HAM in a High Place

Pinyon Peak Lookout is one of the highest elevation lookouts in America.

Pretty basic setup.  A Wouxun HT and the Long Ranger Antenna plus some sunflowers.

On Labor Day 2024 we opted to try to make contact with a HAM in a High Place--the nearly 10,000 foot elevation historic 1930 Pinyon Peak Fire Lookout between Challis and Stanley, Idaho.

A Dear Friend who has been a licensed HAM for 60 years works summers at the Pinyon Peak Lookout.  Naturally, he takes some of his extensive HAM gear with him to the truly remote site.  We made a plan via email.  He has STARLINK so emailing is no problem

He said he can reach the Schafer Butte repeater near Boise.  We "thought" we could reach the Jump Off Peak repeater near Howe, Idaho.  Both those repeaters are part of the sprawling Intermountain Intertie.

We headed out east of Idaho Falls into the foothills beyond.  Back in 2011, we had successfully reached the Jump Off Peak repeater using our ancient ICOM IC V-8 and a MFJ-1714 Long Ranger antenna.  For this attempt we'd be using the same antenna with our WOUXUN KD-UV8D Plus.  It has a 10 watt output.  We didn't choose the TidRadio Td-H3 because its peak power is only 5 watts.

Sometime in the past 13 years, the landowner fenced off the portion of the foothill we liked to use.  That was OK. We just walked in off the road a little ways and set up shop next to some nice sunflowers.   The Intermountain Intertie was pretty busy with Gabby HAMS on Labor Day so we had to wait our turn.

At 11 AM, we were able to reach out to the Jump Off Peak repeater at 63.1 miles distance.  Meanwhile, our Dear Friend successfully reached the Shafer Butte repeater 80 miles from his high perch in Idaho's Central Mountains.

Unfortunately, we were able to hear him but our radio did not produce an audio signal that he could hear.  Even though we only made half a connection, it was still quite a fun exercise.  Out TX location was 165 miles from our Friend's Lookout.  However, the radio signals had to travel 290 miles back and forth.  NOTE: Minimal narrative accompanies each graphic and photo below.

Here is a map our communication attempt on Labor Day 2024. We were set up at the far right map in. The yellow line indicates the 63 miles between our location and the Jump Off Peak repeater near Howe.  The red line indicated the 147 mile signal distance between Howe and Shafer Butte NE of Boise.  The green line indicates the 80 signal distance between Shafer Butte and Pinyon Peak.

Above is a diagram of "most"of the Intermountain Intertie's extent.  It's quite a fascinating setup.
There are many online sources to learn more about the Intertie.  Here's one to get you started:

https://www.k0tfu.org/repeater-systems/intertie

We're trying to make a habit of using an old GPS unit to measure the distance to any repeater we use.  This particular GPS might be going on 30 years old.  However, it's EZPZ to input a long-lat.  The newer GPS units we use are a real PITA for inputting a long-lat.

We're going to discuss our Radio Bag in a separate post.  The small aluminum folding table is a constant companion because we use it to set up an antique typewriter to type Letters to Friends.

This is the Shafer Butte repeater site.  Here are two sources of interest:

https://israboise.org/our-repeater/

https://www.idahoaclimbingguide.com/bookupdates/shafer-butte/

And here is the Jump Off Peak repeater site.

https://www.idahoaclimbingguide.com/bookupdates/jumpoff-peak/

The is quite a bit of material available online regarding the Pinyon Peak Lookout.  We found one particular article that we really liked and we suspect you will, too:

https://issuu.com/idahomagazine/docs/october_2021_full_online_pdf/s/14618881

Here is an information article about Pinyon Peak itself:

https://www.idahoaclimbingguide.com/bookupdates/pinyon-peak/