I have a few more SOTA adventures to report, the most recent from a brief trip to Arizona. During that trip I visited three peaks, but I wanted first to write about Lookout Mountain, W7A/MS-050. I had reviewed summits on the SOTA database before the trip and thought that this peak was a good candidate, particularly since it has never been activated.
When I flew into Phoneix it was early in the day — too early to check in, so I pointed the rental car towards the mountain. I took 16th Street south of East Greenway up to a parking lot at the base of the mountain; this is the start of Trailhead #308. There is a sign there with some topographic maps and information about environmental hazards.
I looked over the trail and decided that I was not in good shape after the long flight from Madagascar to walk up the side of a mountain with radio gear. It had been 30 hours from airport to airport, and I had started the trip after a full day at the office, so I thought it best to think on it overnight. The other issue that gave me pause was the question of how I was going to set up my antenna on the top of a mountain lacking trees. Everywhere else I had been, I managed to wing a wire into a tree or some other support, but the top of MS-050 looked like nothing but rock.
GoogleMaps shows the trail nicely – the zigzagging path winds up the mountain and then takes off at a steeper angle towards the summit. The imagery also confirms a lack of antenna supports – to be effective here, one would need a self-supporting antenna like a buddypole or at least a tall extensible support that would need to be anchored to something or perhaps sunk into the ground (if that is possible).
When I got back to the hotel, I thought about it more and looked over the database and reports of other activations in the area. I decided to aim for peaks that had been previously activated and which had reports. This approach is less adventuresome than tackling a new peak, but given that I had to travel with minimal equipment, it seemed like a better bet. I picked two peaks to the South for Friday, my free day, and one peak to the North for Saturday, which I would attempt after morning meetings.
So, MS-050 remains unconquered, but I am hoping to pick up a SOTAbeams self-supporting antenna in the UK in a few weeks, so next time I am back in Arizona, this peak will be on the top of the list.
Correction – After the trip, I realized that I have the reference wrong — there are a bunch of Lookout Mountains around Phoenix. MS-050 is on USG property, within the Barry Goldwater Air Force Base. The Lookout Mountain that I looked at was W7a/MN-144, which has been activated a bunch of times.