06/16/2007 | WA9TKK Same location as last year from the top of Mt. Wrightson south of Tucson at 9,453 feet elevation in DM41. Hiking time to the top was about 3 hrs, 50 mins including a lunch break at Baldy Saddle. I cut about 40 mins. off of last year's time by taking the steeper Old Baldy trail all the way (5.4 miles 1-way with 4,033 ft elev. gain) and reducing my pack weight by about 9 lbs from last year's 30 lbs to 21 lbs. Helping with the weight reduction was a new FT-817 (instead of the FT-290/690 twins with the C-cell battery pack) plus I left the T-81A 4-band FM HT at home since I didn't make any 1200 MHz contacts last year. I was able to cram the FT-817 and 3 quarts of water into a fanny pack with shoulder straps putting most of the weight on my hips instead of my back. As last year, my hiking sticks were the boom of the 2m beam and the support mast which was a light bulb changing tool (note the black handle grips on both in the photo). Didn't work any skip on 6m but did work Mexico again in DM30 which is line of site to my location about 25 miles north of the border.

Radio: Yaesu FT-817 with approx. 3W output power using the internal FNB-85 battery pack.
Antennas: 6m: Yaesu telescoping whip, 2m: Arrow 4-element yagi, 446: Arrow 3-element yagi.

17 TOTAL QSO POINTS, 12 TOTAL GRIDS. Total operating time: 1 hour, 6 minutes. -- WA9TKK