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RS DXpedition

Seldom Seen

Seldom Seen

Hard Core 4+
Joined
Aug 23, 2005
Messages
597
Location
Highlands Ranch
Wow what a great day. I should be illegal to have this much fun with your pants on:D. Nathaniel and I got an Oh-my-gosh-it's-early start, made it to the top of Mt. Bross in time to get setup and be on the air by 09:11 (local). Nathaniel started by trying to contact Mt. Sun Flower in KS, I don't know if he made it. Things started out fast and furious and running 3 rigs between the 2 of us, plus another op who joined us on the summit, there was a lot of confusion at first.

Nathaniel move down to high freq. and right off the bat started making nationwide contacts. Seemed like every one in the country, that could hear him wanted to get a chance to talk to a station at 14,000 ft.

I was able to make several contacts on VHF with other ops on 14ers, the collegiate peaks mostly.

Overheard one conversation where 2 ops figured out their miles per watt of output power. Turned out to be 28,000 MILES PER WATT, try that with your CB, HiHi :p:

Didn't get many pic, but here's our set up (and like Nathaniel has always said, it all about the antenna :) )
 

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Groucho

Groucho

Rising Sun Ham Guru
Joined
Aug 22, 2005
Messages
1,698
Location
Brighton, Colorado
RS DX-pedition to Mt. Bross @ 14172' above sea level.

Brian is right, no matter what you did in the high country yesterday, it was a beautiful day to do it. We made the summit by 8:20 am and got the HF beam set up by 9. Got on the air and it was a frenzy of contacts being made, from Mt Sunflower in KS to as close as Mt Antero and Mt Sherman. Then we got the HF running, and we were talking to people from Missouri to Georgia to Texas. Even made contact with someone just outside of New Orleans whose elevation was actually 15' below sea level, making our elevation that much more. It was cool being on that side of a "pile-up". Spoke with Nakman on the Colordao Connection repeaters. Tim, did you contact anyone on a peak via simplex? Never managed to get the RedCone run guys on the air. We probably were packing up by the time they got to the top of RedCone.

All in all it was a sweet day to operate on the top of a 14er.
 

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nakman

nakman

Club Secretary
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Aug 23, 2005
Messages
14,602
Location
north side
Hey, sweet dual battery setup! Yes I got on 147... right after we spoke and there was tons of traffic, I made a couple calls but I think I was doubling with some folks that I couldn't hear, could only hear another guy telling them that someone must have doubled.. so I didn't pursue it much longer. I was monitoring 310 for the rest of the morning.. never heard the Red Cone guys though either.

But boy those 14K' mountains look so sharp and pokey on top from down here in the flats... didn't realize it was just a big parking lot up there. :) I'll have to go with you guys next time.
 
Groucho

Groucho

Rising Sun Ham Guru
Joined
Aug 22, 2005
Messages
1,698
Location
Brighton, Colorado
nakman said:
Hey, sweet dual battery setup! Yes I got on 147... right after we spoke and there was tons of traffic, I made a couple calls but I think I was doubling with some folks that I couldn't hear, could only hear another guy telling them that someone must have doubled.. so I didn't pursue it much longer. I was monitoring 310 for the rest of the morning.. never heard the Red Cone guys though either.

But boy those 14K' mountains look so sharp and pokey on top from down here in the flats... didn't realize it was just a big parking lot up there. :) I'll have to go with you guys next time.
Click to expand...

I had my popup's dual 6-volt batteries hooked up in series to make a nice amp-hour 12 volt setup, primarily to run the new radio on HF. I saw the batteries draining as I was transmitting with 100W on HF.

It was hectic on 2M up there, I found that my SO-239 was shorting on one of the metal elements of my 2M yagi, and until then I was not able to get out real well.

We may have heard the guys on 146.460 on Red cone around 11:30am, but it was hard to tell because callsigns weren't given very frequently, and the reception was spotty at best.

Mt Bross has a flat top that could house a boy scout troup comfortably. You could easily play a real 100 yard football game up there. Mt evans has a paved parking lot about 50 feet short of the summit, and pikes peak is driveable all the way. Many of the others are real sharp and pointy with only enough room to get by one another going up and down.

Tim, we'd love to have you next year. Like Brian said, it was a hoot.:woot:
I really got a kick out of being on HF with people calling all over each other to try to talk to me.
 
Convert

Convert

Hard Core 4+
Joined
Aug 25, 2005
Messages
1,412
Tried to call you guys a couple of times during the day but no luck
 
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