Gear Failure Cuts Our SOTA Ski Trip Short

[@kendebusk2540]

WOW! Some great scenery. I am not a skier, but enjoyed watching the bunch of you. I subscribed for the ham content, but this is a refreshing change from S/N, spurious emissions, and WSPR videos :) At age 71 and COPD/emphysema, I'll never do that, but I do applaud those who can! Ken, KA8VLW

[@arkorobotics]

Awesome video as always Adam! Thanks for bringing us along!

[@TacticalTimmyGoldandSilver]

Dope adventure, skiing, ham radio, and some hard work hiking! Can't ask for much more, keep after it!

[@jeff-73]

Been going through a reallly tough time and your videos are like a solar panel for my soul right now that recharge my batteries. I wish I had the ability to reach those summits. btw, I might be the world's dumbest 3D printer person and I successfully made your CW paddle. So kudos to you for making it idiot proof and so darn cool. You're one of the nicest most generous hams in the community. Thank you.

[@K6ARK]

Thank you @jeff-1234. Hope things start to take it a little easier on you, my friend. At least we've got radio to help bring some joy to us 😊. Appreciate your message 🙏

[@45auto]

Lovely scenery! The vertigo kicked in watching you on those rocks in ski boots.🥴

[@qrplife]

Respect to y’all for being able to climb summits like that, practice mountain rescue and activate SOTA!

[@n4jaw]

Enjoyed!

[@jasonportman4591]

Awesome trip!

[@AD6DMDennis]

Amazing. Love seeing all the gear involved in such a trip, even if there was gear failure.

[@Swamp-Fox]

Enjoyed the adventure & watching the SOTA activation. Glad the equipment failure was not catastrophic!

[@staticinteger]

Wow I really enjoyed this! Super impressive! I’d love to do mountain rescue here in the Appalachian mountains where I am near. Big radio fan as well. As always I love your videos! Keep it up

[@K6ARK]

Thank you for the kind words! Definitely look into search and rescue in your area. I joined the team here in 2005 and generally referred to the team as my second family these days. It is an amazing group of wonderful people, and I really enjoy being able to give back to the community and help others.

[@jimedahl]

Good job.

[@theradiorover]

Nice trip Adam! Those peaks look stunning in the sunshine. I'm assuming you can't get anywhere near them during winter. 73, Fraser MM0EFI

[@W6IWN_Radio]

Epic trip, nice work 👍 👍

[@AlessioBeatrice]

Always beautiful videos and beautiful places, congratulations! Then your videos with the written "translation" are a great help for those like me who do CW but are not yet very expert. Ciao! 73 de IU5MOT

[@HAMRADIODUDE]

looks great

[@cwguy8960]

Looked like another great two days!! Thanks for taking us along! / de N0DET

[@W4PBL]

Love the video this summit was almost as hard as the San Clemente Island one 😂

[@CoaxAndCampstools]

What a beautiful hike. Even cut short still looked like a good time. What were the poles you used as antenna supports, SOTAbeams carbon 6's or something else? Love the printables page too. Always exciting to see what you come up with.

[@jasonportman4591]

I had some issues with the SLab boot too, I’m using Dynafits now 👍

[@AA0Z]

The views!

[@Paul_VK3HN]

An adventure, thanks for recording it Adam. I like that you literally translate CW mistakes and all. I presume that's all manual. Also the MTR has a 100mW headphone amp output stage, not enough to hear on a speaker outdoors, how do you normally capture the audio stream? External powered speaker? Or a direct line to an audio recorder/phone?

[@K6ARK]

Thanks! I normally use an on-line audio recorder with a headphone output "monitor" function.

[@rodneylamay5926]

Hi adam from yucca valley .love ur channel am also intrested in backpaking with radio Live it. What radio did you use also do you like the ( TR ) USDX. I ALSO HAVE A PENNTEK TR 35 . AND WONDERING WICH ONE TO TAKE WHEN I GO TO WHITNEY..TNX FOR ALL UR GREAT VIDEOS. KI6PXV ROD .

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

You should have had Epoxy and hardener and something like cotton to fix the break that can be sealed with the Epoxy/Hardener mix.

[@jmollo55]

when you went qrt you unplugged two things ... the second dark item rolled away did you ever find it ???

[@K6ARK]

That was just the antenna matching unit. It was still attached to the antenna wire, and I didn't want the wire dragging my 3 oz radio across the rocks so I unhooked it. The wire tension pulled it away from the radio. After packing up the radio, I wind up the wire from the far end, finishing at the matching unit, so yes, I retrieved it as I packed up the antenna. It was attached to the wire the whole time. That 28 ga wire is just really hard to see!

[@raithjames860]

What radio were u using? Trusdx? One of your k6ark bnc efhw antennas?

[@K6ARK]

MTR2B and one of my EFHW antennas built onto an RCA connector (standard for that radio). I repackaged the rig into a much lighter 3d printed case and added a capacitive touch key.

[@K6ARK]

MTR2B in a custom 3d printed case to shave weight. The antenna is one of my matching units built on an RCA connector - standard for that radio.

[@wickwilkinson4208]

At about 19:15, what blew off your rig when you were shutting down?

[@K6ARK]

That was the matching unit for the EFHW - an FT50-43 on an RCA jack covered in heat shrink. It was connected to the antenna wire, I just didn't want the wire pulling the radio off the rock and potentially damaging it. The matching unit can handle a little drop like that just fine.

[@odellkercado211]

*Promo sm* 💥