Pilot Knob (W6/SD-435) Activation Report and WLB-817 Battery Pack Review

I activated Pilot Knob (W6/SD-435) back on 11 October..  It's a lowly one-point peak near where the California, Arizona, and Mexican borders meet.  I described a bit about the mountain here.

Some great information on accessing the peak is in this PDF document.

Getting there:  As described on pages 66-68 of the above PDF document.

On a previous activation attempt, I tried to climb using the more direct route along edge of the quarry on the north side of the mountain, but I lost the trail and I ran out of time due to other commitments later in the day.  I decided to instead make an attempt climbing the western slope of the mountain, attempting to use the loop trail described in the book, except I would do an out-and-back hike instead of a loop in order to shorten the hike.  I entered the location of the trail head into my Garmin and went there.

Overexposed pic of trailhead.  Lat/Long:  N32 44.065" W114 45.450, looking east.  Sun was rising, hence the overexposure.

At that location I noticed two trails:  One of the left/north, and one of the right/south.  Given that I was going to do the out-and-back route, I selected the left trail and started climbing.  The climb was steep but the well-defined trail made the route simpler, until I reached the crest of the first ridgeline.  Here the trail disappeared.  I ended up shifting to the left (north) a bit, and ultimately found a draw which led to a false summit.  This false summit was at the far end of the east-west ridge which makes up crest of the mountain.  From this spot the going was a bit easier, with numerous trails visible and with the summit in view.

The mountain was made of a mixture of sharp granite and a softer conglomerate (I think).  The softer rock eroded away in places, leaving holes and small caves.  Bats, which I had noticed on my first attempted climb, probably live in many of these small caves.

This cairn was located at the false summit.  My APRS capable handheld's packets were first picked up at this point.

The ridge from the location of the false summit, leading to the peak.  Yuma, Arizona can be seen beyond the mountain.

The hike on the ridge was a good bit easier.  Less steep, and the ground was a firmer granite than the softer rock leading to the false summit.

Getting closer to the summit.  A Gipfelkreuz!--although not as ornate as those in the Old World.

The Summit Cross was made of wood, and appears to be installed into the foundation of the old KIVA television transmitting tower.

Having reached the summit, I quickly deployed my end-fed wire antenna and commenced making contacts using the FT-817ND and the VX-8DR.  Propagation was actually not too bad, given the conditions.

Even with conditions only so-so, I commenced making numerous contacts throughout the US, using both SSB and CW.  I also attempted contacts on 50, 144, and 222 MHz, but no takers.  I did make contact with a ham in Yuma on 446.0 (K7ACS), who also ran an APRS digipeater that received my packets.
  

My Pilot Knob activation log on SOTAData.

As for my spotting technique, I self-spotted using the web browser on my phone.  I could have easily self-spotted using APRS, SMS, SOTA Goat, and likely the Reverse Beacon Network.  AT&T cell signals were plentiful, and APRS coverage, once on the summit and out of the draws, was fine:

My APRS breadcrumbs from the false summit leading to the summit.

At the false summit, by APRS packets were received by the BAJA digipeater, perhaps 50 miles away.  I am N0PCL-7.

At the summit, my APRS packets were received at the K7ACS digipeater.  I worked K7ACS on 446.0 during the activation as well.

The view into Mexico from the summit.  The US-Mexican border is very visible.

Having completed the activation, I started my hike down.  Having more of a bird's eye view while on the summit made route selection a bit easier.  I simply picked a prominent trail that headed west down the mountain.  Given how easy the descent was, I recommend that future activators use the following coordinates as your trail head:  N 32 44.050", W114 44.090".  That will place you approximately one draw to the north of the trailhead I used for this activation, and it will make navigation to the summit much easier!  Simply go to those coordinates and hike up the well-defined and well-ducked trail.

