N0B Colorado 14er Special Event

Aug 6-7, 2011 for N0B and SOTA activation

2011-04-23T13:04:00.000-07:00

N0B Colorado 14-er Climb Special Event on Aug. 6-7th wG0AT/Steve, KT5X/Fred, and N7UN/Guy will SOTA activate Handies Peak, 14,034 ft Colorado peak near Telluride. Peanut and Rooster have agreed to again be our sherpas for this adventure! Handies Peak is in the San Juan mountain range 15 miles southwest of Lake City in south central CO.

2010-06-17T06:46:00.000-07:00

News Release July, 2010:

The Old Goats DXpedition team (wG0AT, N7UN, AC7MA and including Rooster and Peanut!) are planning our 3rd Colo 14er "special event" activation of Mt Huron (14,003'), a Colorado 14er this August 8th, 2010 using our 2009 callsign of N0B. After setting a "first" for a QRP HF out-of-state, 14er-to-14er qso in 2008 (Mt. Whitney, CA to Uncompaghre, CO), this time we hope to make a 3-way, summit QSOs between two California peaks and Huron Peak in Colorado.. The Colorado team will hike into a high base camp on Friday and setup QRP antennas for Friday and Saturday radio fun. Then at 4 am, Sunday, we will start the summit climb with a goal of an 8 am summit activation using special event callsign N0B. At the same time, several operators (Brian/N6IZ) will be climbing Mt. Shasta and several others are looking at Mt. Whitney or Mt. Langley in California. This will be a SOTA Activation (W0/SR-010 4268m). Anybody that might be interested in participating even if its basecamp activities in support of the climbing teams, please contact Guy/N7UN. SOTA info at http://www.sota.org.uk. Hope to work you! See the w/G0AT "recon" video of Mt. Huron at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8MCuiJB7nA
We will spot N0B (frequency and mode) at http://www.qrpspots.com. Also track our climb progress at http://aprs.fi/?call=WG0AT-7 .

N0B on Mt Humboldt: the HF QSOs

2009-11-06T14:51:00.000-08:00

Amateur Radio operators from around Colorado climb many of Colorado's 14,000-foot mountains to set up amateur radio stations in an effort to communicate with other radio amateurs across the state and around the world every second Sunday in August for the hamradio Colo-14er special event. This video is the second in this series about N0B's adventure up Mt Humboldt (14,065ft) with Guy/N7UN and Steve/wG0AT and their faithful sherpa goats Rooster and Peanut. It chronicles our HF QSOs while on the windy Mt Humboldt summit. Thanks to all for the fun contacts.

First Video of N0B on Humboldt Pk

2009-08-30T03:45:00.000-07:00

Steve/wG0AT just published the VHF video of the N0B efforts on 14,064' Humboldt Peak for the Colo 14er event. Thanks to all for fun QSOs and sending Steve your photos! Hope you enjoy the show! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qJxok9YJKI

Extreme QRP on 14,100 Humboldt Peak!

2009-08-11T12:28:00.000-07:00

What a great QRP adventure! And wG0AT and N7UN made it to the top of 14,100' Humboldt Peak, spent four hours operating as N0B on HF (CW and SSB) and 2m VHF for the Colorado 14ers special event ( http://www.14er.org/ ) in spite of the winds gusting to 40+ mph. Although we never made contact with Brian/N6IZ who was simultaneously climbing 14, 161' Mt. Shasta in northern California nor Mark/AF6AZ on 14,026' Mt. Langley in southern California, N0B had over 60 QSOs from the summit. Our best DX was Kurt/HB9AFI who gave us a solid 55n on 20m CW.

Our adventure began on Friday with a "challenging" 4WD drive into the Sangre de Christo Mountains trailhead for Humboldt, a basecamp move up to 11,700' on Saturday which included a "conditioning" climb to 13,000' for acclimatization. Early Sunday (5:00 am) we started our summit assault with Steve's loyal "sherpas" (pack goats), Rooster and Peanut, carrying our water, batteries, and radio gear. Recent rock slides above 13,000' made our last 1,000' very challenging as we were in places climbing "hand over hand" up refrigerator-sized granite bolders and helping our pack goats choose the safest routes. Fortunately we had a partially-built rock shelter at the top to shield us from the worst of the mountain-top winds and provide a launch-point for our QRP signals with QSOs throughout the US on 20m CW and SSB while Steve manned the VHF 2m station.

After nearly 5 hours at the summit, hypoxia and altitude sickness coerced us to retreat to more oxygen-rich elevations. What a trip and adventure! And before long, we were thinking about next year's 14er event: What QRP adventure are we going on next? Stayed tuned for more information and links to pictures and videos!

