Friendship Cruise: Panorama Point near Canyonlands Nat'l Park, May 27 to May 30, 2005

Panorama Point
(near the Maze District, Canyonlands National Park)
Friday, May 27 to Monday, May 30, 2005
(for support of communications for the
Friendship Cruise)

Weather: Friday: Somewhat warm, cooling off a bit on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Usually partly cloudy, occasional light (but brief) sprinkle of rain, and occasionally windy.
Present were: Gordon, K7HFV; Clint, KA7OEI; Bruce, KD7VEM
Destination: Panorama Point mear Maze District of Canyonlands National Park.

Comments:

A temporary 2 meter repeater was set up at Panorama Point for the purpose of providing communications amongst the various fixed stations and boats involved in the safety and logistics for the Friendship Cruise.

This repeater uses a split site, with the receive equipment placed some distance away from the transmitter, behind rocks, to provide enough isolation to avoid desense and to minimize intermodulation distortion. With the receive site repeating what it receives on 70cm, not only does the Panorama transmit site "hear" and retransmit this signal, but this signal is also received by another repeater located some distance away at a place called Canyonlands Overlook.

Also see my "public" Panorama Point/Friendship Cruise page. I will be updating the public page, adding a few more technical details, in the next week or so.

Images (255-764k each, .JPG):

IMG02298 - Clint and Gordon at the receive site. #2301 shows Bruce and Gordon.
IMG02302 - Wide view toward the North from the receive site, showing a small stretch of the Green River. #2303 is similar, zoomed in.
IMG02304 - The antenna/equipment at the receive site. #2307 is a different angle, showing the solar panels and #2311 is a view toward the Dollhouse/Maze.
IMG02306 - A view of one of the receive antennas, #2305 is a closeup view of one of the preamps on the antenna.
IMG02314 - Peeking around the end of the cliff, a view back toward the camp/transmit site. #2318 is a tightly-zoomed view. (Those are the Henry Mtns. in the background.)
IMG02320 - Another view toward the North, upriver toward Mineral Canyon, from the path to the receive site.
IMG02322 - Sunset, toward the Dollhouse/Maze.
IMG02323 - Sunset, toward Junction Butte/LaSal range.
IMG02327 - Sunset on Elaterite Butte.
IMG02332 - Transmit antenna, into the sunset.
IMG02335 - Sunset on the Transmit antenna/mast.
IMG02358 - Sunrise, toward Junction Butte/LaSal range.
IMG02361 - Sunrise on Elaterite Butte.
IMG02363 - Sunrise highlighting white rim in Horse Canyon in the Maze.
IMG02370 - The transmit gear stashed in the mast kit's box (for weather protection.)

Other pictures taken in the general vicinity:

IMG02371 - Cleopatra's Chair. This is a view to toward the north, which explains one of several reasons why it isn't as good a transmit/receive site as Panorama.
IMG02378 - View along the road toward Panorama Point, a view showing a part of Horse canyon and Junction Butte.
IMG02381 - Magenta cactus flower.
IMG02391 - Yellow cactus flower.

Comments about the images:

If you want one (or more) of these images and wish some sort of adjustment (color, brightness, exposure, etc.) please let me know.
These images are in .JPG format and are in chronological order.
No-one ever said that all of these images (or any of them) were good. Some of them may have definite focus/exposure/composition "issues."
EXIF data is intact for all of the included images.
All images taken using a Sigma SD-10 camera using the 18-50mm or 55-200mm zoom lenses.

Other images. These are similar to the above but may/not be as good.

RX site: #2308, #2310 - similar to #2304 et al.
#2319 - similar to #2320.
#2324 - similar to #2323, but more tightly zoomed on the La Sals.
#2360 - similar to #2361.

Return to the main hiking page.

Also see my "public" Panorama Point/Friendship Cruise page. I will be updating the public page, adding a few more technical details, in the next week or so.