01/28/2007 | K0NR Over the past four years, I've stumbled into a de facto tradition of climbing up my favorite local mountaintop for the January VHF Sweepstakes. This is an afternoon backpack portable operation (Single Op Portable), with arguably more emphasis on the backcountry experience than the radio operating. I even persuaded my XYL Joyce K0JJW to join me and make a few contacts as a separate QRP station.

In previous years, we had good weather. Last year, there was considerable snow on the trail but not too bad. This year we've had multiple large snow storms in Colorado, without much melting in between. It was not looking good for getting up Mt. Herman this year. Of course, we ultimately decided that we had to give it a try and on Saturday we headed to the trailhead. The Forest Service road was covered with snow and a few stuck vehicles.

We snowshoed up the trail slogging through large drifts and ultimately made it to the summit. It was very cold at the top, so it was difficult to operate the radios. I made about 25 contacts and then headed back down. Station: FT-817 and an Alinco 222 MHz FM HT. I didn't bother to set up the Yagi antennas and just worked off a BNC vertical. At first, I was thinking I wouldn't work anyone outside my grid (DM79) but I managed to work stations in the usual adjacent grids. No significant propagation to report.

So make that five years in a row from the top of Mount Herman in January.

73, Bob

P.S. VHF QRP enthusiasts see the Yahoo! group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vhfqrp/
-- K0NR