Steve had a "goat-cam" on Peanut to record the climb above 13,000' . See Peanut's view of the adventure! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1jDG0tBm90

ARRL Featured Article for 2008 Event

2009-07-31T14:24:00.000-07:00

Click here for our 2008 Colo-14er event story published by the ARRL. A similar article was published by the QRP-ARCI organization for their Spring 2009 magazine.

News Release #2

2009-07-31T09:11:00.000-07:00

In one week, the Old Goats DXpedition team (including Rooster and Peanut!) is off to participate in the Colo 14er "special event" hamradio (see http://www.14er.org/ ) activation of Humboldt Peak (14,064') this August 9th using our 2008 callsign of N0B. After setting a "first" for a QRP HF out-of-state, 14er-to-14er qso in 2008 (Mt. Whitney, CA to Uncompaghre, CO), this time we hope to make a 3-way, summit QSOs between Mt. Shasta, Mt. Langley (both in CA) and Humboldt Peak in CO. The Colorado team of Steve/wG0AT and Guy/N7UN will hike into a 11,000’ base camp on Friday and setup QRP antennas for Friday and Saturday radio fun.

Then at 4 am MDT on Sunday we will start the summit climb of Humboldt with a goal of an 8 am MDT summit activation using the special event callsign N0B. At the same time, Brian/N6IZ will climb Mt. Shasta (14,162') and Mark/AF6AX will be climbing Mt Langley (14,062'). Guy/N7UN will be carrying a portable APRS unit (see http://aprs.fi and use N7UN-9 for the SSID) for near realtime route tracking. Anybody that might be interested in participating even if its basecamp activities in support of the climbing teams, please contact Guy/N7UN. Look forward to working you from the summit!

2009-07-20T06:14:00.000-07:00

News Release:

The Old Goats DXpedition team (including Rooster and Peanut!) is planning another Colo 14er "special event" activation of Humboldt Peak (14,064') this August 9th using our 2008 callsign of N0B. After setting a "first" for a QRP HF out-of-state, 14er-to-14er qso in 2008 (Mt. Whitney, CA to Uncompaghre, CO), this time we hope to make a 3-way, summit QSOs between Mt. Shasta, Mt. Langley (both in CA) and Humboldt Peak in CO. The Colorado team will hike into the 11,000’ base camp on Friday and setup QRP antennas for Friday and Saturday radio fun. Then at 4 am, Sunday, we will start the summit climb of Humboldt with a goal of an 8 am summit activation using special event callsign N0B. At the same time, Brian/N6IZ and Mark/AF6AX will be climbing Mt. Shasta and Mt Langley. Anybody that might be interested in participating even if its basecamp activities in support of the climbing teams, please contact Guy/N7UN.

N0B & N6IZ have First HF(QRP) 14er-to-14er QSO (state-to-state)

2008-08-17T16:09:00.000-07:00

Video #2 "Gaining Altitude" is an account of N0B's journey into thin air with Rooster and Peanut is now online!

You can view the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug2sQj908go&eurl=http://n0b-14er.blogspot.com/

On August 10 2008 N0B (operators Guy/N7UN and Steve/N0TU) along with their faithful Sherpa/goats (Rooster and Peanut) set out to climb Uncompahgre Peak, CO (14,309') from the Nellie Creek Trailhead (11,400'). Meanwhile in CA, Brian/N6IZ was climbing Mt Whitney (14,498' highest peak in lower 48) had 8 miles and 6200' between him and the summit, almost double the effort of N0B! The Ham 14er Event (http://www.14er.org/) provided a perfect venue for our Old Goats QRPexpedition adventure. The video tells the rest of the story.

BTW this adventure was so inspiring Guy and Steve are already making plans for next years Ham 14er Event! Meanwhile Rooster and Peanut suggest we stick to lower elevations for our QRP/goat hikes.

So here's the N0B list of productions by Steve/N0TU:
Video # 1 "Getting Attitude"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCYROUAefsU
Video # 2 "Gaining Altitude"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug2sQj908go
Video # 3 "Altitude with Attitude"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV_0eaTX_R0

Related links:
http://n0tu.blogspot.com/
http://n7un.blogspot.com/
http://www.14er.org/

We Made It!!

