18 lbs of water and a sub-2 lb radio. What more do you need?

Toss in some food, a bit of sleeping kit, and that's about it. Villager Peak, W6/CT-096, is a remote 5,760' summit with the nearest trailhead about 7 miles away at 900' elevation.
I had activated Villager Peak before for SOTA, but a nearby summit, guarded by a steep descent and climb from the Villager peak ridge, remained unactivated. My goal for this trip was to activate that summit.
Hope you enjoy coming along for the adventure.
Interested in the gear I use? I have organized a bunch of it into an Amazon store: www.amazon.com/shop/k6arkportableradio
#THNHR

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

My two favorite luxuries when outdoors. Obscene amounts of water and radio.

[@jayange6735]

Back in the saddle again... Yes,sir. Good stuff.

[@rttakezo2000]

First 30sec looked like the beginning of a Beau Geste movie

[@reaperchops]

Awesome video Adam!! Great to see how you can enjoy radio along an adventure with family and friends. Always inspiring and motivating me to hit some North GA peaks!

[@kodyeliason1389]

I've done some summits in North Georgia and loved it, lots of short 1-2 mile hikes if you want to ease into it.

[@K5YVY]

Being in Mississippi I couldn’t imagine having views like that to enjoy. Thank you for sharing with us Adam!

[@josempantaleon]

Adam I really enjoyed the video, especially your 2m simplex sat ops. That is very inspirational to me, make me feel like there is a sat option that I can work. Thank you sir 73

[@geokuf9679]

Thats was very interesting video, thanks

[@Kevinkn6iiw]

Good stuff

[@alvarogaitan2529]

fantastic video you numero uno good teacher 73 from kb2uew

[@karlgant8953]

That was a long difficult hike you guys did!

[@K6ARK]

But well worth it!

[@503Nick]

Great video. I enjoy that California scenery mixed with the qso

[@JReed305]

Way to go getting him his first QSO!

[@W6IWN_Radio]

Ultralight! Wow, I pack too much stuff... My tool bags at work weigh more! Excellent work!!!

[@Rhettopia]

I especially appreciated seeing you help your friend make contacts. I am currently in his shoes. New to the HF bands. I've been working POTA on 10m with a tech license and find myself needing guidance when making contacts. Of course I'm not making many contacts on 10m for right now. Hoping to get my General soon. Appreciated seeing a fellow newbie get some help. Love you videos!

[@ASTHECROWFLIESHIKING]

Great video! Crow✌️

[@TangoOscarMikeN3WS]

#teamreplay Another fantastic video.

[@davidsradioroom9678]

Camping and radio. They go great together!

[@backcountryamateurradio]

Pretty cool that your buddy finally got his first contacts. Love your radio adventures.

[@Whiskey6Radio]

Hey man another great video. You should do a video on your overnight gear that you take. I’m curious what you take on those outings. 73’s W6MDE

[@scottwood1143]

Another safe and successful outing with Adam and friends. 😀 You make it look so effortless, but anyone who’s done it knows better. Takes good planning and execution. You’ve also gotten really efficient with your ‘radioing’, you get setup and make contacts! Thanks for bringing us along. -Scott / kb1wmh in Boston, MA

[@FrankTheTank]

Man, your a machine.

[@malenve6vid]

Great stuff Adam. Like the 2 mr yagi contacts.

[@chrisscott1547]

I hope you have tall leather boots. Rattlers like it cool and dark.

[@kevinkc3onohelijeepworld953]

Very cool summit 😉😉 you make those hill climbs look to easy ☺️

[@joeblow8593]

That's some really nice scenery, we don't have anything like that in the Midwest

[@gregh3248]

Love your videos. You are an inspiration.

[@Paul_VK3HN]

200 feet elevation gain, that's more than 600m, good effort, that takes it out of you. Always happy to see John ZL1BYZ come up first! He's a gun! How hot does it get mid day?

[@K6ARK]

From the trailhead to the summit is almost 2,000m gain. Quite a slog! And yes, John is a monster chaser. It's awesome what he can do. In the summer, it gets up to over 120 def F (50 C) in that area. The hottest part of our trip was the very end back at the cars where it was about 90 F (32 C).

[@ReedAB8AS]

This is so cool Adam. I do have 1question......snakes?

