Bill Williams Mountain, SOTA W7 / AE-018

N7AZ at the top of Bill Williams Mountain (W7/AE-018)

Welcome!  Here is my first post of a blog that will combine two hobbies of hiking and ham radio.  Hopefully I will get away from the home QTH to populate this blog.


My first SOTA activation was on Bill Williams Mountain close to the town of Williams, AZ in the northern part of Arizona.  I started at the Bill Williams Trail Head late in the day thinking I'd get to the top in short order.  I was wrong, by the time I got to the top, set up and called my 1st CQ it was time to head back down.  Good thing I had a head lamp as the last half hour was in the dark.


The next day after being at the top powered by people power and knowing that it was possible to drive to the top, I did just that.  Close to the top, I parked the vehicle and carried the equipment in my backpack the rest of the way.  The very peak is surrounded by commercial equipment and was quite noisy along with an occupied fire tower, so I stayed to the east but  was still in the required 100 ft from the summit.  Once someone answered me on 20M, I made my required 4 contacts to successfully activate SOTA W7/AE-018.  




On September 5, 2010 I activated the first SOTA summit in Arizona by making a total of 11 contacts on 20M running QRP+.

Thanks to:

ND0C, W5DTY, K9DMV, K7BDU, W8KJ, WA2USA, WB4ETT, KE7RVL, K6DGW, W0RW, &  N7UN

Only few parts of the trail was this flat

Bill Williams Mountain Trail starts out at 7000' elevation with a elevation gain of 2256' in 4 miles.

73 de Jon N7AZ