November Shack Update

Greetings, all.

Things have been continuing in the N0PCL ham shack.

First, on the award front...

While I haven't submitted my official applications for the following awards, I have sufficient confirmations for the following:

• Worked All States (mixed band and mode, CW, phone, digital, Triple Play, and 40 meters.)  I'm three states away from WAS on 20, too, needing only Maryland, Delaware, and Connecticut.
• DXCC (mixed band and mode, CW, and 20 Meters.)  I've got 91 total countries on digital modes, and 86 on phone.  And I've got 84 countries on 15 meters and 79 on 40 meters.  So I'm getting there.

In addition to the above, I've got 96 Maidenhead locators on 6 meters, using only a dipole in the attic and 100 watts.

And, perhaps my biggest near-achievement is SOTA Goat status.  I'm currently sitting at 999 points out of a necessary 1000.  My conundrum there is that I've basically activated all the peaks in my local area this year, so I need to go further afield.  I should be visiting my parents over the upcomin holiday season, so I may attempt an activation of Holy Hill (W9/WI-031) or one of the other "mountains" in southern or western Wisconsin.  Holy Hill will put me at 1,001 activator points.

In other news, I've built an APRS fill-in digipeater and iGate at my home QTH.  It doesn't get a huge amount of traffic--I'm mostly filling in APRS packets along a 25 mile stretch of I-95 between Fredericksburg and Woodbridge.  I'll do a write-up on that in the near future.  I used a rarely-touched FT-2900R, a TinyTrak4 from Byonics, and some free software.  Pretty simple stuff.

73

N0PCL Home QTH Shack Update

It's been a while since I've posted here, and it's not for want of news.  It's mainly because I haven't been doing a whole lot of SOTA activations of late.  I'm just not built for the heat and humidity of the "humid subtropical" climate I'm stuck in while I'm here in tidewater, Virginia.

But...

I have been doing lots of work on the Home QTH Radio shack.

In no particular order, here's what I've done:

• Paint.  I painted the room.  My shack is in a spare second-floor bedroom which the previous homeowners had painted a bright pink with a Disney "Frozen" motif.  It's now a calming "Lighthouse Shadows" color.
• Bought a new shack computer.  I purchased a Dell Inspiron tower, with Radeon R6 Graphics.  It's a fine AMD Quad-Core computer with an adequate, low end graphics card.  All in price:  less than $500.
• Bought an LP-Pan 2 from Telepost.  It's an aftermarket IQ Panadaptor for use with my Elecraft K3S.  The KS3 already has an IF Out port, so it's an easy connection to the LP-Pan.  I run the LP-Pan with the ASUS Xonar U7 external sound card, which basically acts as a analog-to-digital converter for the shack computer to decode the I and Q channels and produce a beautiful, and very functional display of band activity across up to 192 kilohertz of spectrum.  It's very nice.
• I bought another monitor.  Previously, I had been using a 28" Viewsonic monitor.  I purchased a second one, so now I'm able to run a combination of radio-related programs through one display, and I have a spare display for general purpose use.  Typically I run Ham Radio Deluxe, PowerSDR/IF Stage, and the Ham Radio Deluxe Logger, DM780, and WSJT-X on one monitor.  On the other display I usually have a web browsers open with tabs for SOTAWatch2, SOTAData, LOTW, DXSummit.fi, aprs.fi, QRZ.com, WA7BNM Contest Calendar, the VHF Propagation Map, and email.

  

  Now that I have two monitors side-by-side, my right monitor assists with running rig-control software, logging, and basically handling QSOs.  Here's the configuration I use when I run SSB and CW on the Elecraft K3S.  Ham Radio Deluxe handles the actual interfacing between the radio and the computer, with the HRD Logging and PowerSDR/IF Stage running on top of that.

  

  Here's my right monitor when it's running "Joe Taylor" digital modes, mainly JT65 or JT9 using WSJT-X.

  

  Here's my right monitor when I use DM780 for the other digital modes I run.  My favorite digital modes are probably Olivia, PSK-31, and occasionally RTTY.

  
  

  

  I use the left-hand monitor for displaying other websites and running other programs.  Here, I'm displaying web browsers that have tabs for SOTA, a DX Cluster, APRS, VHF Propagation Maps, Contest Calendar, and LOTW.

