Long Trail SOTA

Part of the purpose of my Long Trail backpacking trip this year is to use my radio on a lot of summits. It’s partially a regular backpacking trip and partially a SOTA expedition. If you’re not interested in amateur radio from mountains, this is probably going to be a pretty boring post. You might want to move on.

The Gear

Here’s all the radio gear I will be carrying for activating all these summits:

• Mountain Topper MTR3B - This tiny radio covers the 20, 30, and 40 meter bands, and is CW only. It’s got a one character display, a bunch of buttons, and can run off a 9V battery. The antenna connector is RCA, so I also got an RCA to BNC adapter. The radio costs $260 though I bought it used. With the adapter, it weighs 130 grams.

• UPDATED: I am going to make a 20/30 link dipole based on the SOTAbeams kit. I unwind everything, throw a rope over a convenient tree branch, pull the middle up, and then pull the sides out until the antenna looks like a wide upside down V. There are links in the middle that can be connected for 40 meters and stay disconnected for 20 meters. With all the miscellaneous parts it costs about $55 and weighs around 460 grams. I’m going to reuse stakes from my tarp.

• Darn Cheap Paddle - Since this is CW only, I’ve got to have a paddle. This one is about as light as it gets. I had to assemble it from a kit. The cable is a computer speaker cable I cut one end off of and soldered to the contacts. It costs $49 and weighs 114 grams with cable, it being made of metal.

• Headphones - I just grabbed the ear buds from my Roku remote. They seem to work well, don’t cover my ears so they get less sweaty, and let me hear what’s going on outside. They cost nothing and weigh 11 grams.

• Power - A 9V battery should last a fairly long time I’m going to carry two for four days, and then two more for the next five days. I made a power cable out of a battery clip and a DC power socket. With battery, this weighs 45 grams.

• Odds & Ends - I’ve got a little bag with a carabiner attached, and a length of cord that also makes a good clothesline. I’ll find a rock somewhere, put it in the bag, tie the rope to the carabiner, and toss that over a tree branch. That’s how I get the antenna up. The rope weighs 95 grams and the bag weighs 25 grams. Not shown in the picture above is the rope, since it’s useful elsewhere, and a waterproof notebook. I’ll use that for logging as well as writing notes about the hike.

• Bag - All that (except the antenna and notebook) fit into a waterproof Shore 2 Summit bag. I got it for free, and it weighs 30 grams.

Overall, that’s a total of 770 grams if I don’t count the rope and notebook. It doesn’t get much lighter than that.

The Summits

I am planning on hiking from the Canadian border at least to Appalachian Gap, hopefully slightly farther to Mount Ellen. There are eighteen activatable summits along this section. Most are on the trail, a few are accessible via side trails, and a few are bushwhacks. I might do some of the bushwhack peaks if I have time and the weather cooperates and I feel like extra credit. Here they all are:

• Carleton Mountain - W1/GM-222 - Two points, right on the trail. I expect to hit this one early on the first day. It’s close to the northern end of the trail and unactivated.

• North Jay Peak - W1/GM-087 - Six points, a short bushwhack or perhaps a herd path. It’s enough points to make it worth it. I expect to activate this.

• Jay Peak - W1/GM-004 - Eight points, right on the trail. I’ll have to get creative with the antenna here since the summit is a ski area and partially open. Weather might prevent me from activating it, but I hope to. It’s the first major peak.

• Gilpin Mountain - W1/GM-098 - Four points, a short bushwhack or perhaps a herd path. I expect to activate it.

• Haystack Mountain - W1/GM-182 - Four points, right on the trail.

• Belvidere Mountain - W1/GM-017 - Six points, on a short side path.

• Billings Mountain - W1/GM-072 - Two points, right on the trail and near a shelter. I’m not sure if I will stay there or not. Because it’s just two points, I might skip it if I’m in a hurry.

• Laraway Mountain - W1/GM-020 - Two points, right on the trail. This might also get skipped due to low point value.

• W1/GM-247 - A one point, unactivated, bump off the trail. This will require a bushwhack and I don’t think I am going to be interested in doing it. It’s not enough points.

• Sterling Mountain - W1/GM-018 - Eight points, right on the trail.

• Madonna Peak - W1/GM-127 - Eight points, right on the trail.

• Mount Mansfield - W1/GM-001 - Ten points, right on the trail. This summit is completely alpine. I won’t be able to time when I get here, so weather may force me to either go around the summit entirely or run across the ridge. There may simply be no time for radio. Also, there’s no trees to put up the antenna. I plan on just laying it on the ground if I can find room.

• Bolton Mountain - W1/GM-015 - Eight points, right on the trail.

• W1/GM-185 - Another one point, unactivated bushwhack. It’s pretty close to the trail so I may do it, but I think it’s a pretty low probability.

• Camels Hump - W1/GM-011 - Ten points, right on the trail. This summit has all the same problems as Mansfield. Activating is highly weather dependent.

• Mount Ethan Allen - W1/GM-076 - Eight points, right on the trail.

• Molly Stark Mountain - W1/GM-181 - Four points, right on the trail. If I end my hike at Appalachian Gap (just south of this summit), I may not activate it. The lure of being at the parking lot with my boots off might be too strong. On the other hand if I keep going to Mount Ellen, I might be in too big of a hurry and not have time to activate it.

• Mount Ellen - W1/GM-013 - Ten points, right on the trail. This is similar to Jay Peak - a ski area that I’ll have to get creative on. Also, I may not hike this far.

The Plan

UPDATED: There are contests both weekends I’ll be out, so I am probably going to stick to 30 meters, where contests are not allowed. I’ll be near the QRP calling frequency of 10.110. However, my antenna will also do 20 meters so I might be around 14.062 on there. I’ll likely be on 20 meters during the week.

Assuming I have cell phone signal, I’m going to try to file alerts for each activation one day in advance. That way, I’ll get picked up by the Reverse Beacon Network and get spotted automatically. That seems to be the best way to draw attention.

I’ll be trying to cover at least twelve miles a day on the trail, so the activations are a side activity. I need to keep them as short as possible. I’m hoping to spend no more than 45 minutes on each one, including setup and tear down. The first several activations will take longer to set up but after a few days I should be pretty fast. So, expect me to be on the air about 15 minutes at first, and about 20 minutes once I get it all figured out. One reason I’m going to stick to 20 meters only is so I don’t waste time changing the antenna and finding another spot to operate.

QSLing

I won’t be able to upload my SOTA logs until after I get done on August 13, of course. If this goes as well as I hope, I should make a couple hundred contacts. It’ll take me a couple days to upload them all.

I could also upload to LOTW if there’s interest, given that I’ll be in a couple different counties in Vermont and they might be rare. But that will be a lot of work so I haven’t decided if I will or not.

Finally, I’m thinking about printing up special QSL cards afterwards. I’ll send them out to local stations directly and DX stations via the bureau. It’ll take a couple months for these to get printed, filled out, and mailed.