Today’s expedition took me to Hill 1715 for
lack of a name, SOTA designator W6/SC-445.
It’s right next to Monserate so I may have to do a double next year. I
was looking forward to getting on the trail and exercising my legs in
preparations for a few over the 3 day weekend coming up as well as seeing how
my leg performed. I had the stitches
pulled out Monday and they said, “Hmmm, you’ve got a nice infection going on
here.”, so I’ve been on antibiotics.
It’s still tender but fully operational. (See this article to see what happened)
This was going to be a pretty big hike and I
was sort of dreading it. I hiked it last
year and remember the first mile being a sufferfest, super steep, extinct jeep
trail, and covered with tumbleweeds in places
with a total hike of over 4 miles.
I found a route up from the other side using the aqueduct access road. If I couldn’t get into this area, I’d have to
take the original route up and just deal with it.
I was out of the house by 7AM, but wanted to
leave earlier due to the heat. I was
able to use the west side and this trip
was a hell of a lot easier. The new
route brings the total hike to under 3 miles.
However, I managed to hike 3.2 miles by walking right by a turn that I
was supposed to take, and having to double back. I realized my mistake when I spotted a vent
that looked familiar from last’s years hike.... Hmmm. A quick look at the chart on the phone
confirmed I missed the turn. The last
few tenths are the steepest part but not bad.
Setup this year was easier. I remember it was blowing very hard last year
but this trip the winds were calm.
After setup, I went to work on the radio and
quickly activated this summit. After finishing
on 20 meter, I started looking for other SOTA operators to “chase”. I may have bagged a guy in Bulgaria using
CW. I
emailed him to find out. If this
is true, it will be my longest summit-to-summit and give me a total of 7 S2S
for the day. In total I had 17 contacts.
It was pretty hot when I bugged out and Sulu
was ready to go home. When I got back to
the car it was 91F, but it felt like
89 :).
I highly recommend you take the green route as shown on AllTrails. It was a lot easier, and if it had been
cooler, I might have been able to get a double by hiking up to Monserate after
a quick drive over to the main trailhead.
I didn’t need it though, I’ve don’t Monserate this year.
It was a clear day, I didn’t fall and impale
myself on a tree branch and my wheel (leg) seemed to be operating fine. Summary, good SOTA day.
Contacts
Own
Callsign
|
Date
|
Time
|
Summit
|
Band
|
Mode
|
Station
Worked
|
Notes
|
N1CLC
|
25/Aug/2019
|
15:50
|
W6/SC-445
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
VE6AGR
|
|
N1CLC
|
25/Aug/2019
|
15:51
|
W6/SC-445
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
AE7AP
|
|
N1CLC
|
25/Aug/2019
|
15:52
|
W6/SC-445
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
W0MNA
|
|
N1CLC
|
25/Aug/2019
|
15:53
|
W6/SC-445
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
KE9AJ
|
|
N1CLC
|
25/Aug/2019
|
15:54
|
W6/SC-445
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
NW7E
|
|
N1CLC
|
25/Aug/2019
|
15:54
|
W6/SC-445
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
N4EX
|
|
N1CLC
|
25/Aug/2019
|
15:55
|
W6/SC-445
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
W1YY
|
|
N1CLC
|
25/Aug/2019
|
15:57
|
W6/SC-445
|
7MHz
|
CW
|
LZ1GJ???
|
S2S???
|
N1CLC
|
25/Aug/2019
|
16:11
|
W6/SC-445
|
10MHz
|
CW
|
KI4SVM
|
S2S
|
N1CLC
|
25/Aug/2019
|
16:26
|
W6/SC-445
|
10MHz
|
CW
|
WA2USA
|
S2S
|
N1CLC
|
25/Aug/2019
|
16:31
|
W6/SC-445
|
7MHz
|
SSB
|
W7BET
|
S2S
|
N1CLC
|
25/Aug/2019
|
16:39
|
W6/SC-445
|
7MHz
|
SSB
|
K6YK
|
|
N1CLC
|
25/Aug/2019
|
16:40
|
W6/SC-445
|
7MHz
|
SSB
|
K6EL
|
|
N1CLC
|
25/Aug/2019
|
16:40
|
W6/SC-445
|
7MHz
|
SSB
|
KR7RK
|
|
N1CLC
|
25/Aug/2019
|
16:41
|
W6/SC-445
|
7MHz
|
CW
|
KX0R
|
S2S
|
N1CLC
|
25/Aug/2019
|
16:52
|
W6/SC-445
|
14MHz
|
SSB
|
KI4SVM
|
S2S
|
N1CLC
|
25/Aug/2019
|
16:56
|
W6/SC-445
|
14MHz
|
CW
|
AC7P
|
S2S
|
Loadout for the multiple summits:
● First aid kit. Make sure it’s a good one... like ability to
patch up an impalement wound. ● CHA MPAS with spike and
additional MIL mast (and version 2 of the top section)
●
30’ of coax feed line
● 3 L of water (8
lb)
● iPhone with All
Trails, MotionX GPS and sota goat
● Trekking poles
●
Extra LiFePO Battery
● AnyTone AT-868UV DMR radio for testing.
● Custom wine bottle cork paddles for CW
(crafted by K6ARK)
● American
Morse Porta Paddle for CW
●
Delorme Inreach satellite tracker and communicator.
●
JetBoil for the hot tea :)
73,
N1CLC
Christian Claborne
(aka Chris Claborne)
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