• As mentioned earlier above, I'm using Ham Radio Deluxe (along with the Logger and DM780), WSJT-X, PowerSDR IF Stage (panadaptor software).  I'm also using Dimension4 to keep my computer clock synched very closely to a time server (important for the JT65 and JT9 digital modes).
• Some months ago I purchased a West Mountain Radio (which hails from my hometown of Waukesha, Wisconsin) RigBlaster Advantage digital mode interface for use with the Elecraft K3S.  Yes--I'm aware that the Elecraft K3S has a built-in interface, but I really wanted to take advantage of the direct FSK keying feature that the RigBlaster Advantage has.  I did, but I found that for the limited RTTY operating I do, I found that the AFSK variant of RTTY was perfectly adequate to my needs.  For simplicity's sake, I removed the RigBlaster Advantage from the K3S setup, and it's currently with my QRP and Portable shack (the FT-817ND).  No--I haven't configured it for operation with the 817 yet, but I will.  I intend to use it when traveling, mainly.
• The remainder of my shack is the same.  I'm still using a W1AB Killer Antenna hidden on my property.  Yes, it's a major compromise antenna, but it works good enough, and is very frequency-agile, able to function from 160-6 meters just fine.  I also have a dipole in the attic cut for 20 meters.
• I'm still using the K3S/100, pretty much all the options except the 2 Meter board and the subreceiver.  I'll get those another time.
• My key is still a Kent iambic paddle.  I love it.
• I use the Heil ProSet headset with the K3S.
• An Astron RS-35A powers the whole thing through a West Mountain Radio RigRunner 4008 DC Power Strip.
• I'm still using a Yaesu FT-2900 2 meter radio with a home-made J-Pole antenna in the attic.  This is for local 2 meter FM communication.
• My SOTA/Portable shack is still the same, too.  I'll do another post on exactly what I bring for SOTA and portable operation another time.

SOTA Activation of Lamb's Knoll (W3/WE-007)

Last April 10th I activated my first SOTA Peak in Maryland.  This is a belated activation report from that day.

Why Lamb's Knoll?  Well, it wasn't too far from my home QTH (less than a few hours' drive), and it's outside of Shenandoah National Park.  I don't mind Shenandoah National Park, but, frankly, my wife and I greatly miss the peaks in California.  California had wide-open spaces, and numerous mountain ranges to choose from, and generally a different attitude in the inhabitants than is here in the D.C. area.  On the eastern seaboard, things are a bit different.  The peaks are much lower, and almost all of them are connected by the Appalachian Trail, which, when you hike in spring and summer, feels like a long, buggy, spider-webby green tube that you hike through.  There aren't the same vistas, nor is there the elevation gain.  The A.T. is well-traveled by humans, so you don't even get the solitude.  It's a bit of a downer, but it's what we have until we're able to move back out west.  I've already activated a good number of Shenandoah Peaks, but now I want to get out a bit further from home.  That basically means I head northwest to the Appalachians in Maryland or Pennsylvania, or head southwest to other Appalachian peaks in Virginia or North Carolina.

(Just so you know, I've gotten more than 50% of the way to Mountain Goat status by activating peaks in California, so I maintain my SOTA membership as part of the W6 association, not he W4V--the Virginia SOTA association.)

We set out early that Sunday morning to activate this summit, which is really a bump of South Mountain, a long ridgeline which forms the northernmost terminus of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Our plan was to pick up the Appalachian Train at Gathland State Park, and hike north a few miles to the peak.  Overall, it was an easy hike, although the trail is fairly rocky in places so be careful not to roll and ankle!  Only the first bit of the hike up the A.T. from Gathland State Park was particularly steep. 

We saw a few people out, but I think that many of the hikers stayed inside owing to the cool temperatures as measured by the Jeep, parked at Gathland State Park:

Chilly.  36 Degrees F.  But it was sunny and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

The A.T. was rocky on this hike.

Near the use trail from the A.T. to the Lamb's Knoll summit, there is a single rock outropping with a halfway decent view.  My lovely bride and I snapped a selfie.  (Yes.  I said it.  Selfie.)

The summit is not particularly scenic...there are many trees that obscure any possibility of a view, and the summit also has a few buildings on it that are surrounded by fences.

Nearby the summit where I activated there was a very closely guarded government facility.  The facility had literally dozens of security cameras covering virtually every possible angle, an oddly-large parking lot--far more expansive than necessary to provide parking for any of the visible buildings, and an absolutely massive log periodic array, likely used for HF.  Of note, in my short time at the site I saw the antenna rotate, so clearly there is some sort of government-operated radio activity occurring there (collecting SIGINT or MASINT, perhaps?)

Here's a Google Earth view of the summit.  My activation location is on the southern edge of the southern-most cluster of buildings.  The other access-restricted government facility is north of my location.  Notice the massive parking lot.

Here's a Google Earth image of the MASSIVE log periodic array.  I saw it change azimuth, so somebody was doing something with it.  The boom of the antenna was actually an aluminum truss--it was a very large antenna.

