Today was one of those day where I set out against my better judgment to activate. The reason being we had some rains yesterday and the roads to get to the summit are four wheel drive roads. And owing a 2wd Rav4 I didn’t think I should attempt it.

All in all though I made it. Not without some spinning tires and crazy articulation of the suspension, oh and some mud. What’s a little mud though right? Tell that to the wife. I drove up about a mile from the summit. I wasn’t sure where the best place to park would be because it is a NARROW road. So I picked the first place I came to.

Valet Parking

From this vantage point you have a false summit with two paths, take the one on the left.

False Summit

Just keep following the road, this way is only 1 mile to the top of Parker Mountain. When you come to Parker Mountain there is an option to go left or right. I chose right. Left might give me a heart attack.

Parker Mountain

Once I reached the summit I was elated to see some concrete and two poles where I could attach my Jackite. This was especially helpful being that it was windy.

Happy Camper

Two Poles

I set up my operating station on the concrete and got to use my new chair I got from an REI garage sale. Man this thing is light but is like nothing to carry.

Station

I operated on 20 and 40 meters. I had my 2 meter J pole but it seems like nobody was hearing me. Other than that 20 and 40 seemed good. I was using 35 watts as I can’t seem to be QRP as much as I would like to. Besides SOTA isn’t about QRP, it’s about haulin’ your ass up a mountain to make contacts. Which I did. I do find it funny that people second guess my new call WC6Q. I admit it’s not very conventional, but I like it.

One thing to note is George on the Midway was very excited to hear a summits on the air contact. He said he had been watching the videos of other activators. Good to have fans out there of what we do.

Till the next one, 73.

WC6Q, Ryan

Final Tally