N1CLC: 2018-04-07 Black Mountain (The other one)

Today was a quick activation to W6/CT-157 - Black Mountain. We dropped Maria, our exchange student from Spain, at the the school to catch the bus to LA with the rest of the students as they head home. When I got back, I loaded up and headed out for a quick activation to a spot I’ve never been.

The drive to the IAF was pretty. Like I’ve said before, one of the things that I like about this hobby is that it pulls me into areas around here that I would never have reason to go. The mountain is behind Ramona I passed some small wineries, orchards, and some little ranches. The area was green, most likely due to the recent rains.

The route to the summit was an old truck trail of about 7 miles. Since it was possible by truck and I was in my new Highlander, I decided to give it a shot, I’ll be hiking 8 miles tomorrow so I welcomed the drive up today. The road for the most part was pretty good. I turned on the all-wheel-drive, mainly to keep my tires from slipping and tearing them up. Any SUV, truck could do this with 2-wheel-drive. It was a bit narly and given the number of rocks and humps that you go over, most city would high center.

This part of the country is very screwball. The trip up was a mixture of chaparral and desert, then turned into more midland wet and semi-lush, with the top being rocky chaparral and then a cluster of about 30 pines. You never know what you are going to get in this part of the country. I parked at the top and could see the little high ground that had repeater equipment on it. I’m guessing by the signage it was forrest service.

Setup was simple today and I decided to try 20 meter first and then switch to 40 and give it a try. My first contact was a bit rocky. I could barely hear the guy and it sounded like he was off frequency. After a few minutes of futzing with the radio, I saw that I had it set to “AM” rather than “SSB”. A quick change and I was off to the races.

There was a lot of interference and the band just didn’t seem that busy today. After I collected several contacts on 20, I camped out on 7.270 MHZ and picked up a few more. The wind was picking up and it looked like it might push some rain onto the mountain. When I was done packing up, the threat of rain dissipated and it was very pretty. The temp was nice due to the stattered to overcast cloud conditions and wind.

I was inspired to shoot a little more video this trip after watching some other guys do this hobby on YouTube, but I realize what I’ve always known, post processing is more intense. Not sure I’ll stick with it since I spend a little more time blogging rather than blabbing. :)

Stats:

W6/CT-157 - Black Mountain

Association:

USA

Region:

Transverse Ranges

Lat / Long / Height:

33.1599°N -116.8082°W 1235m / 4051ft

Locator:

DM13od Show »

Points / Activations:

4 points, activated 10 times

Latest Activation:

2017-12-31 by N6PG

IAF

33.14042, -116.85005

Miles: 14 drive, .5 hike
Cellular Data: AT&T YesAPRS: Yes

Contacts

Call Sign	Comments
K7EEX	OR
AE7AP	MT
K7WE	OH
KD0YOB	MN
VA2MO	QC Canada
KG3W	PA
K8HU	VA
VA6FUN	Alberta Canada
NG6R	CA
VE2JCW	QC Canada
N1RCQ	NH
WD4CFN	TN
W7CNL	ID
W2SE	NJ
N4EX	NC
W6JMP	CA
AB6SO	CA
N6DNM	CA
NW7E	OR
WW7D	WA