My first SOTA Activations

Throughout my life, I have always maintained an interest in camping and backpacking. Not surprisingly, Summits on the Air (SOTA) has always intrigued me. However, until recently, my only participation has been watching others participate via YouTube videos.

Eventually, I decided to commit to completing my first SOTA activation. After a fair amount of research, I discovered that Michigan’s Lower Peninsula has two summits worth six points each, and both offer winter bonus points if activated before March 31st. And that is where my usual methodical and careful planning stopped. From that point forward, the adventure would be filled with minor errors and unexpected circumstances.

I live in the lower portion of the state, and by this point most of the significant snow we had received during the winter had already melted. The weather seemed to be turning, so I decided to attempt activating both Grove Hill (W8M/LP-001) and Briar Hill (W8M/LP-002) on a Saturday. My first mistake, however, was forgetting a simple fact: the farther north you go, the colder it tends to be—and winter tends to hang on a little longer.

When I arrived at the first dirt road turn-off for the Briar Hill summit, I encountered a mound of snow running perpendicular across the road. It had been pushed there by snow plows and had not yet fully melted. Fortunately, it wasn’t too high. I shifted into four-wheel drive and popped over it without much trouble. If I had attempted this trip even a week earlier, I probably would have been forced to turn around and accept a failed and wasted journey.

Initially, the road looked promising. The picture below shows the section I had already driven through before I ultimately decided to stop.

The road soon became completely snow-covered and very icy. I was still making slow but steady progress and probably could have continued, but I was now less than a mile from the summit and decided it was wiser to stop and continue on foot. It seemed like the safer choice.

Below is the view of what likely lay ahead for the remainder of that final mile.

I carefully backed up until I found an open patch along the side of the road where I could park the truck on solid ground.

Fortunately, I had made at least one good decision: I packed a backpack in case I needed to continue on foot. Inside was my Elecraft KH1 and the PackTenna 29' EFRW that I have been using quite a bit lately. But this is also where I made another mistake—I completely forgot to take any pictures from this summit from that point on.

The walk up the road was slippery but manageable. To reach the summit, I had to leave the road and hike up a short, snow-covered trail. I had packed a small backpacking chair, and after stringing my antenna up in a nearby tree, I sat down and got to work. The activation wasn’t exactly rapid-fire, but I managed to make 17 CW contacts—four of them from Europe—before the cold started to creep in and I decided it was time to head back to the truck.

The walk back and the drive out were uneventful, and soon I was on my way to attempt my second summit, where yet another surprise was waiting.

Grove Hill was about a 40-minute drive from Briar Hill and is a small township park that you can normally drive right up to the edge of. Well—unless the road is completely blocked by downed trees from storm damage.

As I pulled onto the dirt drive leading to the park, I could see a very large tree lying across the road, almost directly at the park’s official entrance. I stopped and got out to take a closer look.

Fortunately, it was easy to get around the fallen tree, and it was less than 25 steps from there into the park. It was obvious that at some point during the winter the area had been hit by strong winds.

I took my time and made several trips back and forth, carrying my Yaesu FT-891, tuner, EFRW, and a thermos of coffee to the park’s picnic table. Once everything was set up, I shifted into “activation” mode—and, apparently, my brain immediately shifted into “forget to take pictures” mode.

The activation was the same as my previous activation. The callers weren't rapid-fire or a pile-up by any means, but I did manage to get 16 CW contacts with 3 from Europe this time around.

Once everything was packed up, I took a moment to reflect on my first SOTA experience. The first lesson on my list was obvious—I need to do a better job documenting these trips. Frankly, this blog is mostly for myself, and it’s nice to have something to look back on later. Because of that, I’ve made it a point that from now on I’ll be taking more pictures.

During this trip there were a few moments where things could have taken a turn for the worse. Fortunately, I’m naturally a detailed planner and usually take steps to ensure that any project I attempt has a good chance of success. But the minor mistakes I made on this trip were a good reminder that not only do I need to maintain that mindset, I probably need to take it a couple of steps further.

I’m not sure how much SOTA I’ll continue to pursue. Unfortunately, Michigan isn’t exactly a great SOTA state. I did the math, and even if I activated every summit in the Lower Peninsula—33 in total—every single year (which is technically possible but realistically unlikely), it would still take me a little over 15 years to earn a GOAT award! But since I’ve never really been motivated by awards and tend to prefer the adventure itself, I’m sure I’ll do a few more activations. I just don’t see myself becoming a full-blown SOTA maniac.

Thanks for reading.

 

Summits on the Air (SOTA)