SOTA Campout at Roan Mountain State Park - July 19-21, 2024
#hamradio #sota #camping #tesla #cybertruck #airstream
My boys and I traveled to Roan Mountain State Park, in Tennessee, for the annual W4 SOTA campout. We first attend the campout in 2018. My boys joined me that year too. We tent camped in 23 degree weather. My brother, Wayne, W4KWM, and I shared a tent. We went back in 2019. Both years the home base for the campout was Roan Mountain State Park, in Tennessee. The 2020 campout was canceled due to COVID-19. In 2021, 2022, and 2023, the campout was in Roanoke, Virginia. We deemed that too far away. So we were excited to find out that the campout would be at Roan Mountain in July of 2024. But this time we didn’t sleep in tents. Wayne brought his RV and my son Joshua brought his. We went glamorous camping, or “glamping”.
Each SOTA activator, as they are called, is seeking the coveted title of Mountain Goat. It takes 1,000 activator points to achieve Mountain Goat. When you activate a summit, you must log 4 unique contacts in order to earn the points the summit is worth. A summit can be worth between 1 and 10 points. The amount of points a summit is worth is determined by elevation and prominence, versus nearby summits.
Roan Mountain has multiple peaks. Roan High Knob, in Tennessee, is worth 10 points. Grassy Ridge Bald (another Roan Mountain peak), in North Carolina, is also worth 10 points. They are across the road from one another. We have successfully activated both in the same day. It totals up to 7.6 miles of hiking mountainous terrain.
Due to frequent downpours, we only hiked to Roan High Knob, which is one of my favorite summits. Grassy Ridge Bald is another. It has a beautiful 360 degree vista. Both summits exceed 6,000 feet ASL (Above Sea Level). The highest peak in my state is Brasstown Bald, at 4,784 feet ASL. We did manage to activate a mystery drive-up summit to end the day.
In this video I take you along for the ride to the campground. I show the W4KWM RV chase station. He wasn’t able to hike with us this year. I take you along on the hike up to the Roan High Knob summit, show you the highest sleep shelter on the Appalachian Trail, introduce you to a kit radio, built into a breath freshener container, and more. My son David drove over from his home in Tennessee, 4 hours away though. He drove his Tesla CyberBeast. On Sunday morning, my great friend, Vince, N4CME, joined us for a visit. Vince has a wit and sense of humor that is the life of any party.
I mentioned in the video that I would provide a link to the video that shows my brother’s RV base station setup, with his FT-891 and his “Buzzard 1”, home-brew, portable HF antenna. Here is the link to that video: • W4KWM RV Base Camp and Buzzard-1 Antenna #...
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73, de N4HNH