01/31/2004 | K0NR I had a great time operating the January VHF Sweepstakes from the summit of Mt Herman (DM79), 9063 feet, west of Monument, CO. This was a backpack portable QRP operation, just like last year. My transceivers were an FT-817 and an Alinco 222 MHz FM HT. I used a dipole for 6 meters, an Arrow II yagi antenna for 2M / 70 cm (mounted on camera tripod) and a small Arrow yagi for 222 MHz. Also carried a 2M/70cm HT for FM contacts.

I hiked up the mountain twice, once on Saturday afternoon and returned again for Sunday afternoon. Activity was brisk enough to keep me busy working the radios, especially on Saturday. I worked a couple of guys on 147.42 MHz mountaintopping with FM HTs. I worked KC0GBK on Twin Sisters Peak (just east of Rocky Mountain National Park) on 144 MHz and 432 MHz. On Sunday, I worked Joe AB0YC on Ellingwood Point (14,042 feet in elevation in DM77) on 144 MHz. These folks were out climbing mountains and made it a point to see who they could work in the VHF contest. While it was cool at my operating location, Joe was experiencing much more severe conditions at that altitude.

While the weather generally cooperated with temperatures around 45 deg F, there was significant snow on the ground this year. The trail up Mt Herman was quite slick, but I found my newly acquired "Yaktrak" grippers for my boots to be very effective. These things are like really lightweight, rubberized crampons for walking in snow and ice.

I operated around the same number of hours as last year but scored about 3 times higher. There was nothing exciting in terms of band openingsn during the hours I operated. Last year, my contacts were mostly DM78, DM79, DN70 (the major Colorado Front Range cities). This year there were more local grids active. Special thanks to Erich KI0SK/rover (and partner) for some of the eastern Colorado grids and Duane WA7KYM for DN71 (Wyoming).

73, Bob K0NR -- K0NR