Pikes Peak: 2007 Colorado 14er Event
Bob Witte, KØNR

The Colorado 14er Event originated from a simple concept: let's all go out and operate from Colorado's highest mountains on the same day. There are 54 summits in Colorado recognized as distinct 14,000 foot (or higher) mountains, commonly referred to as 14ers. Most of the mountains require a strenuous climb….a few can be driven up. This year, I operated from Pikes Peak, a drive-up summit close to Colorado Springs.

I contacted my group of "usual suspects" to see who wanted to activate Pikes this year. The assembled crew turned out to be me, my wife Joyce KØJJW, Stephen KCØFTQ and his son Steve (no license). Actually, the young Steve just passed his technician exam but the FCC had not yet seen fit to issue his callsign. No problem, we'd give Steve his chance to operate with one of us acting as control operator. Our usual practice is to operate under the club callsign KØYB, which is short and easy to understand over the air.

As I rolled out of bed at 5 AM, I thought about the guys out climbing who were on the trail by then. Any thought of complaining about getting up early faded quickly as I thought about the "real" mountaintop operators out there. Your typical fourteener climb includes 4000 feet in vertical change and 4 miles in distance. Some are easier, some are harder….none are trivial.

I had loaded the SUV with all of the radio gear the night before and the tank was topped off. A short time later, Joyce and I were cruising west on Highway 24 towards the Pikes Peak Highway. We reached the toll gate at 7 AM, where there was a line of cars waiting for the road to open. It looked like most of them were headed to the reservoirs to fish. We headed up the road and arrived at the summit around 8:30 AM. We contacted Stephen and Steve on 147.42 MHz on our way up and determined that they were just a few miles behind us. The primary operating hours for the event are from 9 AM to noon, designed to allow time for the climbers to make the summit and then retreat before the afternoon thunderstorms roll in.

2M FM Station

The first priority was to get the 2M FM station up and running. This band & mode is the most popular for this event, since most of the hikers carry FM handheld radios. Our 2M FM station consisted of a Kenwood TM-231A transceiver connected to a Diamond X-50 vertical antenna. Usually, the action is fast enough on the band that an omnidirectional vertical (with a little gain) works better than having to deal with rotating a yagi antenna. We inserted a DCI bandpass 2M filter in the transmission line to help suppress interference on the peak. Since there are multiple transmitters up there, I've had problems in the past with my transceiver getting overloaded by all of the RF energy. The TM-231A didn't have a hint of a problem with the filter installed.

The X-50 antenna was placed on the top of 3 sections of Radio Shack standard TV mast, held by a homemade drive-on mount. The drive-on mount is a piece of 2x8 lumber with a short piece of pipe held by a floor flange. The pipe is just the right size to let the TV mast slip over it. This is a common portable operating technique, useful for special events, portable operation and emergency communications.

We had Steve running the 2M FM rig, with his dad supervising as control operator. This was Steve's first real radio operation and he sounded like a pro. He called "CQ 14er Event, this is Kilo Zero Yankee Bravo on Pikes Peak" like he had been doing it for years. He was able to click through contacts at a fast rate, using the right phonetics and operating procedures. I think his dad got to make a few contacts but the majority of the contacts from the Peak were made by Steve.

Our SUV housed the other station, which covered 2M SSB using a Yaesu FT-100 driving an M2 9M2 horizontally-polarized yagi. We used a special mount that fits into the 2-inch hitch receiver and is sized to hold a standard TV mast vertically (Figure 5). This vehicle also housed the 222 MHz FM station and the 440 MHz FM station, both using magmount antennas on the vehicle roof. The 222 MHz rig was an old ICOM IC-32A recently acquired via ebay. A Yaesu FT-50 covered the 440 MHz band for us.

For power, we used a Honda AC generator. This provides a steady power source and eliminates the hassle of relying on your vehicle battery. The generator runs very quietly and did not have a problem with running at that high altitude. (Driving to a summit does have its benefits.)

Mount Sunflower

When we arrived at the summit of Pikes Peak, another mountaintop radio operation was already in place from another high "peak". The Trojan Amateur Radio Club was operating a special event station using the callsign K4S from the highest point in Kansas: Mount Sunflower. At an elevation of 4,039 feet, Sunflower is lower than most of the state of Colorado. However, these brave souls fought the elements and risked exposure to oxygen deprivation to activate this Kansas peak. They ask for our understanding since they don't have 14ers (14,000 foot mountains) in Kansas. They refer to Mount Sunflower as a "4er", hence the callsign K4S.

We knew about the planned Sunflower operation, so I wanted to be sure to work them during the event. This was one of the reasons for taking along the 2M SSB rig and a decent yagi. It turned out that this wasn't necessary since while we were setting up, I heard them calling on 147.42 MHz FM. I had the mobile rig monitoring this frequency using a not-so-optimal ¼-wave antenna mounted on the hood of the vehicle. We easily worked them using that rig. (I am not sure what kind of power or antenna the K4S station was running. There could be heard quite strong on Pikes Peak all morning.)

Making the Contacts

Steve kept racking up the 2M FM contacts at a decent pace, while Joyce and I filled in on 440 MHz and 222 MHz. I fired up the 2M SSB station on 144.200 MHz a few times and worked a handful of station on that mode. I didn't operate there all of the time as I knew I would interfere with the 2M FM station.

In the end, we made a total of 77 QSOs

We worked hams on the summits of these 14ers: Sherman, Evans, Antero, Harvard, Torreys, Grays, Bierstadt, Quandary and Bross. We also worked a number of operators that were out hilltopping on smaller peaks.

Around 12:30, we tore down the stations and packed up our gear. We stopped for our traditional picnic lunch at the Halfway Picnic Area, relaxed and discussed the results of the radio operation. We all agreed that this is a great event that allows hams to get on the air and have some fun.

A few days later, I received an email telling us that Steve is now officially licensed as KDØBIM.

Congratulations, Steve!