Back to the SOTA activation:  I recall that conditions weren't particularly good.  I was content to get the required four contacts and then move on.  AT&T cell coverage was plentiful, so I self-spotted.  Here's my log:

Note the gap in time between talking to W0MNA (Gary) and W9MRH.  Conditions weren't very good.  I also attempted CW but didn't make any CW contacts.  Got 'er dun, though!

My QTH on Lamb's Knoll.  By the way, I really like my Thermarest Z-Seat.  I know it's just foam, but it's very comfortable.

We hiked back the same way we came.  Here are view's of my APRS-laid breadcrumbs from APRS.fi:

The packets from the first portion of my hike apparently weren't picked up my an iGate.

Here's the view of the contour lines.

I'll speak a bit now about what's in the area around South Mountain.  During the Civil War the area was critical to the Battle of Antietam.  Gathland State Park was the location of a particularly bloody duel between Confederate Artillery batteries and infantry companies, which held the pass, and infantry regiments from New Jersey.  The New Jersey troops took the pass at great cost, earning a tactical victory, but the Confederates succeeded in their strategic aim of delaying the Union advance.  The State Park itself is the former estate of an American journalist, and it is also the site of the War Correspondent's Memorial.  If you're in the area, the park is worth visiting.

Here's the War Correspondent's Memorial.

Burkittsville is nearby, which has the dubious distinction of having the fictional Blair Witch fictionally inhabit the area around the actual town in an fictional documentary which was an actual movie.  The town is small but historic.  If you approach Gathland State Park from the east, you will travel through the town.

The area around South Mountain today is home to some cottage industries, including the production of apples, hard ciders, and meads.  (We sampled both the cider and the mead after hiking.  It was delicious!)  There is a also an excellent potter who lives just down the west side from the pass where Gathland State Park is.  After returning to the Jeep, my wife and I visited the potter and she bought a lovely coffee mug there.

It was a good day.  A nice brisk hike, some radio fun, pottery shopping, some mead and cider...it was all great.

73!

NPOTA Activation: Prince William Forest Park - DZ08

Greetings, all.

About a month ago the XYL and I headed up the I-95 corridor a few miles to Prince William Forest Park to do get away from the suburban life at my home QTH, to camp out a night in the woods, and to knock out a National Parks On The Air (NPOTA) activation.

Prince William Forest Park is a National Park Service-ran facility of 19,000 acres and the largest park in the DC metro area.  It abuts Marine Corps Base Quantico, and lies right on the geologic border of the Piedmont and Tidewater regions of Virginia.  There is a marker in the park denoting one of the geographic boundaries--that marker location is not particularly scenic, but it is interesting.

XYL hiking through Prince William Forest Park.

My wife and I are immensely thankful for this piece of land because it's basically the only relatively unmolested natural land near us, and we spend a good amount of time hiking around there.  She goes to the park several times per week, and I go there every week or two.

The park has a unique history.  It was originally homestead land for several farms.  There are several family cemeteries on the park grounds, and there is also a military cemetery on the grounds containing graves from soldiers who served in the Civil War through more modern times.  The Civilian Conservation Corps managed the lands during the Great Depression.  In World War II, the park's lands were used by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which was the forerunner of the modern CIA.  The OSS used the park for training spies and radio operators from 1942-1945.

Today the park has numerous trails and a few options for camping.  It is full of trees, ferns, streams, and swamps, and is really representative of the mid-Atlantic states' eastern seaboard.  It's not beautiful like Yosemite or Death Valley or other similar parks.  But we're still very glad to have it so nearby.

We went to the park on the afternoon of 16 April, a Saturday.  We took a campsite, and then decided to do a hike for a few hours.  After returning, we lit the camp fire and I started to operate a bit.  I used by basic SOTA setup:  The FT-817ND, the LDG Z-817 autotuner, my Palm Mini Paddles, a homemade version of the EARCHI wire antenna, and the mic.  I also brought my Yaesu VX-8DR HT.  I brought a 7 Amp-Hour gel cell battery pack to power everything.  I also brought my MFJ QRP SWR meter for no reason whatsoever.  My QTH was the picnic table, and the wire was slung into a tree.

N0PCL at the PWF QTH.  The detritus of camping surrounds me.  The HT is quiet, but the 817ND is doing fine work.

The VX-8 was basically useless.  I attempted to get some APRS packets out to the world so that I could be seen on APRS.fi, but no luck was to be had.  It was just a remote area, and, frankly, APRS coverage is spotty in my area as it is.  (I'm thinking about addressing that myself as a project, but that's for another day).

N0PCL copying CW.

N0PCL doing fun things with radios.

