South of Bend is a little 2-pointer named Bates Butte. I had mapped out a route from the south side. Frome Bend take South Century Drive and make a left on Forest Lane, a paved forest road. Take a right at 43.80887, -121.50379 and make a short drive up a forest road. There was still a bit of snow when I was there, so 4 wheel drive recommended, but probably doable on 2 wheel drive when dry. I parked at 43.80536, -121.50776. From here look for a decent worn trail heading north up the butte. There are a few switchbacks on the way up, choose the best looking ones and they'll get you to the top. The final path to the summit has a lot of scrub brush, but the trail is decent, so not much bushwacking. Eventually the brush will open up to a bit of a clearing with views of Mt Bachelor and the Cascades.
I set up a new EFHW cut for 40m with a loading coil for 20m. The SWR was good when I built it, but on summit I was getting 2.3:1 swr. Not great, but I was running my MTR4B off a rechargable 9v battery, so I was only putting out about 1Watt. I managed to make 4 contacts with that set up on 40 meters. I plan on redoing the EFHW with links instead of the loading coil.
I switched over to the KX2 with an EFRW and started getting MUCH better signal reports. 15 meters to Japan was really good. I worked 4 JA stations on that band. On 10 meters I worked my first Brazil station ssb and cw. Cool.
The new SOTApup in training did pretty well. After giving up trying to get me to play with him he curled up on my lap and took a nap. Adorable.
