OK, practically everything went as planned. Being several years older
since the last time I made this trek, it seemed as if:
1. The gate where we had to park, while it looked like the same place,
was quite a bit farther from the summit than I remember.
2. That far and that much "up" gets harder as you accumulate more
birthdays.
We decided to spend Fri nite at Topaz Lake NV, to be very close to the
summit on Sat AM and have a night to acclimate at 5,000 ft ... I live at
1,700 ft, Rich lives at a couple of hundred feet.
Rich and I made two trips with his big-wheel cart carrying more gear and
general stuff than we needed, and on the second, a woman who had passed
us on the way up, came down from the summit and pulled our cart the last
50 meters. It turned out she was a personal trainer and fitness
instructor, and significantly younger. Viewing this as a gift from the
FD gods, we began to set up.
Rich's K1 with an older Buddipole in a dipole configuration on 20, my K2
and Buddipole in a vertical groundplane config on 17 and we were
on-the-air. My phone got confused with too many sites, so I couldn't
spot us on SOTAWatch and QRPSpots, and Rich's hadn't worked since about
when we left Gardnerville NV, but I called CQ and Rich N4EX answered me
and gave us a spot. He spotted us, but unfortunately, it was now close
to 1800Z and I made only 3 more Q's with summit chasers before the FD
bedlam opened up.
We stuck it out on CW on 15 and 20, and ended up with a total of 56 Q's,
actually, Rich made one on SSB. My Chinese "9.8 Ah" Li-Ion battery
pooped out after about 3 hrs, my Maha charger stuffed 2.7 Ah back into
it at home, I don't recommend buying a battery that you have to take to
the local Scheuan resturant to get the label translated :-(
Great steak dinner back at Topaz, and a good night's sleep before the
4.5 hr trip home. Really great time. Rich is a Biologist for CalTrans
and knows just a whole lot about the flora and fauna of the Western
Frontier, and I had lots of time to explore that with him. First time
I've ever seen a K1, and so first time I've ever operated with one ...
that is a really cool little radio!! I really like my KX1 but sometimes
it doesn't "feel" like a radio. K1 has a front panel, plenty of audio
[I'm nearly deaf], and just a really nice feel.
Fun time with radio, outdoors, a summit, and truly great weather. We
both are going to reduce the "gear load" on the next one ... if you
didn't need it and it wasn't essential for "Plan B," leave it home.
73,
Fred K6DGW
Auburn CA
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