KE6SRN, Carol, crossed over 1,000 activating points to achieve the title of “Mountain Goat” while activating W6/CT-022, Sunset Peak, her 150th activation. Carol was with her husband and fellow activator, KE6SRO, Tom. This makes Carol the 19th female in all of North America to achieve Goat!
Carol and Tom started in Ham Radio 30 years ago, to support their community during emergencies. Her entire family got licensed together, including their 2 boys at the age of 8. In retirement, Carol and Tom’s love of travel and the outdoors brought them to POTA, then quickly SOTA as the enthusiasm of the SoCal SOTA group caught their attention.
Carol said there are many to thank for their support over the past year, but in particular Lorene W6LOR and Mike K6STR. Lorene is always there to give us a little push. For example, after telling Lorene of our plans to do a summit, she suggests a nearby summit to make it a double. Mike is also supportive and always willing to give advice or assistance. For example, when I inquired about the Quansheng modification to enable CW, Mike invited us over to guide us through the mod. And, of course, Jon NT6E has to be thanked for all the chases, spots, relays, friendly, and supportive presence on the air.
Carol’s first activation was on December 31st, 2023, where she worked 4 stations on CW. Now, a year and a half later, she has 1,004 points. In addition, Carol is on-track to becoming top activator in 2025 [“Goat Feaver” has a way of doing that.]
Carol said that she had a wonderful Mtn Goat day — everything turned out better than she had anticipated. She said it was fun catching so many friends on the air but the most amazing contact was with Mike K6STR and Lorene W6LOR, who were in Wyoming on their way to a summit. They pulled out their handheld KH1 radios with only its whip antenna and were able to make contact on 20m/CW. That was over 1000 miles with QRP radios on both ends!!!
The weather moved in at the end of Carol’s activation and she was soaked by the time she got back to the car.
Carol and Tom almost always work VHF on a summit and Carol is a great CW operator as well.
Carol is an avid writer and authors a blog at radioandrides.com that documents Carol & Tom's cycling, hiking, and radio adventures. Carol was a huge help in setting up the new W6SOTA.org site and helps maintain it with N1CLC.
Carol said that the next event is Tom achieving his Goat hike just before his birthday, on Saturday October 18th, so watch for his spot on that date.
I’d like to congratulate Carol and welcome her to the herd. Well done!!!
- Chris Claborne, N1CLC
