N1CLC: 2020-04-04 San Marcos Mtn.

This Saturday my objective was to find another hike that didn’t have many people on it. San Marcos seemed like a good bet, and it was. There were very few people in the area and we gave each other plenty of room (for the 4 people that I did see).

I wanted to try SSB phone today since I haven’t worked any stations that way with the KX2 in a while. It was tough finding a quiet frequency to setup because there was a small contest going on and a lot of hams on the air. Just about the time I thought I found a spot, someone would camp on top of me. I did eventually find a spot and spotted myself on sotawatch.org.

Gary, W0MNA, was my first SSB contact. He’s always locked and loaded. I got another contact but that was it. I decided to switch to CW and butcher some code for a while. I had a tough time there as well.

I was just starting to work ZL1BYZ when someone tuned up on frequency, drowning him out. Very frustrating. I got most of his call and was pretty sure it was him but had to send him a few ? marks to make sure. A little while later, someone just started calling CQ on top of me. I tried to hail them but they weren’t going to move. I didn’t bother long with that and just moved. I did get Martha, Gary’s wife on CW, so Gary on SSB, and Marth on CW.

It was a weird day on the mountain. My CW devolved a bit, but then started to get better as I worked more stations. I still had a headache from the personal party I threw myself from last night so that probably had a lot to do with it. In fact, it probably had a lot to do with the frustration. But in addition, SOTA Goat, my summit app wouldn’t let me spot so I goofed around with the web app and spotted myself a couple of times. Today did bring a first however. I had someone call me from Cabo San Lucas on CW, a first. He came in really strong.

I’d done this hike before but today, I took a different route down off the mountain. It was very pleasurable and it dropped me off within 60 feet of the other trail going up. See my route HERE.

The day was a success, with 27 contacts in the log even though it was frustrating.

Contacts

d:N1CLC | Points: 1 | Bonus: 0 |

Time	Callsign	Band	Mode	Notes
19:50	W0MNA	14MHz	SSB
20:06	KC6ARY	14MHz	SSB
20:10	WU7H	14MHz	CW
20:21	ZL1BYZ	14MHz	CW
20:26	K6ARK	14MHz	CW
20:31	KI6KU	14MHz	CW
20:32	AC7P	14MHz	CW
20:34	VE7EA	14MHz	CW
20:36	W0ERI	14MHz	CW
20:37	N1AW	14MHz	CW
20:38	K6QCB	14MHz	CW
20:40	W4KRN	14MHz	CW
20:41	KK6I	14MHz	CW
20:43	W6RWS	14MHz	CW
20:44	AC1Z	14MHz	CW
20:47	XE2IF	14MHz	CW
20:49	WA6KYR	14MHz	CW
20:54	W7RV	14MHz	CW
20:55	KE6MT	14MHz	CW
20:56	K6KM	14MHz	CW
20:57	NQ7R	14MHz	CW
20:57	NG6R	14MHz	CW
20:59	K6YK	14MHz	CW
20:59	W7USA	14MHz	CW
21:00	KR7RK	14MHz	CW
21:01	K5DEZ	14MHz	CW
21:35	WW7D	14MHz	CW