SOTA and NOISSSSSE

WA3WSJ from his QRZ page

So I had about 30 minutes over lunch today to operate.  I setup the Ultimate Portable QRP Antenna (UPQA) in 3 minutes and was on the air.

I pulled up SOTA Goat on my iPhone and saw that WA3WSJ/PM was calling CQ on W0/FR-004 (Pikes Peak) on 14.060.  I tuned over there and sure enough there he was.  I had worked WA3WSJ last week from Bartle Scout Reservation when he was on Devils Butte.

I gave him a shout and he came right back with a 559 and I gave him a 589 - good for 10 points as a chaser!  I am now up to 20 points.

I would really like to get to 100 points before winter sets in so that I can qualify for a Chaser Certificate.

Then I switched over to 17 Meters and heard CO8LY calling CQ.  I returned a call to him about 5 times before someone else got him and the pileup started.  He never heard me.  He was booming in over S9, so I was disappointed.

Then all of a sudden the band was filled with S9 static.  I switched bands and it was the same thing on each band.

It had started to sprinkle, so not sure if that was it or if a nearby vehicle had just pulled in.  When I was tearing down I noticed a car one row away from me that I didn't see pull in, and there was a gentleman sitting eating his lunch with the car running - maybe that was the source.  Any ideas???

Will have to see if I experience the same thing today.  This has never happened at this park before.