@czarbucks And none of them are chestnuts. :(

@KC8JC it always works and weighs little.

@N4JAW I AM a descendant of Daniel Boone! But I think Boone would have been a lot smarter than me about what he hauled up to a summit.

@VE2UWY @abraxas3d A CW requirement might have kept me out of radio, but once I was licensed I learned how much I like it. I can't imagine I'm alone. I even got a CPC, but have since lost it. I think it was only for 10wpm.

And I've never heard of a Technical Specialist. And I'm probably not alone in that either!

@N4JAW @KC8JC When I first started doing SOTA I was a brand new ham and carried an FT-450, SLAB and Buddipole with tripod to summits. I was a lot younger, but even then it got old in a hurry! I learned CW specifically so that I could do OK with low power and poor propagation.

@N4JAW @KC8JC I never feel guilty about taking 3 lbs of gear instead of 15 or 20 on a hike.

To be fair, I did do two full time efforts in state QSO parties from parks.....

Oh dear. Tim N7KOM had a great idea to do 1000 CW SOTA Activator QSOs this year. I have 1540 POTA Activator QSOs but only 87 SOTA Activator QSOs. And I wonder why I have an expanding waistline....

@tsherrygeo That is an awesome goal. I love it! I really ought to steal it.....

@N4JAW Eh, it's no big deal. You're a popular dude. I spent about half my time on the summit doing search and pounce for other SOTA & POTA activations. Things seemed to be in great shape.

I worked @N4JAW S/P2P! On a SOTA peak in a POTA entity. Think it's the first time you're in my log.

Plenty are blowing out my eardrums too. I don't think the Flex is handling the strong signals the way I would like.

I feel deaf. Stations keep calling me that are WAY down in the noise and I just can't pull them out. How are they even hearing my 100w & wire. I feel like a bad W1AW/4 op.

And boy is it slow. The most exciting thing so far is seeing my radio's PA crack 50* C for the first time ever.

Fixing to start a shift as W1AW/4 for VOTA. 4/13/2023 2000-2200z.

@n6cta But money can buy me really sweet 3wt & Begali key. #birthdaywishes

@k2za worst April Fools joke of 2023. 1 star. 😁

Took the opportunity after fishing to do a quick POTA in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Both endeavors fairly successful. Arborist line throw? Well, that needs a bit more practice.

@N4JAW I once accidentally enabled RIT on my KX1 (I was probably trying to change speeds, hah!). Turns out that it's really hard to make contacts that way. A guy who knows me somehow figured out what I had done and called me like 1k up and filled me in. This is the price we pay for a super portable rig sometimes.

And, believe it or not, the WinKeyer is used for a Flex 6400 operated remotely. SmartSDR is great for remote operation. "You want to use a paddle for something called Morris Code? We hadn't expected that." Seems I caught Flex off guard when I wanted to do CW with my radio....