[AK-VHF] Butte SOTA

[Edward R Cole]

Brandon,

Never been up to Butte; is the trail difficult?  Is there a road up 
there?  New snow must have added a challenge.

Glad the 2m-SSB worked out for you.  I was surprised that KL6M had a 
path to you; I surmised his running a 10-dB omni vertical* might have 
illuminated the various hill tops.  Glad KL7QZ could work you. be 
interested in a list of 2m stations worked so see how well your 
signal ranged.  I listened and called a couple times but did not hear 
you; moved my array around in case there was a bounce shot; nada.

It was interesting talking with KL3WF & KL6M that there signals were 
S3 at az=55 and S5 at az=60; only a 5-degree  change in pointing.  I 
know the 21 dB gain of the array implies a 16-degree beamwidth, but 
something else is at play to drop signals 12-dB in 
5-degrees.  Pleased with new azimuth rotator, so far; has 1-degree 
digital resolution with pulse-count encoder.  Old Ham-IV moved in 
5-degree steps (due to the brake) and not very calibrated.

Here is the Net Report for April 4th:

144.200 (FT-736R, 125w, 4x yagis):
KL2JI - S0 fair signal az =50/55
KL7KY - S0 at good signal az = 50
KL7QZ - S1 good signal az =59
KL4E - S3 good az = 50
WL7AU - S2 nice signal az = 55
KL6M - S3 at az = 55
KL6M - S5 at az = 60
KL3WF - S5 at az = 60

223.50- FM (BCM-220, 30w, 2x yagis):
KL7XJ - 2 bars strong
KL6M - NR

224.94/223.34 repeater - 2 bars

*Note: I have the same antenna (CC ARX-270) mainly for repeaters.

73, Ed - KL7uW

At 08:19 AM 4/5/2020, Brandon Clark wrote:
>Hello group,
>
>Well, we did what others said couldn't be done. The Butte activation was a
>success. When I moved up here a few years ago I heard from a number of
>people that there was no way to do Summits on the Air up here because of
>the distance, propagation, and weather.
>
>Well, we did it, and stumbled onto a good formula for future activations.
>Starting on VHF worked perfectly and ensured that we had the minimum number
>of contacts to qualify. The HF digital setup also worked, yielding about
>ten additional contacts. We got contacts from the whole west coast, as well
>as Kansas and one from Italy.
>
>Having the local VHF crowd turn out at the start made the activation
>possible though. HF is always uncertain, so making contacts on VHF first
>ensures success.
>
>If you're interested, check pskreporter and search for signals from my call
>sign, KL7BSC. QRP is definitely possible from Alaska.
>
>Now, we just need someone with a boat and we can start doing Islands on the
>Air . . . .
>
>73,
>Brandon
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73, Ed - KL7UW
   http://www.kl7uw.com
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