Activating Mt. Lincoln

Ralph and I (Eric) hiked Mt. Lincoln for the second time to activate the summit in the Summits-on-the-air program. Last time, two years ago, the weather was cold and wet with some hail and rain at the summit. This year the sun was hot and the day nice and warm, so it made for a more pleasant day. The hike took around 2.5 hours to ascend and once we reached the summit we paused for some lunch before deploying our antennas and trying for contacts. Once fed we scouted for a good tree and a place in the shade from which to operate. Ralph tossed his line into a tree, missed but hooked the tree beside the intended one. It was probably better than the first choice so we made do with it. Once the wire was pulled up, Ralph got the radio connected and put out a call. He immediately got a response from a station in Alaska. It took the better part of an hour to make 4 more. Meanwhile I had my 2m Yagi tied to a tree and was making desperate calls to any ham in the area. Unfortunately none were to be had. The canyon is too narrow and not many hams are likely to be in it on a given day. Well at least we made enough contacts to activate the summit.

See my photo blog for more details and photos of the adventure: Lincoln and Ralph