07 April 2025

Back Home and Buried in QSL Cards

Sorry for the delays in any regular updates. I have enjoyed my time at home on break from Wake Island for the past few weeks, and I honestly have not been too inspired to key up the radio until today. When I first arrived home I knew I had a bunch of work ahead of me in replying to the more than two hundred QSL cards that had arrived from far off places. I am glad to report the QSL management is all up to date and replies are in the mail, and today’s Spokane Hills SOTA activation was a great way to get back on the air after my break from Wake Island.

The Art of the QSL Card

QSL cards. I have always loved that part of the hobby. All shapes and sizes. Different themes. I love to get a glimpse into someone else’s world through their personalized card. Sometimes that is just a written letter asking for a card. Others are elegantly posed as a unique photo or artistic drawing. To me they symbolize the patchwork of hams, from all walks of life, from all parts of the world, and we find this hobby to unite and connect us. What a beautiful way to connect. So, if you are reading this and don’t have a QSL card of your own, why not? This this world of social media, a personalized note on a QSL card stands out as a genuine connection with someone else.

In the past I have not sent a lot of QSL cards. I like to save those for special connections made through my SOTA adventures and friendships made over the airways. Some of my favorite opportunities to send a card is to encourage those new to the hobby. There is just so much to do and learn with the hobby the potential is endless, with a little prompting from the right person at the right time. That could be you.

Remote Station Goals with RaspberryPi

So, now that the homework of QSL replies was completed I turned my focus back to the radio. The past week I worked on programming a RaspberryPi to interface with my IC-7300 at home. So far so good in preliminary testing. My goal is to be able to remote control my radio over the internet from Wake to allow me to chase SOTA and POTA with a stateside radio.

Spokane Hills Activation (W7M/HB-135)

Today I was in the garage (ham shack) and enjoyed chasing a few SOTA activators. That inspired me to grab my backpack and head to my nearest summit, Spokane Hills (W7M/HB-135), a short five minute drive from my house to the trailhead. This summit is in constant view from my front window. It is only a two-point summit but it has a beautiful 360-degree view from the summit of the Helena valley, Canyon Ferry Lake, Big Belt Mountains, and Elkhorn Mountains. There isn’t a proper trail, but I find following the well defined game trails made by the herds of deer and some elk a preferred route over a man-made path. I posted a short video about it on my KH7AL YouTube channel if you want to check it out more.

Contacts, Conditions and Summit-t0-Summits

I arrived at the gate that designates the Bureau of Land Management property around 1pm. You could approach this summit from either the east or west sides. Both have their advantages. The east side is more gradual, so naturally I prefer the westerly route that is an exponentially steeper route as you ascend but it is direct. When planning hikes I typically assume it will take me one hour for each one-thousand feet of gain. That worked again this time and I was on the air by 2:15pm. 10-meters CW was up first. I was not expecting much given it was a Monday, and most SOTA activity is generally done in the morning. First to find me was KC1NDQ, Fran, in Massachusetts. I got my four contacts plus some on CW and switched to SSB and only rallied a few more contacts.

A quick Summit-To-Summit (S2S) with K7GUD in Arizona, and on to 20-meters SSB, and CW. I was pleasantly surprised to hear Christian, F4WBN, on both modes. It is always amazing to me to work DX from a summit. I’m sure Christian has a great station as I was only running 8W and an EFHW antenna. Then another S2S with Elliot (K6EL). The 2-meter support from local hams also helped including a great contact with Eric and Stacy (KE7NLU, KK7CJV) nearly sixty miles south in Bozeman.

Closing Thoughts from a Lazy Monday

I have come to enjoy the pile ups Wake Island dishes out, but today’s slow roll and casual contacts was more the speed of operating I prefer. Just over thirty contacts in the log on a lazy Monday and home just after the kids got back from school. Until the next one, 73. ~ Allen