The KEØVH Hamshack For September 2013
By Jack Roland, CBRE, AMD and CBNT
KLove /Air 1 EMF Colorado Engineering.
In the month of August we have begun another engineering hamnet for all interested Amateurs. It is the EMF/Klove/Air1 IRLP Echolink Nationwide Ham net, and it will be on Monday Evenings at 7pm Mountain time, 9pm Eastern. It will take place in just the same manner as the SBE net I run once a month now. It is open for ANYONE who is interested in participating, engineer or not. It will be on the SBE IRLP Reflector 9615, Echolink *SBE* or node 96150. Details on how to join are the same as for the SBE net, details are at www.qsl.net/ke0vh/sbehamnet. IF you want to join in locally in Denver, we will be on the 449.626 WØKU repeater.
Well another 14’er has been conquered and operations on 6 meters done on August 4th. A beautiful day for a climb up Quandary Peak SW of Breckenridge CO, grid square DM63 for the Colorado Amateur Radio 14’er event for 2013. Jim Langsted, KC0RPS, my friend Michael Engberg, and myself made the early morning drive to the trailhead arriving about 6am, and then trekking up the mountain, arriving on the summit about 10:15am. Quandary is a pretty steep hike from treeline up to the summit at 14,265 feet above sea level. When we arrived as seen in the pictures below Jim operated primarily on UHF simplex and I operated 6 meters using my painters pole/walking stick as the support for the dipole that had also been used for our previous trip up Mount Lincoln, visible to the south of our operating perch. I made several contacts down to the San Antonio Texas area, and several in the DM63 grid square, working a guy in Rifle and Silt CO to our west.
Michael and Jim at the Trailhead
Michael and KEØVH on the trail
Another occupant of the trail!
The Steepness of Quandary
The first false summit looks so far off in the above picture.
Not only were there other hikers on the mountain, but the Mountain goats were in abundance and basically unafraid of the hikers on the trail. We saw a couple of “goat families” this day. Quandary turned out to be a pretty strenuous hike as the steep slope was covered in pretty loose rock called “talus”. The trail was very east to follow for the most part, but you had to step carefully and keep your eye on what you were doing.
On the way up, are we there yet?
Nope, KEØVH on the “false summit”.
FINALLY! SUMMIT! 14,265 Feet above sea level!
KEØVH operating 6 meters
KCØRPS operating UHF
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The Quandary 6m QTH!
The antenna and mast
I ran the station with the Ranger RCI-5054 DX100 6 meter monoband rig and a dipole. With the antenna at this height, I figured maybe I had the tallest 6 meter antenna in country on this day!
Ready to head down after a fun time!
It was indeed an adventure. The views are beyond tremendous and the times with friends are the best. You really feel a comaradarie with the guys you hike with. AND, the people on the mountain are friendly and always saying, “hello”, “good morning”, and “hang in there!” amongst others. I hope to hike many more of these mountains in the future. Thanks to Jim and Michael for a tremendously enjoyable, tiring day!
As always don’t forget the SBE IRLP (and Echolink) Hamnet, the first Saturday of the month. Details on how to join are at http://www.qsl.net/ke0vh/sbehamnet. I hope you will be able to join us and share your engineering and ham exploits!
73’, God be with you, & see you next time! KEØVH