Even leaving Bigfoot aside...
...Southern Oregon has a lot to offer. If you'd like to try SOTA from exotic Oregon, there's probably no easier place to do it than Palmer Butte, W7O/SC-185. It's off US-101 south of Brookings, the first major town north of the California border.
Directions:
Take US-101 to around Milepost 357, south of Brookings, OR. Turn East at this Signal:
...onto North Bank Chetco Road. Drive about 4.8 mi and turn left here:
...onto Gardner Ridge Road. Drive another 3.3 mi and park at the intersection of Gardner Ridge and forest road 40-13-10.1 (on the left side):
Walk the easy 0.4 mi to the summit. Keep left at the fork.
I selected an operating position just below the hilltop VHF site:
This is an example of my "DeLuxe setup," which includes a light weight folding aluminum table and camp chair. The easy life, for sure! If I know I'm in for a long hike, I leave both behind.
This was my second disappointing outing with the myantennas.com EFHW 8010. It heard poorly, and people I called didn't come back. After a few tries, I switched to my old reliable, the SOTA Tuner from qrpkits.com and separate end-fed half wave wires and counterpoises for 7, 10 and 14 mHz. Not knocking the first antenna. It just doesn't work well for me, but it has many fans.
Palmer Butte is an easy site for SOTA beginners. There's only a bit of walking involved, and the area roads are good, except for the last forest road section. For walking, though, it's fine.
So....what are you waiting for?
73,
Andrew Ellis NO6E
Rogue River / Bandon Oregon