A few other notes for a future activation:

• You are operating very close to the Mexican border.  The place is crawling with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.  I recommend you carry identification on your person in order or alleviate suspicions that might ruin your activation attempt.
• It's a short hike, and not too strenuous, but I still recommend you bring a good amount of water.  On the day I hiked this peak, it was in the mid-80s before the sun came up, and there's not much shade (no shade, actually).

Lastly, I promised a review of the WLB-817 battery pack that I had installed in my FT-817ND.  The battery performed marvelously.  Battery voltage barely dropped, even when transmitting a full 5 watts of power on CW during the five long "dahs" of the "0" in my callsign.  I suspect that there's power for several more activations in a single battery charge.  I'm very happy with this purchase.

WLB-817 Initial Review

Last week I mentioned that I was having some battery issues with the W4RT battery pack that I had installed in my main SOTA radio, the Yaesu FT-817ND.  I opted to purchase a lithium polymer (LiPo) battery system from HamSource, a small side hustle of John, N1OLO.

This past Thursday I the new batteries arrived.  WindCamp is the manufacturer.  Total price:  $80.00 + $12.99 shipping and handling.  It turns out that the $12.99 of shipping and handling purchased a 2-day priority shipping via the US Postal Service.  I would have been happy for a slower shipping option to save a bit on S&H.

The small box contained the new battery pack, a small wall charger, and a new battery bay door for the FT-817ND.  There was also an invoice, but no instructions.  I admit I was a bit miffed at that.  At work on Friday, I sent an email to John about that issue.  Within a couple of hours he replied, apologizing for the lack of instructions, which he said should have been included.  He attached a PDF file which had a single page of instructions (this is also available at his website.)

The HamSource WLB-817 Battery Kit

That minor problem solved, I commenced to assemble the new battery system into the FT-817ND.
First, I removed the W4RT batteries from the FT-817ND and dropped in the new battery set, being careful ensure that the wiring harness from the batteries will reach to the battery bay door (which contains a tiny circuit board.

Dropping in the lithium ion battery pack.

The new batteries are smaller than the W4RT batteries.  Fitting batteries into the FT-817 battery bay isn't too difficult.  Some jostling is required, but it worked out ok.

The new battery pack (top) vs. the W4RT NiMH battery pack.

The replacement battery bay door has a nifty feature:  A switch.  This makes a positive disconnect of the battery from the rest of the radio during charging, and for periods of storage.  (Some FT-817ND owners have experienced failure of the final power amplifier, apparently due to batteries discharging through the power amplifier bias circuit.  I'm not sure how much truth there is to this, but it's a common reason given when the FT-817 finals fail.)

The new FT-817ND battery bay door.  Chinglish:  "Choose the specifically charger..."

Underside of the battery bay door contains a board which connects the switch and charging jack.

Connecting the wiring harnesses up.

Replacement battery bay door installed.

All finished.  Radio is propped up with the Palm Radio Peg Leg kit.

Charging appears straightforward.  Simply turn the radio over, flip the battery door switch to "Off", plug in charger, and wait.  The charger has a dual-colored LED which glows red when the battery is charging and green when it's fully charged.  Simple.

Charging configuration.

The instructions say to never allow the battery voltage to drop below 9 volts.  This matches similar advice I've seen elsewhere regarding lithium polymer batteries.

So, that's it.  I'm reasonably happy with the installation.  I have a business trip to SoCal and Arizon over the next couple of weeks.  I'll try to knock out a SOTA activation or two out there.  After the trip reports I'll let you know how the batteries held up.

73.

The batteries ship mostly charged.  11.3 volts indicated.

In the mail: Lithium Ion Batteries for the FT-817ND

I'm a reasonably happy owner of a Yaesu FT-817ND.  It's a solid, reasonably inexpensive all-band all-mode portable radio solution for the SOTA activator.  It's also very rugged, built like a tank.  But it does have its downsides.  Two related issues are the current consumption of the radio and the batteries which power it.

