W6/SC-076 Whitaker Peak

 I was down in southern California for work, and before starting I decided to get some hiking in. It seemed like Whitaker and its nearby neighbor (CT-263) would make a nice hike. From the airport I drove up I-5 to the Golden State Highway, where I parked at forest road 6N53. Sadly, the gate was closed at the base, so I had to walk and extra few miles.

Start of Whitaker Peak Road.

The road is paved up to the junction with 6N53B, though it would be a rough drive in places. It is about two miles to the communications site where the road splits. From here, I took the left fork and descended to the col on the now dirt road. 

First view of Whitaker Peak.

The road then climbs at a steady grade. It was Mother's Day, so I was surprised to see other people out hiking, but I basically had the place to myself. The best way to get to the summit seems to be an approach from the north side. However, it is a challenge getting off the road, since there is an impassible embankment.

The annoying embankment.

I tried a few places to get up it, but it was too steep or slippery for me. I needed to walk past the peak, to the col with the towers peak to find a place low enough to scramble up. I then had to walk all the way back through the brush to the base of Whitaker proper.

Ready to go cross-country.

The bushwhacking wasn't particularly difficult. I could find open passages, or the places I needed to push were fairly thin. It seemed like the south side was slightly more open, but not enough to stay on it. At the summit I found a benchmark and register. After signing it, I set up the antenna. Somehow I managed to get the wire all knotted up as I was unwinding it, but the end-fed got in the air eventually. I had decent cell service on the summit.

Excellent views.

Once I was done operating I retraced my steps back to the road and down. It was nice getting back on the easy to follow road, and I made good time back to the road junction. Here I turned left again to go get the other peak.

Trailhead: Forest Road 6N53. If you're lucky, you can drive up to the communication site.
Website: SOTA Site.
Maps: AA6XA SOTA Hikes map.
Route: Follow paved 6N53 (Whitaker Peak Road) to the junction. Turn left, follow the dirt road to the north side of the peak, the bushwhack to the summit.
Red Tape: None.
Video: ham_bitious YouTube

W7U/UT-043 View Benchmark

 We were in Salt Lake City for a ski trip, and decided to do a SOTA activation on our off day. The weather wasn't looking that great, so we picked an easy looking peak, View Benchmark. This mountain is in the small range that separates the Salt Lake Valley from the one to the south with Provo. We prayed that the weather would hold long enough for an activation.

Parking is just on the side of the road.

The trailhead is at the end of Deer Ridge Drive, with enough space for a dozen cars or so to parallel park. There was even a port-a-potty there. To get to the summit, just follow the main dirt road in front of you. There were a few junctions, but we were able to guess the correct direction to go: uphill. As we hiked, the snow started falling harder and harder.

Hiking up.

As we had guessed, there was no view, being in the cloud with the snow. Once we got into the activation zone we stopped at the first sheltered area to set up. We started putting up the HF antenna, but with the cold and wind decided to just do 2m. Lucky for us, we got our four contacts in a bit less than 10 minutes. It was good we had a rite in the rain notepad, since it was wet. We were cold and a bit miserable, so we didn't stick around.

Operating area.

The hike down was worse, since the wind was now blowing in our faces. The snow really stung. We managed to make a wrong turn on the way down, but realized our mistake pretty quickly. Not a good time to get lost. Back at the car we brushed off the inch or so of snow that had fallen, and blasted the heater as we drove back to the hotel.

Trailhead: End of Deer Ridge Drive.
Website: SOTA Site.
Maps: AA6XA SOTA Hikes map.
Route: Follow the main road up to the summit.
Red Tape: None. Area appears to be ok for off leash dogs too.
Video: ham_bitious YouTube

HT 2m Antenna Range Testing

 Background

 During our trip to Mt Umunuhm (W6/CC-052) to test radio performance in a high RF environment, we noticed that some people could hear us better on certain radios. At the time we had no way to determine if this was because of the antenna or the radio. This question bugged us, so we decided to find out.

 We decided the best way to determine how a radio/antenna combination works was to transmit and use an RF field strength meter to measure the output. (Watch the video here)

Field Strength Meter

 A bit of research showed that such a meter is very simple to build, so parts were acquired. We decided to use the VK3YE schematic, which is very similar or identical to others that we came across.

 The values for the capacitors and potentiometer are not critical. We used 47n at the antenna, and a 50k pot. The diodes can be any germanium type. We found some 1N34A's for cheap on eBay to use. A regular digital multimeter (DMM) in voltage mode is connected across the 10n capacitor to get the reading. Adjust the sensitivity pot to get the values into a good range. We built ours on a piece of perf board, and used an alligator clip jumper as an antenna.

Testing the meter at home.