The 817 did fine.  I did manage to self-spot using my iPhone to the spotting network, so that assisted with getting contacts.  The first night I managed to get four contacts.  But I was hungry, so I decided to pack up and make dinner with my lovely XYL. After dinner we enjoyed the campfire and retired to the tent for a good night's sleep.

The next morning (but still the same "UTC day") I finished up the activation.  I needed six more contacts.  So I fired up the 817 again and got the necessary contacts.

Screen capture of my electronic logbook.

Overall it was a good activation.  I'm continually surprised at how well portable & QRP ham radio can do.  But sometimes it's really a challenge, too.  It took a good bit of time to get the necessary 10 NPOTA Chasers to make this activation count.  Meanwhile the XYL headed out to do a solo hike.  I then gladly packed up the site and our adventure came to a close.

Thanks, Chasers!
73.

SOTA Activations with FM Equipment

For the SOTA Activator, working on FM presents its own challenges, equipment options, and techniques.

Challenges affecting the FM operator are many.  You are generally limited to radio line-of-sight communications.  You are often limited to low power levels (5 watts or less, usually).  There are some good antennas out there for portable FM operations, but most are not supplied with the handheld radio.  There can also be battery limitations (affecting range, power, and life).

There are basically two ways to deal with these challenges:

• Equipment
• Operator skill

First we'll handle the equipment.

For many, the entry into the ham radio hobby is the purchase of a 2 Meter FM radio.  Given how the market is segmented between 160-6 Meter all-band all-mode radios, and the 2-Meter FM & Dual-Band FM radios, this is understandable.  I'm not speaking to the wisdom of this, but it's a fact of life.

This basically means that there's a lot of 2-Meter FM gear out there, and lots of hams with Technician tickets.

Many newer hams will start out buying one of the very inexpensive Chinese radios (Baofeng, Wouxun, etc.), often for less than $40.00.  All I can argue is that you get what you pay for.  Some hams like these radios because they're so inexpensive.  They're practically disposable--if you break one, lose it, or it fails, it's not a big financial hit to your pocketbook.

However, these inexpensive radios also have documented spectral purity problems in the transmitter (meaning that they don't transmit clean signals), and often the receivers in them are prone to poor selectivity, which means they have an increased tendency to receive signals you don't want to hear.  (This can be particularly annoying on SOTA peaks which have other radio transmission facilities on them.)

Antennas can be common on many peaks and can make an unwelcome contribution of radio frequency interference.  These antennas are atop Mount Wilson in the range north of Los Angeles.

My recommendation?  You are looking for a good "starter" 2-meter handheld radio, I recommend buying one of the radios from one of the "big 3" Japanese radio manufacturers:  Icom, Kenwood, or Yaesu.  Alinco is also a reasonable brand.  Why?  Because these manufacturers have been building handheld radios expressly for the amateur market for literally decades, and you can't replicate that experience.  These radios are well supported with excellent documentation.  They have solid transmitter and receiver characteristics, and, additionally, they are reasonably inexpensive.  The Kenwood TH-K20A is a full-featured 2 Meter handheld radio available for about $140.  The Yaesu FT-277R is a radio in the same class as the TH-K20A, and it's available for about $130.  These are incredibly reasonable prices given the quality of these radios, and the fact that they will likely give you years of reliable service.  There are equivalent radios from Icom (for a little more money) and Alinco (for a little less).

There are other handheld radios which offer APRS capabilities (which can be useful for SOTA spotting as well as allowing chasers to watch your ascent), as well as various digital voice modes.  These radios can be a bit more expensive and are probably better for more experienced hams.

Next, you'll likely find that the supplied "rubber duck" antenna is inadequate for lots of situations.  The reason is the fundamental reality that all antennas are a compromise between performance, size, and cost--and you can really only maximize one or two of those variables at a time.  Do you desire a small, high performance antenna?   You'll probably have to pay a bit for it (either with time or money).  But in any case, if you're activating a SOTA peak with only FM gear, I strongly consider purchasing or building a better antenna than the "free" antenna that's supplied with the radio.

You have a few options that basically break down to homebrewed and purchased antennas, and omnidirectional and directional antennas.

• Homebrewed omnidirectional antenna:  Build a 2-meter "slim jim" antenna.  You can hang this in a tree or from another non-conductive surface and get omnidirectional performance roughly equivalent to that of a vertical dipole or a j-pole, which is several orders of magnitude superior to the supplied antenna.
• Purchased omnidirectional antenna:  Buy a "slim jim" antenna.  There are numerous manufacturers of these antennas.  Alternatively, you can buy a telescoping 2 Meter 1/2 wave whip antenna.  (I use one, from Smiley Antenna Company.)  You can purchase a 1/4 wave or a 5/8 wave antenna, but 1/2 wave antennas usually outperform these.
• Homebrewed directional antenna:  Build a tape-measure antenna. 
• Purchased directional antenna:  There are really two portable options in this area:  An Arrow Antenna or an Elk Antenna.

