My first activation happened on March 13, 2020 at the tip top of the Bogus Basin ski resort near Boise, Idaho. Skiing was still happening, so I decided to incorporate this SOTA activity with a day of skiing. Getting to the top from the parking lot involved riding up the Deer Point chairlift. Once there, it was a several mile ski to the bottom of the Pine Creek chairlift, the longest chair at Bogus basin. The chair takes skiers to nearly the top of Shafer Butte where it was only a short hike (in downhill ski boots) to the activation zone for W7I/BC-064.
Setup was a pretty simple, using one of my skis as a base for my antenna mast. I used 42' endfed random wire going through a 9:1 UNUN at the base of the mast. I used a 25' piece of RG-58 from the Elecraft KX2 to the UNUN.
I fired up the KX2 and set it to 10W out. 20m was my starting band and would rely on RBN posts to spot me to the world.
CQ CQ SOTA DE KK7A KK7A K
repeat, repeat, repeat
The calls started to come in, mostly one after another, but there were a few minor pileups that made things a bit more exciting.
I moved to 30m and again called CQ, but I think my impatience got the best of me and I ended up moving to 40m without any QSOs.
40m was better, taking my total for the day (30 minutes of operating) to 22 QSOs.
A major highlight of the operation was a QSO with DJ5AV who managed to pull my 10W out of the air on 20m.
Thanks to all the chasers who made this activation a success. I hope it is just the first of many in the years to come.
This was the view from my operating position, looking east. Nothing but far away horizon.
Until next time...
73, Jim - KK7A
