Activated Shaw Butte a second time

03/03/2018

The sky was turning a rich turquoise as the anticipated sunrise began to glow behind the Superstition Mountains. High wispy clouds hung high above over the mountains turning a ruby red with flakes of gold while the moon slowly began to set in the west. A bird cooed off in the still morning air, most likely a pigeon, somewhere off in the distance as it called to a mate. The cold crept down the back of my neck and the my back of my jacket making me shiver as I loaded up my car. I was a lone adventurer off to conquer another summit hopefully adding another conquest to my slowly growing list.

Traveling down the freeway making my way to the Shaw Butte trailhead, I encountered a few cars on the road with me. I was not as alone as I had originally thought as I made my way to my eventual destination at the park. A lighted sign on the side of the freeway telling of a spring training game planned for today. The game I would be playing today would be an adult version of Hide-and-Seek with my radio friends. Unlike the childhood game I played in my youth, I wanted my pursers to find me and telling others to find me as well.

The now familiar sight of a flight of hot air balloons could be seen to the north while I searched for one of the few remaining parking spots. Even though I had made it to the park a few minutes after sunrise, the small lot was full of cars of people visiting. The balloons hovering in the sky told that there was very little chance that I would be battling a wind on the summit. I had just under an hour and a half to make it to my destination and didn’t need to be delayed by the weather.

A smoky haze hung over the valley as I made my way along the trail and looked out over the city below me. I could already feel the familiar scratch in the back of my throat and tried to wash it out with a quick drink. I had hike this trail before last summer and had learned an important lesson; be sure to drink often and pack extra water. Back then, I had only brought enough water for my camelback and emptied it out as I was descending. Even though it now cost me extra weight, I had packed another ¾ liter of water as well as 2 half liter bottles along with my camelback.

I came around the corner just as the sun came out from behind from one to the hills that I was hiking among. It had been officially up for nearly half an hour by this time but I was still walking in the shadow of the hills. I was trying to take advantage of this by push myself harder to get some distance before I got too hot when the sun came out. I had packed a hand warmer in my jacket pocket thinking I would be too cold and was not silently cursing myself. The heat that I was trying to avoid I had packed along with me and was causing my stomach to sweat as a result.

I turned and saw downtown Phoenix off in the distance to the south of me and to the north the suburbs of North Phoenix waking up. More hikers were now joining me on the trail making it more difficult to take pictures of the scenery around me. A few were running up the hill perhaps training for some event later on that they hoped to compete in. Others made the trek slowly as I was with only a water bottle and a fanny pack as the support for the journey. A few looked skeptically at my pack wonder what mischievous activity I was up to.

Arriving at the summit at exactly 1529z one minute ahead of schedule, I made my way around the microwave towers. I quickly pulled out my radios and set up my antenna and heard only static over the air while only minutes earlier were other hams. Switched back to my whip antenna, I could hear Tom, W7RV, talking and called out that I was switching antennas. Again, all I heard was static and became frustrated at what was happening trying to troubleshoot quickly before it was too late. Something was going on with my external antenna and if I wanted to count this summit, I’d need to solve it fast.

Looking over at the towers I soon realized what my problem was; I was sitting right next to the active Shaw Butte repeated that was always busy in the early morning hours. Every time it was being used by some ham driving around in the valley it would overpower my little handheld radio. My little 5 watt radio was no match to the 200 watts roaring invisibly overhead of me making communication on it impossible. I would need to find a different way to make my four required contact if I was going to get any points for this summit. Luckily, I had a solution in my bag.

I pulled out my FT-817ND and set up my 30 meter antenna to try to get some CW contacts hoping that someone would be waiting for me. As I pulled out the wire from my backpack, the antenna mast decided at that moment to fall over causing my heart to race. Quickly looking it over, I was relieve to see that it hadn’t broken as others had done in the past from such a topple. Spreading out the distance between two of my tie-downs, I re-secured the mast, in reality a cheap fishing pole I picked up at Bass Pro Shop.

