V/SH-001 Hawksbill
Will be focusing on HF CW, getting in 10M where I can for the challenge, but also using whatever band gets me the contacts the quickest so I can fit in plenty of summits.
A friend and I may be hitting Dickey Hill, the first summit from the Front Royal end of Skyline Drive, Saturday morning.
A lot of your summits are very doable with a mere HT. I’ll be testing a new VHF antenna with a 50w mobile rig, so if you’re on VHF, listen out for me. My friend will be on HF, CW most likely, so he can work you on that band/mode.
If you don’t mind me asking, what work brings you to Reston? Asking because I work for a British company with an office in Reston. Would be amusing if we’re coworkers.
I’ve got an HT with me, so I’ll try and listen out for you as well as your friend on HF.
Seems like every big company has an office in Reston, but I work for BAE Systems. In case the co-incidence happens to go all the way, I’ll be in the Sunset Hills Road office this today with the CSP guys.
Sounds good. As of a few minutes ago the weather report is showing rain at the Front Royal end around the time we would be there, so it may not happen. We’ll make a final call this evening.
BAE…We’re (BT) off of Sunrise Valley near the Metro Station.
10 m is hit or miss the last couple weeks; open weakly to EU yesterday morning but dead this morning (with respect to hearing spotted SOTA ops).
It might not be a glamorous way for you to get the challenge mults, but if I’m around the shack I’ll chase on 10 m line-of-sight.
For a general idea of our current DX windows: On a recent W4V activation (15th), I worked three Brazilians and three Europeans on 10 m at 1430 - 1500 UTC. On a later summit the same day, I was chased by a couple of Japanese, which is rare here, on 15 m at 2100 UTC.
If your HF gear breaks or something, the summits you’re doing are in reach of many people who monitor 146.52 MHz FM. Provided you’ve got a US-market HT, you can put out a call on that frequency with a rubber duck and likely work four or more without having to post a spot.
Thanks for the info Matt. I’ll be delighted to take the non-glamorous 10M mults if you happen to be around!
Have bought my trusty Baofeng as I think it should be good for US frequency allocation, so will definitely try 2M if I’m struggling. Actually, just bagging 4 straight off on 2M will then likely mean HF goes better as the pressure is off!
Looks like we’re go for Dickey Hill, so definitely watch the spots. We’ll probably hit the summit around 9am or so.
My favorite spot to operate at The Pinnacle is a little overlook just past the actual summit. It’s a comfy place to sit and gives you great views unless the clouds roll in. You can sit there with an HT and work a number of stations quickly.
This brings back happy memories of the numerous business trips I did to Reston during the 80s and 90s. Long before SOTA of course but I used to really enjoy taking off for the Shenandoah at the weekend and hiking the many trails. Usually stayed in one of the lodges at Skyland and each morning would take a pre-breakfast stroll up Stony Man before setting off to do several more of the superb trails in the park. Happy days!
