I haven’t participated in any contests recently as I’ve gotten busy with the move to Cyprus and at work, but a few contests were recently scored and I learned that I did pretty well in the Virginia and Delaware QSO Parties
Continue reading “Summer Contest Harvest”Delaware QSO Party 2019
Every year, a few QSO parties fall on the same day, some large ones including 7th Call Area QSO Party and the New England QSO Party, and some individual state ones like the Indiana QSO Party. And then there is Delaware.
SOTA W2/NJ-010: Cushetank Mountain
I intentionally activated Cushetank Mountain in the late Spring: the Round Valley Recreation Area charges no admission before Memorial Day, it was not too hot, and most importantly, the number of bugs in the air was tolerable.
The set up is kind of odd: you need to enter the Round Valley Recreation Area off Stanton Lebanon Road, park in the South Parking Lot, and then follow a trail that wraps around the western and southern edges of the Round Valley Reservoir. The trail goes through a dam facility, a summer camp, and past a few houses before it turns towards a campground and the summit.
SOTA W4V/SH-004: Hazeltop
Hazeltop is another summit on the “not too hard” list within Shenandoah National Park. If you park at the Milam Gap parking lot (38.4784N, 78.4517W), it’s about a 3.3 km hike along the Mill Prong trail to the summit, with a net vertical rise of about 170m. There are some flat stretches to this trail, but also some hilly bits.
SOTA W4V/SH-001: Hawksbill
After activating Stony Man (W4V/SH-002), I hopped in the car and drove a bit more south on Skyline Drive to reach the Upper Hawksbill Trail parking area.
The trail up is wide and well-maintain and joins up with a gravel fire road for the last third of the ascent to the summit. At the top, there is a shelter and stone stairs lead to an observation platform that has a stunning view. The total distance in is about a kilometer and a half and elevation gain is about 100m. I had good cellular data service from parking to summit.
SOTA W4V/SH-002: Stony Man
I saved two ten-point peaks for a drizzly weekday, hoping that would cut down on the number of visitors I’d run into, but even on an off day, Stony Man and Hawksbill, two of the highest peaks in Shenandoah National Park, were busy.
SOTA W8V/EP-001: Third Hill Mt
This trail in West Virginia is closer to Washington, DC than yesterday’s trails (W3/WE-001 and W3/WE-002) in Maryland. It is a pleasant, easy trail, and one where I didn’t run into anyone else at all.
SOTA W3/WE-002: Dan’s Rock
On the way back to my house from Marsh Hill (W3/WE-001), I stopped at Dan’s Rock. Google Maps got me there with no problem. The site is a graffiti-covered metal staircase to steel observation platform, which overlooks a valley.
SOTA W3/WE-001: Marsh Hill
Marsh Hill is a very different kind of SOTA site than the ones I’ve been working recently in the Shenandoah Valley — it’s a ski resort. It is at the extreme western edge of my range, working from my house just north of Washington, DC, and it took about three hours to drive out there. When I got out there, I was amazed to see, in the third week of April with outside temperatures in the low 70s F (about 24 C) that there was still a little snow clinging to the slopes.
SOTA W4V/SH-005: The Pinnacle
The first half of the day was W4V/SH-013, Pass Mountain, which was followed by a short drive to the south for this peak. I parked at Jewell Hollow Overlook.
