September 9-10, 2024 near Burton, BC

Wilf VE7OHM had suggested that Mike VE7KPZ's next Summits On The Air activation might be at the glorious Saddle Mountain VE7/CK-034 just outside of Nakusp, BC. After a little online research about the location, Mike agreed and set about hiking up to the 2304 m/7800 ft summit with his friend Aiden.

We were fortunate to start at the upper parking lot, shaving off the steepest section of the hike leaving ~4 km of pleasant switchbacks and 650 meters of vertical elevation gain to go.

About half way up the remains of the old lookout attendants' cabin was found. In the late 1920s this is where the staff stayed each night, as the lookout was just a canvas tent at that time.

Nearing the alpine the first glimpse of the lookout was seen.

Gaining the alpine the views opened up (Saddle Mountain to the left and Upper Saddle Mountain (VE7/CK-014) on the right).

The hardest part of the hike was navigating the boulder field.

Rounding the corner just south of the summit, we stopped for a minute to watch some frolicking chipmunks. It was surprising to see chipmunks at this elevation (around 2250 meters). 

A bit more goat trail up from the west and we were on top.

A couple of day hikers were ahead of us. We chatted with them for a bit before they headed down.

The summit was ours but it was only 1 PM. We were very early. Time for some HF operation.

The HyEndFed EFHW was strung up between the lookout's railing and a guyed SOTABEAMS tactical mini mast. 5 watts QRP phone seemed to work best on the 20 meter band via the IC-705.

With 6 HF contacts in the log we were made aware that another SOTA activator from Alberta was also on 14.341 MHz, so we relinquished the frequency to them. A move over to the 40 meter band brought one more contact with good friend Austin VE7QH.

The sky was looking rather ominous, so the HF wire was brought down in case the storm rolled in quickly.

But it was only 3:30 PM, so we made ourselves at home inside the lookout.

What luxury to have such a nice place to eat and sleep on top of a high mountain summit. Big thanks to the Nakusp & Area Trails Society who restored the lookout building in 2017.

After setting up our beds, we proceeded to make dinner and then it was time for the main event, the 5 PM 2 meter band activity as originally scheduled (and communicated to the SOTA chasers and Okanagan 2m SSB group).

We used Aiden's hiking stick velcroed to the lookout's railing to support the Elk log periodic antenna effectively giving us ~20 watts ERP for 2m activity.

We had three local QSOs on 2m FM (big thanks to Rob Murray VA7RMM of Edgewood who told the Arrow Lakes community about the planned activation) and then switched to 2m SSB (to work Rob again and) to reach further (over multiple mountain ranges) into Salmon Arm (~110 km), Kelowna (~120 km) and Vernon (~95 km).

With another 7 QSOs in the log for 2m activity it was then time to tear down the radio gear and focus on the evening's feature event - the sunset.

The earlier stormy sky began to clear.

These views are the real reason we climb these summits - SOTA is the bonus.

With the sun setting the temperature outside dropped considerably. Fortunately the lookout stayed warm well into the morning so our light sleeping bags were sufficient.

We rose at sunrise, ate breakfast, packed up, swept the lookout and finally signed the guest book to leave record of our visit.

The morning light made the trip down quite beautiful.

Like the way up, Aiden also led the way back.

We made it back to the car in very good time (just 1.5 hours).

This was an epic trip, and considering the current poor ionospheric conditions for HF radio operation, we did quite well with a 5 watt QRP phone signal.

The lookout does get very busy on the weekends (7 people slept over the Sunday/Monday before us) but this would be a great location for a group SOTA event/summit campout. The trail is quite good and the elevation gain is consistent with the switchbacks.

One thing to change for next time: bring more coax. Packing in 7 litres of water (each) for a late-season summit means radio gear weight is kept to a minimum. However, it would have been nice to have been able to operate from inside the lookout instead of on the breezy porch. Then again, it's unusual to spend 3 hours operating because you got to the summit too early and needed something to pass the time.

Big thanks to Wilf for suggesting to bag this peak, Aiden for joining in on the trip and all the SOTA chasers who came back to our CQ calls. It was super fun.

73,
Mike VE7KPZ

Ps: right-click on any picture and choose "Open Image in New Tab" to see a higher resolution image.

August 1 - 2, 2024 - a bit south of Three Valley Gap, BC

Austin VE7QH had indicated that he would be in the Okanagan for a family reunion on BC Day long weekend. He suggest to Mike VE7KPZ that he might venture out a couple of days early to go do a Summits on the Air activation. Mike had just the summit in mind: the 2386m Joss Mountain VE7/ON-003, west approach.

Joss Mountain had been on Mike's list of summits to activate for some time, primarily because it is a feasible overnight summit (no tent required) with a vintage 1921 fire lookout atop its peak. But really, the sunset views in Luke Gibson's video showcasing the location begged a visit in real life.