 Initial tests in the shack were good. Standing above the desk with an HT resulted in up to two volts. From across the room, there were still a few dozen millivolts on the meter. 

It is important to note that this meter only gives relative field strength readings. If you don't measure the position of the potentiometer, readings made with it in different positions are not comparable. At the antenna range, once we adjusted it to get an appropriate sensitivity, we did not touch it again.

Antenna Range

 Since we're hams we don't have a real antenna range, but the park down the street would work just as well. One Saturday we packed up all the radios and antennas and walked over. We picked a spot in the shade, and got set up. KN6REU volunteered to be the transmitter and AA6XA logged. The radios were on the ground, or used in a sitting position, like we do on SOTA activations. The field strength meter antenna was clipped onto the handle of the tripod we were using to film, with everything dangling, and the DMM on the ground. The tripod was about 7m away from the radios. Far field is generally considered to be three wavelengths or more, so we were measuring in the far field.

Test setup.

 We started with the same radio/antenna combinations we had on Mt Umunhum. We had some trouble initially, there was nothing being registered on the meter. We're not sure exactly what the problem was, but it was likely the alligator clip not grasping well. After testing those combinations, we tried each antenna with the TH-F6a, our main SOTA HT. 

Radios and Antennas

Radios tested:

• Kenwood TH-F6a
• Radio Shack HTX-202
• Yaesu FT-817
• Elecraft KX3
• Baofeng UV-5r

 All radios were set to their highest power (5W [3W KX3]). All testing was in the 2m band (146.505MHz).

Antennas tested:

• OEM Kenwood Whip
• OEM Radio Shack Whip
• OEM Yaesu Long Whip 
• The 817 is secondhand, we did not receive the small tip with it.
• OEM Baofeng Whip
• This has the SMA-RP connector, and we don't have any adaptors, so this antenna could only be used with the Baofeng.
  
• Comet HT-224 tri-band whip
  
• RH-770 extendable dual band antenna
• Arrow 2m Yagi, 3 elements
• Extended Double Zepp (EDZ), homemade

 We also made a ~19.5 inch "tiger tail" counterpoise to test with the whip antennas. (This is about a quarter wavelength on 2m)

Results

 First, note that the meter only gives relative field strength readings. A voltage of 10 or 100 is meaningless by itself. 

The first test was each antenna with the radio used on Mt Umunhum.

Radio	Antenna	Field Strength (mV)
TH-F6a	OEM Whip	1
FT-817	OEM Long Whip	4
KX3	Comet HT-224	0
KX3	Comet, no right angle	0
HTX-202	OEM whip	13
HTX-202	817 whip	11
Baofeng	OEM whip	0
Baofeng	OEM with Tail	0

 Some of these were surprisingly low. The 817 was one of the best transmitters on Mt Um, but here it didn't get out as well as the 202. The zero reading for the KX3 was surprising. We thought the right-angle BNC connector we used initially might be bad, so we tried again with it removed, but this made no improvement. We were not surprised the Baofeng did so poorly here. We tried with the tail here, since we couldn't move the antenna, and it didn't help. It is possible the connector did not make a good connection here since the tiger tail was not quite wide enough to fit around the SMA.

 Second, we tried each of the whip antennas with our standard SOTA HT, the Kenwood TH-F6a. Readings are in mV, without the tiger tail counterpoise and with it respectively.

	no tail	tail
RH-770	400	480
Comet	20	160
817 whip	8	320
202 whip	6	180
kenwood whip	1	130

 The readings without the tail were not surprising. The RH-770 is much longer than the whips, and we expected it to do better. As expected, the performance with the tail was much improved. The jump in the 817 whip's performance is a bit suspicious. We wonder if one of the two readings is wrong. We were also surprised at how bad the OEM Kenwood whip did. Back in the shack, we put the antennas on the nanoVNA (see below). The SWR of the Kenwood was particularly bad, and we could make it jump as we flexed the antenna. It is likely broken internally.

Finally, we tried the "big" antennas, the Arrow Yagi and EDZ. Readings in mV.

Yagi towards	2200
Yagi 90deg	40
Yagi away	20
EDZ	22

 By far, the Yagi was the best performer when pointed at the meter. We also tried pointing it at 90 degrees to the meter, and directly away. As expected, the value dropped a lot, showing it is in fact a directional antenna. We were surprised how low the reading for the EDZ was. We've had good luck with it on summits, and expected a higher reading. One possible issue with the EDZ is that sometimes we hang it from a tree, other times it is vertical next to the pole. Further testing could show if one mounting method is better.

Conclusions

 We did not find anything earth shattering. As you'd expect, directional antennas do better, and longer antennas do better. 

 The best way to improve your signal appears to be the addition of a counterpoise to the HT. Even with the short and possibly broken whips, there was an order of magnitude improvement in signal strength.