The radio does have a fairly high receive current consumption, around .3 amperes.  This might not seem like much, but mix that with a reasonably amount of transmitting, particularly on CW (or data modes), and you'll see that the supplied internal battery packs aren't the best.  The supplied battery is the FNB-72, rated at 9.6 volts and 1100 mAh.  Later, Yaesu did a slight upgrade with the FNB-85, which raises the capacity to 1400 mAh.  I used the -85 for about six months when I got frustrated with its capacity for multiple-peak activation days (around Big Bear Lake in California there are numerous easily-accessible high-value peaks.  The XYL and I would bag a few, camp out, and then head out for a second day of activations.  If I recall correctly, I once earned 56 SOTA points in a single weekend).

At any rate, the FNB series of batteries for the -817 use the Nickel-Cadmium (NiCd) chemistry, which is pretty ancient battery technology (We're talking the 1890s, people!).

I suppose this is understandable given that the FT-817 was first designed in the 1990s and first sold in the year 2000.

So I searched around the marketplace for a good replacement.  The one I settled on was the W4RT Electronics OPP-817 battery pack and OFC-817 charger combination.  This internal battery solution basically doubled the capacity of the batteries to 2500 mAh (although they now advertise that they increased this further to 2700 mAh).  These batteries mount in the same compartment in the FT-817ND as the stock batteries.  Rather, a new battery compartment door is supplied which has a charging jack for the OFC-817 charger.  The W4RT batteries use the Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH) chemistry, which are have become lower-cost in recent years than the NiCd batteries.

These batteries have served me well for about 17 months, and have been through maybe 100 or 125 charge/discharge cycles.  I always followed the charging instructions scrupulously, and the batteries did a decent job of providing power for the longer activations without increasing weight, bulk, or otherwise ill effect.  But, on my activation of Old Rag (W4V/SH-012), I noticed that the voltage indicator in the 817 was rapidly declining.  Thinking it was an anomaly, I recharged the batteries and, on a different weekend, I planned on activating Hazeltop (W4V/SH-004) and Fork Mountain (W4V/SH-003).  Hazeltop went fine, but by the time I got to Fork Mountain, the radio would barely power up.  It was confirmed in my mind:  the W4RT batteries were finished.

So I looked around the marketplace and asked on the NA-SOTA forums.  I considered other solutions, including homebrewing an external Lithium-Iron (LiFe) battery pack and charger, and using a setup much like Matt, K0MOS uses.

I settled on the HamSource WLB-817 pack, mainly because it offers a 3000 mAh capacity with higher voltage (approximately 11 volts) in an FT-817-friendly package.  The chemistry is Lithium Ion Polymer (LiPo), which apparently is good for high-current applications (like the LiFe and NiMH batteries mentioned above).  The WLB-817 seems to use the same charging methodology as the W4RT system, utilizing a replacement battery hatch door to facilitate the connection to the external charger.  It is slightly more expensive than the W4RT batteries, too ($92 for the battery pack, charger, replacement battery hatch, and shipping & handling).

More on FT-817NDs and battery chemistry can be found on the KA7OEI FT-817 pages.  And here.  And here.

We'll see how this goes.

As for other "modifications" to the FT-817ND, I also use the W4RT 300 Hz CW filter and the Palm Peg Leg.  (I like Palm a lot.  I also use their Mini Paddles.  And I'm trying to justify spending the money for their miniature Straight Key, too.)

Update:  I've received some email as well as a reply on the NA-SOTA forums urging caution with the LiPo batteries, mainly because of the hazards associating with accidentally shorting them out, improper charging techniques, and the damage that they can do to equipment.  Those are definitely valid considerations.

In the past I've been utterly scrupulous with regard to charging techniques, and with the safety issues involved in with the LiPos, I'll definitely continue to do so.  Those batteries pack a lot of energy into a very small package.

Thanks for the emails and the replies elsewhere!  -73, Nate N0PCL 

Update 2:  Here is another LiPo solution for the FT-817.