Get an appropriate length of cable, and possibly an SMA-to-BNC adapter (if needed), and you're in good shape.  Consider purchasing an additional battery pack and you're well-equipped for 2-Meter FM work from a summit.

Now, we'll tackle operating skill.

You can have a successful summit activation using only FM.  You chances will be greatly improved if you do the following:

• Let other hams know that you're going to activate a particular peak.  Tell them when, and where.  You can let other hams in your local area know you're going to do an activation, and hopefully they will monitor the frequencies you'll be working on.  Additionally, you can post an Alert to SOTAWatch so that other hams in the area of the activation will be able to listen for you.
• Self-spot.  Hopefully the activation location will allow you to self-spot to SOTAWatch so that other hams will be able to know of your activation in real time.  There are several techniques for this.  You can use the APRS2SOTA or the SMS2SOTA gateways, use an app on your smart phone, or alternatively, you can ask a local ham that's SOTA-savvy to spot on your behalf.
• If you're going to activate using only FM, it's best to activate a peak in an area with lots of FM activity.  Peaks near major metropolitan areas (like Los Angeles, for example) lend themselves to this.  Additionally, activating during a VHF contest can be helpful.  (Just make sure you note your maidenhead locator that the peak is in!)  Operating during an ARRL Field Day can also a be a great opportunity for this.
• Pick a good band.  If I'm doing an FM-only activation, odds are that I will be most successful making QSOs on 2 Meters.  That band is just used more often than 6 meters, 1.25 meters, 70 centimeters, 33 centimeters, or 23 centimeters.  I have made FM QSOs on 6, 1.25 meters, and 70 centimeters, but 2 meter FM QSOs outnumber these by many orders of magnitude. 
• Pick a good frequency.  I almost always use national calling frequencies.  For 2 meters, it's 146.52.  (Other FM calling frequencies are:  52.525, 223.5, 446.0, and 1294.5 MHz.  The 33 centimeter band doesn't have a national calling frequency, but there are local frequencies that are sometimes used on this rarely-used band).  If 146.52 is busy, I sometimes use 146.55 or 146.58, but they have fewer stations monitoring them.  Remember, if communicating for a SOTA activation, you can only count QSOs that are simplex.  (Ok, technically you can also use satellites, but these are almost never used.)  I also frequently monitor 146.52 at home while I'm having fun on HF, in case somebody would like to have a VHF FM QSO.
• Pick a good time to activate.  Generally, activating on a weekend or some federal holidays is better than activating during the work week.  If you must activate during a work week, activating during commuting times often is good because numerous mobile stations are equipped with FM gear.  Lunch time is also good.  Activating at night usually doesn't work well.
• If you're having trouble with getting the required 4 QSOs to earn points for a SOTA activation, you can attempt to make contact with a station on a local well-used repeater, and then QSY to a simplex frequency to make the required contacts.  This, of course, requires that you know how to use your radio (including frequency entry, and possibly use of CTCSS or "PL" tones, or rarely, Digital Coded Squelch (DCS).  You should also know the repeaters in the locale of your activation so you have some options.  The ARRL repeater director is a great resource for this.  There are also numerous smartphone apps that can assist with finding repeaters.
• Your specific location on a peak can make a huge difference in how well your signal is communicated.  If you're having trouble getting the necessary QSOs on one side of a summit activation zone, try moving to a different location.  A small shift of a few dozen feet can sometimes greatly affect the radio line-of-sight and therefore enhance (or degrade) communications.
• Most FM operators have their squelch adjusted so that you only hear stations that manage to break through the static.  This is fine, but sometimes you can hear weaker stations if you decide to cope with the static by reducing the squelch.  Some radios have a button which cancels the effect of the squelch temporarily.  Consider these options.
• Keep your contacts short, and be persistent.  Normal FM operating procedures apply, but don't hesitate to let people know that you're activating a SOTA peak.  When announcing your presence on a frequency, you could say something like this:  "This is N0PCL, November Zero Papa Charlie Lima for a Summits On the Air Activation atop Mount Wilson.  Is there anybody listening?"  Calling "CQ" is generally frowned upon using FM.  Bob, K0NR, has written an excellent FM operating guide for the new ham.
• Don't forget to write down the date, time callsign, frequency, and signal report for each contact, and then log those contacts on SOTAData.

