No pics today as I have done this summit before.
Today I was testing two things: A new set of ball joints on my truck and continued experiments with antennas for the KX1.
The ball joints worked out fine, however the truck overheated on the steep and rocky road to the hiking point and I realized, after seeing the bulges in my hoses, that it was time to replace them and the thermostat. In addition, the transmission was slipping and it turns out I was low on fluid as well.
As for the KX1 etc, not so good. I am not really in love with these random length antennas. I went from a 25 foot to an 85 foot thinking more wire would give me more contacts, no so much. 85 feet is harder to get vertical, which means mostly NVIS, so locals by and large are out. The best band is 20M and that is still just a fraction of what I get with the 817ND/Buddistick. I think I am going to scale back down to the 25 footer and if I can't get some reasonable RST and contacts I might scrap the antenna entirely.
I decided to do this summit last minute and it was already over 100 degrees when I left the house. The summit was no better, it was like a convection oven and not very much fun. I don't mind being in the heat as long as the day starts out cool, but starting out in the heat, no fun. I guess it's the same as putting a frog in hot water versus heating the water while it's in there.