 We are still stumped as to why the KX3 did so poorly both in this test and the receiving test. We know the internal 2m module works, it has been used to make contacts and as an IF rig for microwave bands.

So many radios and antennas (Mt Umunhum)

ham_bitious video of the testing on YouTube.

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Appendix: nanoVNA plots 

 These images were captured in the shack, after the antenna range testing, so no plots for the Arrow Yagi or EDZ. We do not have an adapter for the funky Baofeng connector, so no plots there either. All the plots are from 144-148 MHz, the American 2m band. The marker is at 146.52, the US simplex calling frequency. The yellow plot is return loss LogMag (higher magnitude values better), green Smith chart (closer to the center better), blue Phase, and purple SWR (lower values better).

 The whips seem very sensitive to how the nanoVNA is held, how close the hand is, etc., and the return loss could easily change a few dB. As you can see, I tried to hold it the same way each time. The Kenwood whip is definitely broken. Moving the top part around would have massive changes in return loss, e.g. from -10dB to -0.01dB. The right angle adapter that we used with the KX3 seems to be fine. The last plot is the Comet antenna with the adapter.

Kenwood OEM whip

Comet HT-224

Radio Shack OEM Whip

Yaesu OEM Long Whip

RH-770 Extendable

Comet with right angle adapter

KH6/MA-001 Haleakala

Haleakala is the highest point on Maui and the third highest in Hawaii. It is in the eponymous national park. KN6REU and I were in Maui for vacation, so naturally we had to go do an activation. We decided to go up and watch the sunset from the the top of Haleakala. After a tasty brunch at the Kihei Caffe, we drove up the switchbacks to the park.

One of the viewpoints on the way up.

As you'd expect, it takes a lot of switchbacks to get from sea level to 10,000 feet. The drive from Kahului is about 90 minutes. The road is paved the whole way, and well maintained, so it wasn't a difficult drive. Once we entered the park, we stopped at the viewpoints on the way up. There are some impressive views into the crater.

Haleakala crater.

Before operating, we decided to go for a hike. We parked in the upper lot, at the summit. For some reason there is no trail between the upper visitor center and the summit, so we just walked down the road to the Sliding Sands trail. This trail appears to be the main way to get down into the crater, we hiked down a bit, careful not to go to far.

Sliding Sands trail.

After stopping by the visitor center on the way back up, we walked back up the road to the summit. There are a lot of people on top, as you'd expect on a summit with a road. We found a place out of the way on the side of the hill facing the observatory. It was pretty warm. We were both comfortable in just our sun shirts.

Easiest 10k' mountain I've ever done.

We put up the end-fed random wire and got on the air. I (aa6xa) started on 17m and quickly got a small pileup. We found we had cell service on the rim around the parking lot, but not in the lot itself. The towers must be below the summit somewhere. KN6REU spotted on 2m, but didn't get any callers.

On the air!

After aa6xa had finished, kn6reu tried 10m. She only got one taker, a New Zealand station. It was some neat DX, but sadly it was the only contact she got that day. After 10m we even tried calling on local repeaters to see if there was anyone to move to simplex, but no luck. Despite the failure, we both had a good time.

ham_bitious enjoys the sunset.

After we packed up we still had some time before the sunset, so we just hung out, enjoying Hawaii. After a picnic dinner, we claimed a spot on the little ridge to watch the sunset. It was quite nice, though a bit crowded. We were glad we had gotten up early and claimed a good parking spot. Some of the later arrivals had to park at the lower lot and walk up the road.

So many people watching the sunset. The people in shorts looked pretty cold.

The drive back down was made more interesting in the dark, with all the other sunset traffic, but we made it back to our room without any trouble. 

Trailhead: End of the Haleakala summit road.
Website: SOTA Site.
Maps: AA6XA SOTA Hikes map.
Route: Walk up the path, and find somewhere to operate.
Red Tape: None.
Video: coming soon...

Bald Mountain

Bald Mountain is a small peak on the side of Mt Umunhum. It is on the nifty ninety list, or I wouldn't have stopped for the walk up. There is a parking lot and a few roadside spots at the trailhead, on the road up to the summit of Umunhum. This is the only parking lot between the Hicks Road lot and the summit lot.

On the way up.

I knew it was an easy hike up, but I didn't realize how easy. There is basically no elevation gain from the parking lot to the summit. The trail is a fire road. The summit has barely any prominence, and is more a clear area with nice views. Possibly a nice spot for a picnic.

Almaden Reservoir.

It was a bit hazy, but there were still decent views. I'm not sure why this summit needs to be included on the list, Mt Umunhum is much more interesting and has even more and better views. Either way, I'm glad to check it off the list.

There were a few flowers out already in February.