Kelley W7FCM and I KK7WXV operated the station from about 0800 Saturday until after 4PM. We had a Yeasu FT 2980 feeding a high gain VHF stubby antenna on a 20 foot mast. At the end of the day, we decided Kelley’s mobile equipment in his pickup was plenty. In fact, Net Control said it sounded better!
Our job was accounting riders registered to do the Arrastra Saddle and back to Powers route – As well as – those that continued beyond Arrastra and around Cruiser Loop.
Early trouble with the repeater made copying messages difficult. And we ran the transceiver at full 80watts power for a bit. But the repeater issue was resolved by Joe WA7JAW. (Amazing that bit.) For most of the day we operated at 40W.
Because of topology, the Iron Mt. Repeater is unreachable from some areas of the Cruiser Loop. For a couple of hours to start we relayed a few messages from Zach K7FC to Net Control K7CCH. Zach, positioned somewhere between us was taking messages on simplex from the station at the bottom of the loop.
I felt like the whole situation was great practice and was grateful to observe.
Once the repeater interference problem was resolved, Zack could reach Net Control directly.
The sun moved higher and we were getting cooked. By about 2PM I’d moved a chair into the shade. We soon schlepped the whole kit to the shade to get comfortable. By then we were really focused on making sure we caught each Cruiser Loop rider number before they slipped past headed back to Powers.
One thing we agreed – we will have a sign saying “Riders Must Check IN and OUT.”
Most of the participants stopped for refreshments for 30 minutes or so. As a result, for hours there was a mix of Saddle riders and Loop riders hanging around. It was difficult to keep track of who went where. And to top it off, some of the Saddle riders went part way down into Cruiser loop before turning back.
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