[@K6ARK]

Didn't see any on that trip, but there are definitely snakes all around the county. If you don't mess with them, they won't mess with you. Watch where you stick your hands and feet and you're good.

[@georgewashington7444]

Sat down on a summit in AZ resting before calling CQ. A rattler’ was coiled up 5’ away while I was operating didn’t notice until tearing gear down....scary!

[@bubbleheadft]

@@georgewashington7444 maybe you convinced him to get licensed.

[@rancherodave]

I have to get out there have a ic 705 and two portable antennas, random wire and delta loop.

[@K6ARK]

Yes! Absolutely. Let me know if you need any SOTA tips.

[@rancherodave]

For sure, I need to figure out a good way of hauling my gear. I do like hiking, but if I could integrate this into my mtb obsession I’d be golden.

[@K6ARK]

Yes! It's doable. I have MTB activated Middle Peak and Cuyamaca Peak. Both Black Mountains (PQ and Ramona) would be good options too. The San Gabriel mountains have some decent MTB options as well.

[@rancherodave]

@@K6ARK nice, I need to get on that. I live in central Alabama, and the Appalachian trail is not to far. Either way nothing better than integrating two hobbies into one.

[@doesstuffoutside]

Getting those alpine starts to beat the heat. Gorgeous place, but I think I like the Oregon temps.

[@lovethevdub]

Awesome trip - thanks for sharing! And thanks for the QSOs. Fun to be one of Brooks 1st ever HF contacts... hope he catches the SOTA bug. 73 de WU7H

[@Ei2iP]

Looks beautiful Adam, love to visit some day and bring the fly fishing gear.. well done all, really enjoy your channel, keep up the good work, de Ei2iP..

[@ryanzink5048]

Thanks for the satellite QSO! You've only got a 2 meter Yagi right? So you're just receiving the UHF downlink on SO-50 well because of the third harmonic?

[@K6ARK]

Ryan, it's actually a reflector-less dual-band design that I came up with. 5.2 dBd forward gain on 2m and about 4.9 dBd forward gain on 70 cm. It seems to work well enough, but I can't get full duplex with an HT on the sats with a 2m uplink. It's a little hard to pull out of the melee but here's our QSO with full duplex working decently well during winter field day on PO-101. I was running 5w from the Wouxun. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mYGqkIacg9F6esk I have a video about the yagi design and build as well kzbin.info/www/bejne/l2W7epqPeZKXZ80. Thanks for another rad SOTA QSO. Here's to many more in the log.

[@stingy49]

Damn. I know who I want to sing at my wedding. How do I book you? 😛

[@K6ARK]

🎤😆 👍

[@ChrisN8PEM]

Your narrative video skills are so good Adam. Nice one. I tried activating an overnight backpack POTA site last weekend. Ended up in a valley. SMH. No cell service so I couldn’t self spot. SMH again. 2 hours on the radio yielded 2 contacts. Lost activation but must learn by the process... currently planning a big SOTA trip to WV in July.

[@K6ARK]

Oh man, that's rough! That's where alerts and RBN really help. CW FTW.

[@georgewashington7444]

Reddish Knob, FlagPole and HighKnob all easily VHF summits all doable in 1 long day!

[@JayN4GO]

Beast mode. I would die probably.

[@W4TRI]

Having never worked a sat I usually see people use a cross beam yagi. What antenna and radio do you use for SO-50? Very cool video!

[@K6ARK]

Thanks Ronny! It's a homebrew antenna. Here's the story and a fun build video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l2W7epqPeZKXZ80 That video's description has more details on measurements. It's dual-band and seems to work well enough for QSOs even with 5w on most passes. I'm using a Wouxun KG-UV9D which is technically full duplex but still interferes with itself on the 2m uplink sats, so I can't hear myself on the downlink. I use an in line audio recorder and earbuds to hear better and keep the static on the downlink from getting into the microphone. As you can see, it works alright!

[@LouiseBrooksBob]

@@K6ARK Thankfully there's a couple of U/V FM satellites out there but I suspect that may be why they seem more busy than SO50 when they pass over this way (the UK) - must be all those Wouxuns! I see people clamping 2 FT817s with a diplexer, and that would offer all those SSB satellites too I guess.