ACØPR, ham radio blog: Shinob Kibe W7U/WS-124 Back to the Beginning

The shack for the day

This is my fourth activation of this summit (I didn't do it last year for some reason), but it is special to me since this is where I had my first successful SOTA activation ever in Aug. 2016. For the first couple of years I went back the same weekend as an anniversary kind of thing--but August here is miserable with heat, so I did it early. Plus, it's the second closest summit to my house and is right in town. I've taken so many photos of it, I didn't even take one from a distance this time.

Trail report:

Navigational arrow

Shinob Kibe has a pretty decent trail at the north end. You do have to go through a residential neighborhood to gain access to the BLM area and trail. It's been closed off at times, but is usually open. The trail is starting up the "ATV road" just after passing into the area, you'll see it. The summit has an aerial navigational arrow in concrete at the top (where there is also a logbook). It's a common hiking area in the morning for locals, so you'll usually see someone going up or down.

The experience:

Looking over the edge

This time I saw more people than I ever have hiking--people wanting to get out of the house during COVID-19 it seems. There are a few places to setup, with a few hikers around, I went off to the side away from the normal path and items on the summit. There are a few rocks and only a few bushes, so I used a combination to stabilize the mast.

This is one of the main benefits of changing from a Jackite mast to a fishing pole mast, the Jackite was very stiff and sturdy and tall, but it's heavy enough that most bushes can't hold it up and wind will knock it over, but the fishing pole is light and it doesn't take as much to keep it in the air.

Operating was fun as usual. I didn't stay on too long, it was getting warm out. I did start by chasing a summit-to-summit and ended up with two of them back east--North Carolina with KI4SVM and New Hampshire with NS1TA. The highlight contact was with Lars, SA4BLM in Sweden for the farthest of the day--all with four watts. QRP really surprises me even though I've been doing it for years. That part of what makes it fun, you never know who you're going to get from where. As always, good times, good day.

Date:28/03/2020 | Summit:W7U/WS-124 (Shinob Kibe) | Call Used:AC0PR | Points: 1 | Bonus: 0

Time	Callsign	Band	Mode	Notes
17:15	KI4SVM	14MHz	CW	S2S W4C/WM-046
17:17	VE7HI	14MHz	CW
17:18	W5ODS	14MHz	CW
17:18	WW7D	14MHz	CW
17:19	W0MNA	14MHz	CW
17:19	AC7P	14MHz	CW
17:19	W0ERI	14MHz	CW
17:21	SA4BLM	14MHz	CW	Sweden
17:21	K3TCU	14MHz	CW
17:22	KG3W	14MHz	CW
17:23	K4MF	14MHz	CW
17:24	NS1TA	14MHz	CW	S2S W1/NL-002
17:25	WA2USA	14MHz	CW
17:26	K9ZMD	14MHz	CW
17:31	NW7E	7MHz	CW
17:31	KD5KC	7MHz	CW
17:32	K7GT	7MHz	CW
17:32	N0DNF	7MHz	CW
17:33	NG6R	7MHz	CW
17:34	N0MTN	7MHz	CW
17:35	WA6KYR	7MHz	CW
17:36	KI5WA	7MHz	CW
17:36	K6KM	7MHz	CW
17:37	KX0R	7MHz	CW