Field Day 2018 was taking place this weekend, so I decided to head out Sunday (6/24/2018) to see if I could complete the following: activate a SOTA summit, activate a POTA (Shenandoah NP) and make some contacts for Field Day.

The Dickey Hill hike starts at the Dickey Ridge Visitor center, one of the first visitor centers as you head south along the Skyline drive from Front Royal. As a result, there tends be a lot of visitors. Right next to the visitor center is a nice picnic area that I had never explored before. Since I have been to this site several times, I thought it would be fun to explore to a new section.

After getting all my gear ready and parking at the visitor center, I hiked through the picnic area and crossed Skyline drive to the trail which leads along Dicky Hill. As I was starting the hike, I noticed several signs indicating aggressive bears in the area.

After a short hike, I made it to Dickey Hill. The actual summit is taken over by a large active FAA navigational aid. As a result I set up way below it to avoid any issues. My setup sight had some excellent views that made the hike well worth the effort.

After setting up my HF gear, I made several contacts on 20 meters and one on 2m simplex (146.520). My VHF was interrupted by an unidentified station that I couldn’t use 146.520 for FD or SOTA…wrong there Nancy! and that there was a car fire on I-81. Apparently this unidentified station has never hear of cell phones or repeaters.

I’ll be much happier when national whacker hunting parties are formed, trained and let loose on the small whacker amateur radio population.