ACØPR, ham radio blog: Yellowstone Mesa (W7A/NM-062) SOTA activation AZ Summer Bonus season!

The first day of summer bonus in Arizona! Living within 10 mins of Arizona allows me to cross over and activate many of the summits that offer a summer bonus starting in June. Since it gets so hot so quickly, I usually go out the first few days and get as many as I can before even early morning is too hot to go.

In the area:

This one is interesting in that you don't even have a vertical hike. The mesa just sits a little higher than what there is to the north to access it, but the drop off around it is what is impressive. I'm always on the lookout for snakes, especially since the largest rattler I've ever seen was on this mesa some years back. Nothing this year though.

Also, in AZ the point system is based on lower elevations that Utah. So there's a very similar mesa just over the border in Utah that's actually a few feet higher in elevation. The Utah mesa is worth 2 points, no matter the season. With the summer 3 point bonus, and the regular 6 points the mesa is at other times, this is a 9-pointer in AZ at this time of year--quite a difference.

On the air:

As is usually the case in Arizona for summer bonus, I don't stay on overly long since it gets hot fast, so it was about 35 minutes on air. I was lucky to get SA4BLM once again from Sweden, though that was the only DX this time. It was good on air though, although not quite as great as the previous day. Of course, Harmony HP is at a much higher elevation than the mesa as well.

There's one other factor doing these hot summer ones though. I have had a number of flat tires going on activations and the thought of having to do that as the temperature rises to 100 degrees keeps me from staying longer just in case. Then again, even when the weather is nice, since I activate alone, I always think about what could go wrong, so I always leave in plenty of time to get down, get back, be safe, etc. That probably won't change.

Date:01/06/2021 | Summit:W7A/NM-062 (Yellowstone Mesa) | Call Used:AC0PR | Points: 6 | Bonus: 3

Time	Callsign	Band	Mode
14:37	W9MRH	14MHz	CW
14:38	AC7P	14MHz	CW
14:39	K3TCU	14MHz	CW
14:42	NS7P	14MHz	CW
14:42	W0MNA	14MHz	CW
14:42	W0ERI	14MHz	CW
14:43	AB4PP	14MHz	CW
14:44	N4MJ	14MHz	CW
14:45	K0LAF	14MHz	CW
14:47	SA4BLM	14MHz	CW
14:49	N4LAG	14MHz	CW
14:50	AC7GG	14MHz	CW
14:51	K7SO	14MHz	CW
14:54	W7RV	7MHz	CW
14:55	AA7OY	7MHz	CW
14:56	K6YK	7MHz	CW
14:57	K6LDQ	7MHz	CW
14:58	KR7RK	7MHz	CW
14:58	WB6POT	7MHz	CW
15:00	WA6RWI	7MHz	CW
15:02	KE6MT	7MHz	CW