On Sept 16, 2012, I and hiking companion Ms Pat WT7N and her brother hiked up to Silver Peak, W7W/CW-052 for SOTA activation.  This peak was first attempted on Aug 5 and the trek was aborted at the 5200 ft level due to getting a late start and high heat.  To sum it up:  We ran out of time to activate the peak safely.  Silver Peak is about 5 miles south of Snoqualmie Pass and is part of the ridge that divides the state just west of the Pacific Crest Trail.    
See:  http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/silver-peak

Unlike the WTA.org description, this hike begins at the Windy Pass access to the Pacific Crest trail.  See map photo.  Hike south for about 1.8 miles to a cairn; take a right up the boot path to the ridge at 4600 ft.  Take a right for Silver Peak.  The left path leads to Tinkham Peak.  It seems like up and down but the path is heading up to the felsenmeer (‘sea of rocks’, an old guide book calls it) to a saddle at 5200 ft.  The last 400 V ft of this sometimes class 3 climb has some steep parts where I had to face the slope to safely climb down on the return trip.  At the top there are two summits or two rock piles about 30 ft apart.  I chose the south pile to set up my station.

The station consisted of my new KX3, lithium Ion battery w/ voltage regulator, Russian Cold War SK, repurposed homebrew mic, homebrew poor man’s BuddiStick 20 meter vertical dipole. I also had my Wouxun Handy Talky and collapsible PVC Pipe 2 meter dipole.

Delorme Topo map software revealed to me that Silver Peak was in ‘line of sight’ and 49 miles from Tacoma.  I called for a contact on the radio club 2M repeater which aroused a few hams to meet me on 146.520 for simplex contacts.  I made 4 QSOs with club members and a fifth with a ham in his mobile on I-5.  I was pretty surprised about my success on 2 meters FM.

Then I began my maiden SOTA voyage with my new KX3.  Set at 5 watts on 14.061, I made 15 CW and 1 SSB QSOs before it was time to pack up.  This was the first time anyone answered any of my CQ SOTA SSB calls.  It was nice to know that my homebrew KX3 mic worked well.  I had the pleasure of making contact with WG0AT for a summit to summit and KX3 to KX3 QSO.

Normally I’d say that, “The summit views are spectacular”… but not this time.  Lots of forest fire smoke was blowing in from eastern WA and the higher we went in elevation… the worse the smoke was.  One clear view photo of Mt Rainier from the Aug 5th attempt is shown below.

Thanks to the chasers who provided me Qs to complete this SOTA activation.

Best Regards… Rich KR7W