Austin and Mike met up early on August 1 leaving Vernon in Mike's Unimog on mostly secondary roads and FSRs.

The team reached the Joss Mountain trailhead at ~1500m around 11 AM.

The sign at the trailhead hinted at the effort required for the endeavour ahead (black diamond - most difficult).

Progress was made slow and steady through the steep forest section. 

Gaining the sub-alpine, many toads were observed eating grasshoppers - this was unexpected but fun to see.

A good rest was had in the last of the trees before the big push along the ridge up to the final summit. Can you spot the lookout in the above picture?

Packs were heavy, not because of the radio gear, but because at this time of year water sources are very scarce. Mike carried 7 litres of water for the 24 hour trip, Austin 6.5.

Some route finding was required...

... but the route was found without any backtracking.

The trip to the top took approximately 8 hours, double the time expected.

It was steep and hot, but fortunately the bugs weren't all that bitey at the summit.

The team was pretty happy after a long day on trail. Austin's inReach calculated our distance travelled at 5.6 km and just over 1000m of elevation gain.

Upon reaching the lookout, the first priority was to get dinner going. Water was boiled and food rehydration started, then masts up for the antennas.

On to operation: Austin jumped on 40m QRP CW via his KX2 and Packtenna EFRW...

... and Mike on 2m SSB and FM (both 5 watts) via his IC-705 and Ed Fong DBJ-2 roll-up J-pole.

Mike made his first QSO with Paul VE7KWA of Vernon (large collinear vertical and power) (~85 km). Other notable 2m SSB and FM contacts were Peter VE7PAE in Salmon Arm (6 watts and a 4 element beam) (~60km), Orin VE7BEE in Keremeos (large beam and power) (~200 km) and Daniel VA7GOV via his vehicle mobile from the Walmart parking lot in Vernon (~85 km). In total Mike put 9 contacts in the log.

HF was not performant with only one contact on 20m after considerable calling on both 40m and 20m. A recent solar storm may have been the cause. Austin moved over to the 2m station and filled his log with a 5 additional QSOs to make his activation a success as well.

All QSOs made while viewing one of the nicest sunsets ever seen.

And then it was time for bed.

The team slept inside the fire lookout.

Around 2 AM an aurora check showed a slight sky glow to the north.

In the morning the team was awoken by a family of curious marmots. The larger marmot was named Dolly (shown above), the smaller one Jolene (not shown).

Breakfast was had and then a decision was made to pack up and start heading down. The SOTA activations had been successful with at least four 2m QSOs each so no need to keep trying with the terrible HF band conditions.

Austin signed the guest book and then it was time to head down the mountain.

The trip down was less arduous, although not without effort. The team made a controlled descent back to the truck within 3.5 hours.

Of course now each team member was carrying less than 2 litres of water for the return trip - a significant pack weight savings.

At the truck celebrations were had with ice-cold 0.0% beers and freezies and then back down the FSRs for the drive back to Vernon. A quick stop at Noisy Creek for a dip in Mabel Lake to wash off some dirt was quite refreshing. Back in Vernon the team concluded the day with a delicious meal of wood-fired pizzas and cappucinos at Masiero Pizzeria Napolitana.

Reflecting on the trip it is always good to have both 2m and HF abilities on summits. If HF band conditions are poor like they were on this date, 2m for the win.

Really big thanks to all of the 2m chasers in the Okanagan who had the patience to work us well after our advertised activation time. Additionally, thanks to all of the other hams who had 146.52 MHz in their scan banks and came back to our CQ calls.

It was a fun trip.

73 and thanks,
Mike VE7KPZ with Austin VE7QH 

June 21-23 2024, Armstrong BC

This year's NORAC Field Day was held at Ralph VA7NU's QTH in Armstrong, BC. Ralph’s back field is the picture-perfect location for Field Day. In total, over 40 club members and guests attended with peak attendance at the fantastic prime rib roast and pot-luck dinner Saturday night. A highlight of the event was the implementation of the club’s new VA6AM HF triplexer, allowing for 3 stations to operate with the beam antenna all at the same time - this allowed for many more operators to get on the air during this 24-hour radio event.

Please click here for the photo gallery for this event:

Setup for the event started Friday afternoon with a bit of maintenance on Cranky’s primary antenna. It was imperative that all three bands (20m/15m/10m) had ultra-low SWR as the club’s new triplexer setup required less than 1.5:1 SWR for each for full 100 watt RF power use. All connections were cleaned and polished and new anti-corrosion paste was applied. Then the HF beam and collinear VHF antenna were affixed to Cranky’s tower, the tower erected and raised up to operating height. Setup crew consisted of Howard VA7PWF, Colin VA7EEH, Lorne VE7LWK, Bud VE7KBK and David VA7DRS.

