ACØPR, ham radio blog: Seegmiller Mountain W7A/AW-035 Taking a Ride with Dad

The high point, there are other antennas as well

This is a summit I would normally do together with Wolf Hole Mountain (W7A/NM-035) since they're right across from each other, and I would do it in early June for the summer bonus season in Arizona. However, my parents came for a visit and my Dad likes to get out into nature, and this summit is a drive-up with the road leading to the antennas, so this was a good time to head up.

Trail report:

Mt Trumbull Loop is the road to access the side road leading up Seegmiller and is a pretty good most of the way. I approached from the north using the Southern Parkway (7), just on the Utah-Arizona border. The turnoff to go up the mountain is on the southern end of the mesa, BLM 1020. The sign is badly worn and nearly unreadable at this time however. From the turnoff it's almost 9 miles to the top. The route goes around a large gorge and takes a while. A 4x4 may not be required but is recommended. You can park below the tower and hike up or park on top and hike down and back up again. There are a few antennas right near the summit but there is plenty of space to find a place to set up.

(This is near W7A/NM-035 Wolf Hole Mt. and both can be done fairly easily in the same day).

The experience:

We made our way to the summit without any trouble, I didn't engage the 4-wheel drive and made it fine. My dad explored the summit while I setup and got on the radio. I didn't want to spend too much time since I was with my dad and my mom was back at home. Besides that, with the antennas nearby, there was lots of interference on 20 meters and I could only hear a few of the strongest signals. After Dennis, Gary and Martha, I just switched to 40 meters which was a bit clearer. I was on the air less than 20 minutes, and did get one summit-to-summit in Nevada. I didn't take many pictures.

On the way back down I popped a tire--major bummer. My Toyota Tacoma changes out pretty easy, but the hardest part is just getting the tire down from the back. You have to thread linked bars (which are held by terrible, tiny screws) to the very back and engage the lower screw which you can't see and is difficult to feel. Once I FINALLY got that, it was easy, just a pain. That's the way it goes. At least I made it to a flat area so not terrible.

Date:16/03/2020 | Summit:W7A/AW-035 (Seegmiller Mountain) | Call Used:AC0PR | Points: 8 | Bonus: 0

Time	Callsign	Band	Mode	Notes
19:23	WA2USA	14MHz	CW
19:25	W0MNA	14MHz	CW
19:25	W0ERI	14MHz	CW
19:31	K6KM	7MHz	CW
19:33	W7RV	7MHz	CW
19:34	N6AN	7MHz	CW	s2s W7N/CK-177
19:35	WW7D	7MHz	CW
19:36	N6PKT	7MHz	CW
19:36	K6YK	7MHz	CW
19:38	WU7H	7MHz	CW
19:38	K8TE	7MHz	CW
19:38	KD5KC	7MHz	CW
19:39	K7MK	7MHz	CW
19:40	KI6PMD	7MHz	CW