N1CLC: 2019-02-10 Lagunas to Spain

I got out of the house early, about 0640, and headed out to the trailhead. Today’s SOTA mission was to a mountain in the Lagunas to do Sheephead but the Forest Service had other ideas. The gate was closed going into the trailhead that I use for Sheephead, I’m not sure why. The road did have snow on it but my Highlander AWD worked awesome on the snow and ice when I tested it so I wouldn’t have had a problem.... It’s possible there was a washout somewhere on the road. After a quick replan, I continued up the Sunrise Highway a bit and hiked Hill 5764, W6/SD-026 - 5764. l did this one last year as a recommendation from K6ARK. It’s an easy hike and the trailhead was about 6 miles from where I was. Next year I’ll try to do Sheephead and this one on the same day.

When I pulled into the parking lot near the trailhead it was 28 F. I hopped out and quickly dawned an extra layer and head cover and gloves. The wind was blowing so I expected the summit to be a bit more windy, a lot more windy. The trail was frozen with some patches of snow but nothing significant. There is a storm arriving this afternoon from the west and north-west which was where the wind was from.

The hike up was pretty easy and the trail easy to follow. The summit was WINDY, with gusts to 60 by the time I left, almost blowing me over one time. There is a fence post at the summit making a setup of my vertical antenna easy. The wind was bending it over at times. I setup my operating position on the leeward side of the mountain, trying to get out of the wind. I was up and running quickly and found an open channel. I sat as far as I could stretch my 25 ft. coax from the peak to get out of the wind but it was still pretty windy. Temp of about 30 and wind at my operating positon of 20 mph, wind chill would be 17. I started launching RF into the fabric of spacetime after spotting myself and quickly had a pileup.

The usual operators were chasing me but I got a cool surprise, EA2LU, Jorge from Pamplona Spain! That's 5,800 miles! He gave me a weak signal report but he was booming into my station. When I thought back when I had first fired up the radio, I thought I heard a conversation in Italian and references to somewhere in Italy so the propagation was excellent in the morning. We are at the bottom of the sun cycle so it’s propagation normally sucks but the position of the sun and stars worked out well for me. I’m pretty stoked about getting Spain. I’m going to email him and confirm. I had perfect signal reports from New Hampshire so the propagation there was awesome as well. The guys in Oregon were blowing me out.

I log contacts in an app on my phone, which means I need to take my glove off to do it. After logging 30 contacts my fingers were pretty numb. I looked to do some summit to summit chasing but I didn’t see any other stations out there that I could reach. Given the conditions of my numb fingers, I decided to pack up. I normally try to get a few contacts with my phone but it was time to leave. I did reach out to my buddy Adam, K6ARK and he came right back.

I was back to the car in under an hour and then headed into the little village to grab something hot to eat and drink. I did some video of the expedition which I will paste below.

Today’s hike was 2.2 miles and 534 feet in elevation gain.

W6/SD-026 - 5764

Association:	USA
Region:	Southern Desert
Lat / Long / Height:	32.928001°N -116.487297°W 1757m / 5764ft
Locator:	DM12sw Show »
Points / Activations:	6 points, activated 18 times
Latest Activation:	Sunday, 2018-12-30 by WA7ER

IAF 32.92434, -116.48201

Contacts

Own Callsign	Date	Time	Summit	Band	Mode	Station Worked	Notes
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	16:57	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	NS7P	OR
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:01	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	KD0MQO	MO
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:01	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	KD1CT	NH
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:02	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	WW7D	WA
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:02	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	W0MNA	KS
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:03	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	EA2LU	Pamplona Spain
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:04	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	K3TCU	PA
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:05	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	W5BOS	TX
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:06	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	K7POW	OR
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:06	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	W7MSX	ID
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:07	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	K6MXA	CA
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:08	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	W0SEB	SD
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:09	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	NW7E	OR
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:10	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	N4EX	NC
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:10	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	W2SE	NJ
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:11	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	VA7VJ	BC Canada
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:11	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	KE0TUI	NE
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:13	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	WD4CFN	TN
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:13	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	N0EVH	MO
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:14	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	W9MRH	IN
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:15	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	VA6FUN	AB Canada
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:15	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	N0MTN	CO
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:16	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	K5DEZ	NM
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:16	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	AA1VX	MA
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:17	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	KG3W	PA
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:18	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	VE1WT	NS
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:18	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	K6RP	CA
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:20	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	NG6R	CA
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:23	W6/SD-026	14MHz	SSB	KI7HLQ	WA
N1CLC	10/Feb/2019	17:35	W6/SD-026	144MHz	FM	K6ARK	CA