2008-08-13T11:35:00.000-07:00

Wow!! What a trip! We made it to the top of 14,309’ Uncompaghre, spent several hours on HF and VHF making numerous contacts before our descent. In spite of early clouds and 30 mph winds, we braved the harsh mountain top conditions until the sun broke through and warmed our bodies and spirits. The next 2 hours was “fun on HF CW and SSB” as we made contacts around the country. Our most notable contact was with Brian, N6IZ, on 14,497’ Mt. Whitney in California! We had coordinated our mountaintop schedule to align with Brian's in an attempt to be the FIRST to have a Colorado 14er contact with an out-of-Colorado 14er. Brian had a KX1 at 3w and a vertical and we had a K2 at 5w to an inverted Vee dipole on a Jackite 28’ mast. And Steve’s “mountain” pack goats were our invaluable sherpas! More information, writeups, and videos will follow as we craft our stories! Steve/N0TU has posted a few pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/n0tu.qrp/14er/photo#5234032384522587906 .

Update #2 Old Goats QRPxpedition Coloradio 14er Aug. 10th

2008-08-04T14:53:00.000-07:00

Time is getting short! The Old Goats team of N7UN/Guy and N0TU/Steve will spend Saturday driving to Uncompaghre Mtn (14,309') trail head at 11,000 ft, camp the night until our planned 3 am start, summit around 6 am for sunrise, setup our antennas and be on the air around 7 am. Weather permitting of course!!! We intend to operate primarily on the HF Pack frequencies: CW: 7038.5, 14059, and 18081.5 and SSB: 14342.5 and 18157.5. Steve will be on 6M at 50.125 SSB or CW as well as HF. We will have 2M FM handhelds on 147.42 and up.

N7UN will have a Jackite 28' pole and multi-band 40-30-20m dipole. N0TU will have a HF Buddipole, 6m 3el spider beam and 2m/70cm 5el-beam.

A Google Map link to all planned ham operations on Colo.14-ers is at http://tinyurl.com/58f4t5 . Click on the callsign on the left to get more information about a specific operation. A website for this overall event is at http://www.14er.org/ .

Rooster and Peanut will be our sherpas and an invaluable part of this Old Goats team. Steve and I both plan to take a lot of pictures and videos to share the "story" with our friends. Look for N0B (http://n0b-14er.blogspot.com/) this Sunday morning! Hope to hear from you!

Update #1 Old Goats QRPxpedition

2008-07-29T14:42:00.000-07:00

The Coloradio 14er Operating Event is getting close! August 10th is when dozens of intrepid ham radio climbers will summit one of the 54 peaks over 14,000' to activate the peak with radios to talk with other HF, VHF, and UHF stations. The Old Goats QRPxpedition team of Steve/N0TU and Guy/N7UN plan to top Uncompaghre Mtn with an assortment of radios and antennas (Rigs: FT817, K2, and 2m HTs; Antennas: 40-15m dipoles, Buddipole, 6m 3el spider beam and 2m/70cm 5el-beam). A great route description is at: http://tinyurl.com/6cpuwh and a recent Trip Report (with pictures) is at: http://tinyurl.com/6p3k4x

Our team goal is to summit about 6 am (requiring a 3 am camp departure!) and set up antennas with an on-air start around 7 am, using the HF Pack frequencies. All of this is, of course, weather dependant which will be our major risk element for this trip. Thunderstorms typically pop up around noon. And of course, our sherpas will be the infamous Peanut and Rooster, Steve's pack goats (see http://n0tu.blogspot.com/ ).

Another major goal will be to make contact with Brian/N6IZ who will be on the summit of Mt. Whitney in California. As far as we know, no out-of-state, 14er-to-14er radio contacts have been made during this operating event. You can see Brian's plan at: http://www.brianboschma.com/whitney_initial.py . So please look for us that Sunday morning, Aug 10th. We fully expect some great stories to emerge from the QRPxpedition!

August 10th Colorado 14er Special Event

2008-05-12T06:31:00.000-07:00

Steve/N0TU, Guy/N7UN, and Dan/K0UIF, all part of the Old Goats QRPexpedition Team, are planning a summit activation of one of the 54 Colorado "14ers", mountains over 14,000' ASL. This effort will be during the Colorado 14ers Special Event where radio amateurs activate a peak to communicate with other amateurs. Primary activity will take place between 1500 and 1800 UTC on HF/VHF/UHF frequencies. See http://www.14er.org for more information. The Old Goats team effort will primarily be QRP HF on 40/30/20m but will have 144/440 SSB capability also. This is a picture of Uncompaghre Mtn at 14,309' ASL, our target for August.

And Steve's pack goats, Rooster and Peanut, will be our "sherpas" in support of this team effort, making the "story" that much more exciting and memorable. See more adventures of Rooster and Peanut at http://n0tu.blogspot.com.