Antenna in the air, I raced over to my radio and plugged in my paddles only to find that I had bent the metal tab the night before. Testing it quickly out, I found that it felt sloppy but still appeared to be working so quickly tuned up the antenna. Sending out a “QRL?” to see if the frequency was in use, I had to fight to keep the key centered sending off a few stray “dits” in the process. I sent a CQ SOTA only to have the key wedge itself to the right sending off a series of “dits” unable to stop them.

 

Unplugging the key from the back of the rig, I pulled out a homebrew straight key in an Altoids tin I kept in the bottom of my radio bag. Plugging it back in, I heard some stations giving their call wondering if they were answering me or someone else. Hearing nothing, I sent out my CQ again correctly this time and heard two stations right on top of each other call back. Tom, W7RV was one of them and I gave his call back along with mine thanking him by name for answering me. I now was back on track to getting this summit.

Calling out a “QRZ?”, another station I had never heard before answered back, NW7E, later to find out they were from Bend, Or. I was finally getting out with good radio reports and the nearby repeater was not causing any problems blocking my transmissions or receptions. I called another CQ SOTA and a station I had talked to several times in the past answered, NS7P, from South Bend, Or on the coast near where I had lived years earlier. There was now a real chance that I would get the minimum contacts to be able to count this summit.

 

Another call and silence. Had the repeater won the battle at last and there would be no more contacts for the morning hike? I called again and still nobody answered and I looked down at the log wondering if this was the best I would get for today. Again and again, I reached out into the ether only to be met with static as I tried to make just one more contact. I had been on the summit for nearly an hour by this time and was running out of time I had given myself.

Pulling out a different wire out of my pack, I quick pulled down the 30 meter antenna and began setting up my 20 meter. I would make one last attempt on Single Side Band hoping to get my last remaining contact to be able to get this summit. Now, my second hurdle came through my headphones as I began looking for a free frequency; a DX contest was going on I had forgotten about. My 5 watts of SSB would now be competing against 1500 watts of international stations attempting for conquests in their logs.

 

Finding a frequency not in use on the crowded band, I called out my CQ practically yelling into the mic to be heard over the other stations. I didn’t care anymore if I was bothering other hikers on the trail as I flipped the switch on my headphones turning on the noise canceling. Again I called listening to the static listening for any sign of another stations that might be listen for me. After almost 15 minutes of calling, I eventually head a ham friend Chris, K7TAB, in North Phoenix answer back. I now had my four required contacts after over an hour of work on the summit.

I tried calling out to a few of the DX stations I heard all over the band but was no match to the more powerful stations who were easy pickings. Spinning the dial down to the CW portion of the band, I decided to get a few extras in my log and sent out a CQ SOTA. To my surprise, I was instantly rewarded with three stations, two of which I recognized, WOMNA and W0ERI, from Kansas and another new to me, W5BOS. I had more than enough stations in my log to call the activation a success.

I packed up my backpack and turned on my handheld as I decided to get a snack and drink up much needed water. The repeater was still playing games with it as I could hear the broken conversations through the speaker. I had been on the summit twice as long as I had anticipated. Several hikers were on the summit with me, some taking in the views but others coming over and asking about my activities. I would explain that I was doing ham radio and one couple mentioned that they were considering getting their license as well.

Past the time I had planned on leaving, I was just about to go when I heard W7USA talking and decided to give him a go. I called out for him and again was answered only with silence thinking that the repeat was back to it’s old tricks. A moment later, however, he answered back explaining that he had picked up the wrong mic and took a second to come back to me. A quick exchange and I added him to my logs along with K7JE who was hiding in the static but still coming through.

Nine contacts I had made this morning working for each one with determination fighting for each one. I often refer to QRP as fishing with a pole instead of a net and today I could feel that truly was the case. Just as the fisherman will have to encounter debris in the river or lake they are fishing in, I too had to deal with debris from other hams and equipment. Big trawlers were taking all the fish while I had to work at reeling in a couple handfuls from the same big ocean. But, I felt proud of my measly catch looking at my log of nine contacts with pride as I began my hike back down the mountain.