That's basically it.  If you have a portable FM rig, you can have a successful SOTA activation, but you need to make sure that you are properly equipped and make use of appropriate techniques.

Double Activation Report: Pt 5764 (W6/SD-026) and Middle Peak (W6/SC-024)

I'll be spending a large amount of November and December in Southern California doing work-related things.  I'd be a fool if I didn't use these work trips as an opportunity to activate a few mountains in SoCal!  So, on 7 November (last Saturday), I activated a couple peaks.

First on the list:  Point 5764 (W6/SD-026), an unnamed hill along Sunrise Highway in the Cleveland National Forest on the way to the Laguna Meadows.

I had never activated this peak before, but a few others have.  A Google Map study revealed that there was a nearby parking area (the Pioneer Mail parking area) which would be ideal.  Oleh, KD7WPJ's, report said that there was no trail to the summit, though.  Gary, ex-KK6GXD (now K6YOA)'s report indicated likewise.  But a very close look at the highest-resolution imagery seemed to indicate a slight trail along the spine of the ridge which forms 5764.

Sign by the parking area.

Cross the Sunrise Highway from the parking area to the Pine Mountain Trail.

Sign marking the Pine Mountain trail.  Watch out for mountain bikers!

My strategy to hike 5764 would therefore be to basically follow KD7WPJ's instructions, but instead of hiking directly to the top, I would hike to the spine of the ridge and then follow the crest of the ridge up.  That's precisely what I did.

Once I hit the spine of the ridge, I noticed a well-worn path leading to the summit, making access much easier.  Later, I would follow this path down.

The summit is marked by an engineer stake pounded into the ground.

The summit.  This view is looking generally East.  You can see Sunrise Highway snaking along in the background.

The views from the summit were actually much grander than I expected.  To the north you could easily make out Santa Rosa, the San Gabriel, the San Jacinto, and San Bernardino mountain ranges.  To the northwest you could see the Palomar Range with its astronomical optical telescopes.  To the immediate west you could see the Cuyamaca Range (North Peak, Middle Peak, Cuyamaca Peak, and Stonewall Peak).  You could also see the environs of San Diego and the Pacific Ocean.  To the south lies several lower peaks (Viejas among them).  And to the east you could see mountains of the Lagunas (Laguna Mountain, Sheephead, etc.)  To the northeast lies the Salton Sea, Whale Peak, and Granite Peak, and the town of Borrego Springs within radio line-of-sight.

View looking West.  The highest peak in the distance is Cuyamaca Peak (W6/CC-014).  The two summits to the right of Cuyamaca are Stonewall Peak (W6/SC-029) and Middle Peak (W6/SC-024).

View looking generally North.  Numerous mountains can be seen, especially the Santa Rosa range.

View looking South.

View looking East.  Notice Sunrise Highway and the Pioneer Mail parking area.  The Pacific Crest Trail can also be seen leading from the parking area to the left (north).

It was a bit windy on the summit, with temperatures in the 40s, so I hunkered down an an area a bit south of the actual summit that was sheltered from the wind.  I bungee-corded my crappie pole to the engineer stake and slung my EARCHI wire antenna as a sloping wire toward my operating position, and I proceeded to make contacts starting on 20 meters SSB, and then shifting to CW on 20 and 40 meters.  Later, I broke out my HT and made contacts on 2 meters FM.  I also tried to make contacts on 223.5 MHz and 446.0 FM, but not takes, as is usual in this area.  I had one summit-to-summit contact with Peter, WA7JTM, who was activating another unnamed peak in Arizona.

Bungee-corded fishing pole atop the engineer stake.  Antenna is an end-fed wire leading from the pole to my operating position.

The radio.  Somehow when I'm using it, there doesn't seem to be so many wires.

Overall, it was a good activation.  27 total QSOs in under an hour, pretty good for a SOTA activation.

My SOTA log from Pt. 5764 (W6/SD-026).

Ok...for the hike down:  I simply followed the trail along the spine of the ridge south.  This trail intersected the Pine Mountain trail, which is a charted, maintained, and groomed trail.  I built a cairn at the intersection to mark the intersection for follow-on SOTA activators.  I turned left at the intersection and followed the Pine Mountain trail back to Sunrise Highway and the parking area.

Use trail leading from the groomed Pine Mountain Trail up to Pt. 5764.  Notice the small cairn I built to mark the trail.

I highly recommend taking the route described here.  It's much less brushy and navigation is much easier.  The extra distance covered is negligible, too.

Beware of mountain bikers on the Pine Mountain trail.  Two of them came upon me at high speed from behind.  I was lucky to have stepped out of the way in time.  They apologized and continued on their way.  One things about people in California:  Everyone is always in a great mood and very friendly!


