Sparks's Journal

Activating Mount Philo

Harlan (KC3UJB) and I made a journey up to the top of Mount Philo in FN34jg (POTA US-3134) (SOTA W1/GM-149), armed with enough VHF+ equipment to keep us occupied for a few hours. The park had recently been impacted by the remnants of Hurricane Beryl which came ashore in Texas but had enough moisture to bring heavy rains all the way up into Vermont. Those rains washed out roads and left several people stranded just to our east. Luckily, on the island we are staying, impacts were minimal.

We had operated from the rental house for most of our time in Vermont but decided we needed to go activate a summit. I had met Zach, K1ZK, on one of the VHF+ chat rooms and he had given me lots of good information regarding places I could take radios for an activation and neat places to visit while we were in town. Mount Philo was selected and on one of our last days of vacation, Harlan and I made our way to the top of the summit.

Mount Philo was adversely affected by Hurricane Beryl and while the hard-topped roadways were open, all the trails around the mountain were closed. We were able to drive to the top of the mountain, park, and walk about a hundred meters, or so, to a nice picnic area with a beautiful view towards the south.

Figure 1. A view to the south from the top of Mount Philo.

Using a Buddipole for six meters and an Arrow Antenna for two meters and seventy centimeters, we started making contacts a little after 10:00A EDT. It was surprising to tune down to the voice calling frequency and immediately hearing loud signals from as far away as Alabama (~1806km) and South Carolina (~1200km). Sporadic-E was definitely alive and well this morning!

I was able to put several stations in the log using SSB before reluctantly switching to FT8 to get the remaining few contacts needed for a successful activation. I did put K1ZK in the log on 1.25m (FM) and 70cm in addition to 6m. Harlan got K1ZK plus a few others on the higher bands as he was primarily working that radio. He ended up getting the remaining needed for a successful activation using 6m.

Figure 2. Two well-seasoned operators working the airwaves.

All-in-all, I worked twelve stations for fourteen contacts on the bottom four VHF bands for a successful POTA and SOTA activation.

Table 1. Stations worked by WG3K
Station	Band	Grid	Distance (km)
K1ZK	6m, 1.25m, 70cm	FN34	13.9
KW4OV	6m	EM60	1998
N4JZH	6m	EM93	1366
KF4AAF	6m	EM90	1717
KQ4NMU	6m	EM81	1684
KE4HKO	6m	EM80	1746
WD4OIN	6m	FM14	1191
K1TEO	6m	FN31	329
KY4YE	6m	EM81	1680
KM4RL	6m	EL88	1910
K1NKT	6m	FN34	47
K1TO	6m	EL87	2046

Sparks's Journal

Other articles

2024 ARRL June VHF Contest After Action Report

Plans for the ARRL June VHF Contest

SOTA activation of Lambs Knoll

ATGP and POTA Activation at Gambrill State Park