Today was a nice Warm Pacific Northwest Day, I had a few errands to run. While out and about, I decided to take a trip to the mountains; Green Mountain and
Mt Pilchuck, they are only about 30 minutes away. My goal was to get high enough to work some of the locals on 6 meters, and just maybe work someone outside of the Puget Sound area. My three favorite operating vista's on the mountains are all about the 3000 foot level.
After leaving the highway (
at a low 1200 foot elevation), and now on a dirt road, I put up my long whip on the Hustler HF Mount on the top of the VAN. The long whip can take the occasional whack of the low hanging tree branches over the mountain dirt roads. I was immediately encouraged, I could hear several QSO's on 6 meters, a sign of good things to come when I get to higher ground.
The ride up to the first vista is about 15 minutes and 6 miles. My VAN's ignition noise obliterated the QSO's as I drove (I really need to fix that).
 |
| End of the Road, Blocked by Snow |
At the
first location on Green Mountain, I did not hear anything on 6 meters while still connected to my VAN's whip, but I set up my
BuddiPole as a 6 meters dipole. Surely I will hear something? This location (North View) was not
my goal, but I had to settle for it as the slightly higher road was still blocked with snow, as shown in the photo.
But,
NO, nothing on 50.140mHz or any other freq on 6 meters. I was high enough that if anyone was on 6 meters in Puget Sound I would have an almost line of sight path to their QTH.
I had some luck working the other bands and I retried 6 meters off-and-on for several hours. but still
nothing on 6.
I could hear and work most of the 2 meter repeaters within the Puget Sound area, but that was NOT my goal.
 |
Mt Pilchuck (in the background),
and the Upper Parking Lot |
I packed up, proceeded to the second vista at the
upper parking lot on Mt Pilchuck which has a North-Northwest view and about 5 miles away (as the crow fly's). But,
NO, still nothing but bugs (for some reason there is always lots of bugs there?).
 |
Mt Pilchuck's Upper Parking Lot,
at about 3200 feet |
On this Forth of July weekend, the parking lots on the mountain were full of cars, I am sure the high land trails were very active. The snow looked spotty above the parking lots, with most upper ridges clear.
Again, I packed up proceeded to the
third vista with it's line of sight, 220 deg view of Puget Sound, surely someone would be on 6 meters. But, again,
Nothing, Nada!
(Sorry, no photos)
So, I got Skunked on 6 meters today.
But I had a great time out in the sun, and on the mountains with Tess, and we had fun talking with the many hikers along the roads. Tess is very much a people-dog, but she really enjoys being out with all of the playful kids.
Note: I just discovered there are "two"
Green Mountain's which are near each other (25 miles) in Washington, shown on the
map link each at the end of the connecting line. The one that I frequent is the lower southern mountain.
--
I configured the BuddiPole as a Vertical, as Chris - W6HFP and I had done for Salmoncon (see previous post), with the exception I did not have a TRSB (Triple Range Switch Balun) as Chris lent me for Salmoncon. I tried to order one for this camping trip, but the web page indicated (in error) they were out of stock. So, for the trip I created a temporary 2:1 balun with a Binocular 43 Core which worked very good (I will post more info later).
