We had grand plans for the weekend and then saw them all melt away after a couple of received phone calls. By Sunday afternoon, the sobering reality of a totally adventureless weekend was weighing heavily on us. As my hope faded, Mrs. K7EEX asked if there were any summits near the southern end of the PDX metro area as she needed to run an errand down there. “Why yes there is!” I proclaimed. “Mount Sylvania - but we’ll have to move fast as the rain is coming in.”
It is an easy drive up to the crest of the hill through the braided residential streets of the Mountain Park neighborhood. Sitting on top is a small circular park with a weather station and a couple of benches. The open grassy park makes an easy spot to stand up an antenna mast. If you are the string-a-wire type, there are trees, but all appear to be in the yards of the homes surrounding the park. This would be an ideal activation for an after-work evening and could very well be done entirely on a single band FM handheld on a weekend. The summit provides an excellent urban vantage point for the southern metropolitan area.
The skies were darkening as we neared the top of the hill. “Don’t use the wipers,” I said half aloud, “that is an admission that it's raining.” The wind was gusting on our arrival. We threw the antenna up quickly and staked it down. I hastily posted both an activation alert and a spot as I called out CQ on 20m. Surprisingly, we worked through five contacts rapidly. When there was a brief lull, the rain moved from spitting to spraying. Just as quickly as we had put it up, we shut it all down. As we scrambled to tear down the station, I called out on 2m FM and captured a couple more folks that wanted their chaser point. We scurried back down the hill and thrust the wet gear into the back of the Jeep.
As we started it up, we turned to each other and laughed. Just 998 points more to Mountain Goat.