Bald Peak – Champoeg State Park

When

February 12, 2022

9:00 am - 5:00 pm

Event Type

SOTA Activation

Bald Peak - Champoeg State Park, SOTA Activation

SUMMARY: SOTA Activation

9:00AM: Meet at Bald Peak (W7O/NC-051)

… Set up for 2M and HF (10, 12, 15, 17? those are good day time bands)

12:00 Move to Champoeg State Park (K-6434)(this park requires a day use fee $5 for one day, passes available)

…Lunch depending on weather

…Set up HF (15,17,20,40)

Per our emails with Etienne, and not knowing what the conditions are going to be a month out I do agree that we should change locations for our activation.

I think that Bald Peak would be a good place to start for an activation. The Callsign identifier for the summit is W7O/NC-051. Here is a link for the SOTA information page: https://summits.sota.org.uk/summit/W7O/NC-051

This is a very easy summit to activate, all that is really needed to activate is a simple handheld. When I activated it a month ago all I used was a cheap Baofeng handheld and got 6 contacts in 20 mins.

My thought is that we can set up a wire antenna and offer it to new technicians to use on 6M or 10M where they have privileges. It could be a learning opportunity to teach HF to new hams also and how to set up a HF rig. Also 10M has been opening up pretty frequently so there is great opportunity for a tech to get in some skip.

I think we will get in our required contacts very quickly to activate the summit so I propose that once we finish we then move on to Champoeg state park and activate POTA. That will require HF equipment to activate because it is in a valley, so techs can come along and watch, or operate 3rd party under a General’s callsign.

Update Jan 23, 2022

Bring any reasonably portable antennas you have. I have a 20 meter dipole i made and this weekend I’ll be making a random wire antenna and taking to a park to test it out. So ill have those 2.

Maybe a portable 2m antenna if you have one. I can make a very simple one in about 15 mins with some spare coax i have if need be.

Any radios you see fit, I will bring my IC 7100 all bander. I can do all the HF bands plus 2m and 70cm. You may bring your rig so we’re not forced to share (though I have no problem letting people use my rig.)

Hand helds! This is where I lack, I have one very cheap Baofeng handheld, I will be getting a better quality one hopefully soon but not before the 12th. One that has good noise filtering and a sensitive recieve is helpful.

Power! Some sort of power source that you can pack around. For the summit it needs to be completely detached from your vehicle, no generators either for radio power. At the park these rules do not apply.

And feed line, can never get enough feed line. RG8X is gold standard but where we’ll be should be low noise floor and we’re not running 300ft to an antenna so anything 50ohm cable should work.

That’s is for equipment!

As for amenities, we should probably have a pop up in case of rain. I’ll take care of that. Everyone should bring a lawn chair, picnic benches can only hold so many. If you have a small folding table that may be useful as well.

Temperature may or may not be an issue. Pack layers for the conditions. Possibly bring a heater if needed. Both locations have the potential to be frigid.

Alex KJ7VJB

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