Howard plotted the SWR of each band on the HF beam with his NanoVNA and noted the good areas of each band to operate in. The group then hooked up the triplexer and put 3 radios on the air to test it out. It worked perfectly - three radios at full 100 watt RF output transmitting and receiving at the same time without interfering with each other.

Mike VE7KPZ dropped off the club tables and set up static arrestors and grounding but could not stay Friday night. Simon VE7RIZ and son Bryson joined the group Friday evening, travelling in from Merritt.

The Field Day location had a different look this year with everyone parked around the perimeter. Cranky and the shack (Howard’s and Colin’s fly-screen-sided EZ-UP tents) were positioned in the middle of the area.

Saturday morning Ralph championed getting his folded dipole for 40m strung up between Cranky's tower and a tree at the end of the property. Felix VA7VOL was enlisted to assist.

Three stations (3A class) started the event strong on 20m and 15m, but 10m was pretty quiet. The 10m connection to the triplexer was instead connected to Colin’s dummy load and the 40m dipole hooked up to the third radio to start operating there. 15m and 40m provided a good flow of calling QSOs. 20m was so congested most operation on Saturday was search and pounce. All radios were powered by solar-charged LiFePO4 batteries for the entire event.

Howard and Colin had arranged to use N3FJP contest logging software. 3 laptops were powered by Howard’s Jackery kept charged via 200 watts of solar. Shack TCP/IP networking was facilitated via Colin’s old phone’s hotspot functionality. When Mike came back to the site on Saturday morning he added his tablet to the network to make for easy consolidated logging with the VHF station.

Speaking of VHF, Mike decided to use his Elk log-periodic antenna for some 2m calling on both simplex FM and sideband frequencies. There was not much activity on 2m, but in the end was able to make a 2m SSB contact with Gary VE7GCP in Kelowna.

There were a good number of new-ish operators this year. Howard VA7PWF and Colin VA7EEH graduated from last year’s newbies to elmers as their operation skills were exemplary throughout the event. Club secretary Felix got a good taste of operating HF as did Shawn VA7TBD who had attended NORAC Field Day events many times in the past, but never took on an HF operator position before.

Of course there were many seasoned operators as well, including Wilf VE7OHM and Alex VE7NOC, Ritchie VA7RLX, David, Ralph, Simon and Bryson, plus Mike all working the stations.

A variety of radios were utilized (demoed) for the event. Howard and Colin brought their bombproof Yaesu FT-891s, Simon his Icom IC-7300, Mike his Icom IC-705/DIY599 PA500/TopTek PA-85V setup and Colin also his trusty Kenwood TS-570SG. Of course radios with voice keyers were preferred, especially for the slower bands.

There were a good number of campers this year. Simon, Colin and David all brought their trailers, Simon his bus, Lorne his truck-bed tent, Shawn his ground tent, Kevin VE7XY the back of his Tacoma and Mike his Unimog camper.

The pot luck dinner was a real highlight with a great NORAC-sponsored prime-rib roast expertly cooked by Ralph himself.

Band conditions allowed the higher bands to run well into the night. 20m was open and usable until approximately midnight local (Pacific) time, 40m as well.

Sunday morning started early with Colin making some good rate phone QSOs on 20m, Howard on 15m, Simon on 10m alternating with Shawn or Mike on 40m.

The majority of QSOs this year were phone but Ralph was able to jump on as the sole CW operator and make some QSOs on both the 40m and 20m bands. Interestingly, zero digital QSOs were made - this group really prefers phone.

Our top three operators were Colin with 27% of the QSOs, Simon with 24% of the QSOs and Howard with 12% of the QSOs. In total 984 QSOs were made during the 24-hour event in approximately 19 hours of station operating time. Average QSO rate for the group was around 53.3 QSOs/hour (omitting breaks >30 minutes).

Big thanks to Howard, Colin and David for organizing the event and to all who stayed all the way to the end to clean up every last bit and leave Ralph's field looking like we had never been there.

Field Day really is a great event. The casual contest scenario with such positive happy stations on the other side of the QSOs makes for a wonderful opportunity for anyone to get on the air. This event is both a showcase of amateur radio and a wonderful opportunity to build confidence and skill in radio operation.

Looking forward to next year's event,
Mike VE7KPZ

Ps: let's also thank these folks for their special contributions:

Ralph VA7NU - event host and CW master. Also thanks to Ralph's YL Pam for her generous hospitality and the other members of the Olds family who came out to support the event.

Simon VE7RIZ, Howard VA7PWF, Ritchie VA7RLX, Mike VE7KPZ - photograph contributors.

JVCKENWOOD for the door prizes!

Everyone who attended and visited. It was nice to see so many faces, even if some just for a short time.