ACØPR, ham radio blog: Starvation Point W7A/NM-134 First Day of Summer Bonus in AZ

View from near the summit into the Gorge

I have always gone out on the first day of Arizona's summer bonus. I live in the far southwest corner of Utah, it is desert and near the Arizona Strip, a mostly unoccupied stretch of desert. This summit is a drive-up (by ATV) but it goes to nowhere, so very few go out to it. While I have seen rattlers out here, there were none this time.

Trail report:

There is a road that goes all the way to the summit, but most of it is really Jeep trail. I opted for driving my ATV from the bottom. It's right off of I-15, the first exit once you enter AZ from Utah. LOTS of ups and downs. Cool looking desert terrain. The views are great once on top.

The experience:
The ride in was good, a bit breezy. I try and get this one in before it gets to hot to bother going to the desert which happens in July usually. This was the second of four planned summits to use the Te-Ne-Ke CW key as a test run. It worked well, but I'm still getting used to the width of the finger spacing. Even so I really like it.

There was very little activity on 20 meters. It could be because of how early it was, thus the band wasn't reaching far, or being a Monday, or other factors. No matter the day, time, or conditions though, I've never had trouble activating a summit. I was done before 9am. There are no trees and only sporadic rocks on the summit, so I use a bush and bungee my fishing pole mast to it. Then I use a couple of rocks to steady it at the base. With the Jackite pole, this was much harder since that pole is so much heavier--it's just takes more to steady it.

I have had a little trouble with starting the ATV. It's a Honda and normally starts up immediately, that's when I realized I haven't changed the battery in over four years. Luckily I got it started to head back to the pickup and made it home. I did buy a new battery after getting home.

Video reviewing Te-Ne-Ke

Date:01/06/2020 | Summit:W7A/NM-134 (Starvation Point) | Call Used:AC0PR | Points: 4 | Bonus: 3

Time	Callsign	Band	Mode	Notes
14:10	W9MRH	14MHz	CW
14:11	N4EX	14MHz	CW
14:12	W0MNA	14MHz	CW
14:12	W0ERI	14MHz	CW
14:14	W5GDW	14MHz	CW
14:17	K3TCU	14MHz	CW
14:18	K0LAF	14MHz	CW
14:18	WN4AT	14MHz	CW
14:25	K6KM	7MHz	CW
14:26	KA5PVB	7MHz	CW
14:28	K8TE	7MHz	CW
14:28	KE6MT	7MHz	CW
14:29	K6YK	7MHz	CW
14:30	AE0XI	7MHz	CW
14:34	K6LDQ	7MHz	CW
14:34	N1CLC	7MHz	CW
14:35	N6TVN	7MHz	CW
14:37	KE5AKL	7MHz	CW	S2S W5N/EL-002
14:38	N6PKT	7MHz	CW
14:39	N0RZ	7MHz	CW
14:40	KR7RK	7MHz	CW
14:41	NG6R	7MHz	CW
14:42	K6HPX	7MHz	CW
14:43	K7MK	7MHz	CW
14:43	W6STR	7MHz	CW
14:47	WW7D	14MHz	CW
14:49	ND1J	14MHz	CW