After having completed the hike, I did some additional research on Peak 5764.  A previous hiker had evidently summitted the peak while carrying a Garmin using the route I described.  The route is shown here.  Peakbagger.com profile for the peak is here.

Additional notes:  Peak 5764 has plentiful AT&T 3G access, SMS access, and APRS digipeater coverage.  Parking at Pioneer Mail parking area requires a National Forest Adventure Pass or Interagency Pass.  This peak has a summer seasonal bonus for being a desert peak, but given its elevation, I think it would be an easy bonus to get if you were to hike it in the summer.

After activating 5764 I decided to head to Middle Peak (W6/SC-024), the peak to the immediate north of Cuyamaca Peak.  It was perhaps a 15 minute drive to the Middle Peak trail head.  I won't belabor writing a description of Middle Peak or explain its navigation since it's basically a hike up a dirt fire road and is well-described here.  I will say that the peak's vegetation was destroyed in a fire back in 2003, and consequently it's dominated by burned-out timbers and very thick thorny bushes.  These bushes have grown a good deal in the last couple of years.  The final 200 vertical feet of the ascent requires bushwhacking through this nasty stuff.

Well, I bushwhacked.  And bushwhacked some more.  While there is a reforestation effort on Middle Peak, and some efforts to try to hold back the brush, the thorn bushes at the summit proved too thick to climb through.  I got to withing 45 vertical feet of the summit though, and that's in the activation cone.  Satisfied with my effort, and also satisfied that I had activated this peak from the summit in years past, I decided to set up my station on a rock on the western side of the mountain.

The road near the summit of Middle Peak.  That wall next to the road is thick thorny bushes, easily 7' tall.  Nasty stuff.

One of the trees planted as part of the reforestation effort.

My operating position.  What a mess.  But it worked!

This activation also went well.  I activated on 30, 20, 12, 10, and 2 meters, mostly CW.  I completed about 29 QSOs, with one summit-to-summit QSO.  I also attempted to make contacts on 223.5 and 446.0 FM, with no takers.  (You might think it's futile to make contacts on these bands, but believe it or not, I have made SOTA contacts on them.  This only happens very rarely.)  K6HPX chased me on 30 meter CW while mobile, which is notable too.

Middle Peak activation log.

After about 1.5 hours on the summit I came down.  The hike back was unremarkable save for the fact that I saw a small herd of deer on the way down.

Two deer, with Stonewall Peak in the background.

Additional notes:  AT&T 3G data, SMS, cell phone, and APRS coverage are all reliable.


It was a good activation day.  Two six-point peaks activated, with two summit-to-summit QSOs.  I was happy to work so many stations.  As always, thanks chasers!  73.

Activation Reports: Pass Mountain (W4V/SH-013) and Knob Mountain (W4V/SH-017)

This past Sunday the XYL and I decided to bag a couple peaks in Shenandoah National Park.  We selected Pass Mountain (W4V/SH-013) and Knob Mountain (W4V/SH-017), as they can both be accessed along Skyline Drive, making navigation to the two trailheads simple.

We departed the home QTH at around 0700 local, reaching the Behms Gap parking area (just north of the Thornton Gap park entrance) a bit after 0900.  Pass Mountain is a tree-covered bump between Thornton Gap and Behms Gap, with the Appalachian Trail snaking up and over the summit.  Trail navigation is very easy, as the AT is a wide, well-used, and groomed trail.  From Behms Gap the summit is under two miles away.  Weather conditions were pleasant:  Generally cloudy skies, temps in the 50s, and the occasional raindrop.

Pass Mountain as seen from the jeep.  View from just north of the Behms Gap parking area, looking south.

The summit was rounded, with lots of trees, fall colors, and a few large rock outcroppings sticking out of the soil.

As always, I started on 146.52, followed by 223.5 and 446.0 MHz FM.  No takers.  I then set up my portable HF station and slung my wire antenna.  The HF bands were reasonably cooperative, but with the CQ World Wide Phone contest going on, the SSB segments of the non-WARC bands were very crowded.  I heard Croatian, Polish, English, and German stations booming in on 20 meters. I moved to 17 meters phone to see who I could get, and then moved to 30 meters CW.

Fuzzy picture of my Pass Mountain operating position.  I set up on a log.  The leaf-covered AT crosses between the log and the rock outcroppings in the distance.

Close-up view of my operating position on Pass Mountain.  FT-817ND.  Autotuner.  Key.  Mic.  Logbook.  Notebook.

While I activated the XYL continued hiking over the peak toward Thornton gap, allowing me about an hour to activate.

