SOTA summit: Temple Hills W6/SC-369 

Activation Date: January 1, 2024

Unique: No

Call sign used: W6PNG

Portable operation: Yes

Radios: Yaesu FT-857

Antennas: Buddipole dipole

Band/Modes used: 10m SSB (voice) and FT8

Operating highlights:

• See my first sunrise of 2024
• Added (I hope) NV and NM to my 10m phone WAS award (3 states remain)
• 77 contacts!!

Pack weight: Approximately 20 lbs

Drive: Car

Hike:  ~1/4 miles R/T with 0 ft ascent. 

Hike and AZ profile:

• Trail is easy to follow and if you get lost what can I say….
• Picnic bench with drop off to east

Recommend: Absolutely

Solo operation: Yes

Cell Coverage: Good cell coverage 

10m SOTA challenge: Yes, activation #1

Photos: Copyright Paul Gacek 2024

The Internet is a double edged sword being both great and terrible at the same time. Somewhere on that spectrum lies Instagram’s impact. Ten years ago, Horseshoe Canyon would get 3,000 visitors a year, today it gets almost 5,000 a day courtesy of Instagram.

While not quite in the same league as Horseshoe, my local peak has gone from sleepy backwater into a “destination” every weekend and seemingly this holiday Monday. Hordes of happy people look east and await sunrise.

I shuffle by, smile profusely and engage the couple occupying by favorite picnic bench about a happy 2024. Thinking permission might be the best way to go, I ask and up goes my antenna.

It’s a very slow start and I’m wondering about the virtue of this early morning adventure.

Two voice calls into the Carolinas are all I can muster

Breaking out the laptop and cranking up the much loved, much vilified digital FT8 program, doesn’t seem to yield much but I’m reluctant to call it quits.

This is day one of the all year 2024 SOTA 10m challenge. The vagaries of the sun cycle make 10m only truely viable in the peak period which is pretty much now and so a little more perseverance is required. Seven (a measly count by all counts) is all I manage on FT8.

Bands and propagation are fickle. Sometimes from this same location, I seemingly have worked all of the UK by now.

Things pick up and my two voice contacts bloats into seventy and all in all I’m a happy camper.

The Yaesu 857 has proven its worth as a “light” feature packed 100w rig despite some limitations such as being noisy. That noise has swallowed Jamie’s (N6JFD) summit to summit attempt from 4-land.

A good start and I have the rest of 2024 to refine, add and do better on 10m including morse.

Happy days!!