I worked the following stations:

Not great, but also not bad.  9 stations worked over 27 minutes.

The new batteries continued to hold up well.  On previous batteries I would typically have the radio set for 2.5 watts of output power, but today I operated entirely at 5 watts.  Again, I'll note that, like my last activation, the battery voltage barely dropped even when transmitting the 5 dahs of the "0" in my callsign.  Solid.

AT&T cell service was good for both SMS and 3G data services.  APRS connectivity was also good.

After I worked the small crowd of stations and the XYL returned, we returned to Behms Gap via the same route as the ascent.

We next moved north along Skyline Drive to Elkwallow Gap, where the trailhead for Knob Mountain (W4V/SH-017) is.  Knob Mountain is a bump along a northeast-to-southwest running ridge which is an offshoot of the Shenandoah range.  The specific route we took basically went from Elkwallow Gap northwest and downhill to reach the Appalachian Trail, and then Jeremy's Run.  Crossing Jeremy's Run you climb a steep ridge to reach the Knob Mountain Trail, which heads southwest along the ridgeline that Knob Mountain is on.  The trail is well-groomed and marked.  Printable map here.

Overall, the hike is under 6 miles round-trip for the hike described.  Of course you could easily lengthen the hike to about 13-14 miles if you do the entire Jeremy's Run Loop hike.

Oh--and we saw three black bears near the trail.  Sorry, I don't have good pictures, but they were there.  It was a bear day.

Knob Mountain is the highest bump on the right.  The Shenandoah Valley can be seen to the left.  The peak is a high point on a ridge protruding southwest into the Shenandoah.

Elkwallow Gap has services available--bathrooms and a small overcrowded gift shop.

There were humans at Elkwallow.  Most of these people don't venture too far into the woods, which is just fine by me.

Weather conditions stayed pleasant.  Cloudy skies, slight breeze, temperature in the upper 50s.  There was the occasional rain drop.

Nice fall colors, particularly the red leaves.  This is not an altered photo.

XYL crossing Jeremy's Run.  There were fish hopping in the run, and the run was a good bit wider than it looks, but the surface was covered with leaves.

N0PCL crossing Jeremy's Run.  Yes.  That's a Lodenhut.  A Lodenhut is to Germany as a cowboy hat is to Texas.  It's the hat of my ancestors.  Considering its Alpine origin, it's ideal for SOTA expeditions.  It's made of Loden (a type of wool), so it's actually quite warm, and is just fine in the rain.  Word.

N0PCL making the final steps up to the ridgeline from Jeremy's Run.  It's about 500' of gain over about 1/2 mile.  Decently steep.  I was working up a sweat so I'm climbing hat-in-hand.  XYL photo.

More nice fall colors.

Almost there!  Knob mountain summit only 250 feet away.  The trail system in Shenandoah NP is very simple to follow.  These posts are at most of the trail junctions.

XYL hiking up the final couple hundred feet to Knob Mountain summit.

The QSOs on Knob Mountain came quick once I set up on HF.  But before that happened I had a pleasant chat with Brian, KE8AZF, in the panhandle of West Virginia, about 40 miles away on 146.52.  I made unsuccessful calls on 223.5 MHz FM and 446.0 MHz FM with no joy.  I then slung my wire antenna, laid out radials, and set up my shack on a nearby log.  I sent a quick spot out on my iPhone--and the calls came fast.  The pileup continued for a solid 20 minutes on 30 meters before picking up a couple QSOs on 10 meters to stations out west.  A few of the stations went into straight "contest mode", sending my "5NN" reports to expedite the process.

Overexposed iPhone pic of my homebrewed EARCHI matchbox.  Used with a tuner and some decent radials, it can put out a good signal on 40-6 meters with a tuner.  With a superb radial system and a perfectly vertical radiator, I've occasionally gotten it to load up (albeit inefficiently) on 75 and 80 meters, too.

Close-up view of the matchbox.  It's contained in a Hammond enclosure, and I use simple alligator clips to make the electrical connections.  The radiating element is the black wire.  The radials are just some #22 speaker wire.  Works great.

My Knob Mountain operating position.  Logs make good places to sit and have some QSOs.

Here's my logbook as it appears on the SOTAData website:

After working KE8AZF I worked 18 CW stations in 30 minutes.  While not stellar at all by contesting standards, this is pretty good work.  Lots of fun!

AT&T cell service was good for both SMS and 3G data services.  APRS connectivity was also good. 

No after-action items for this hike.  It was a very pleasant activation, a great way to spend a fall weekend, and a fun 12 SOTA activation points to earn!

As always, thanks chasers!  No activation is successful without you.  73!