2020-04-05 W6/SC-365 (Rancho Sante Fe)

I needed to get out of the house for a quick hike since we have rain in the forecast all next week.  The trip was also an effort to undo the taste in my mouth from the frustrating time yesterday.  I went up to a little known area in Rancho Sante Fe.  It’s a short hike but pretty if you take the route that wraps around a mountain.  I didn’t see anyone all morning but did run into a couple with their kids out on a hike on the way back.  I also saw a couple of others out on the trail.  So in summary, I was in quarantine, with big separation,and only a radio to communicate with.  The best part was the view from my operating position.  I sat in my little chair looking at a small mountain in front of me and worked 40 other stations, many of them summit-to-summit (S2S) contacts.
(click on images for larger)

I was about 10 minutes from the summit when I got an alert on my phone (hamalert.com) that WG0AT was “spotted” up on Mt. Hermon, CO.  It seems like it’s his back yard and I wonder where he spends most of his waking hours, Mt. Hermon or at home.  Steve is a really cool guy and he’s chased me and I’ve chased him.  He was also the inspiration for me to do this SOTA thing.  Today was my turn to chase Steve.  I chased a couple of other operators on summits as well.  One of them was KX0R, who is a prolific S2S chaser but today, it was my turn to chase him for a S2S.  He was on a Colorado summit close to noon much of last week and I successfully chased him from home a few times.

No hangover today so my morse code (we call it CW) was a bit better.  One thing I noticed, I really need to practice sending my numbers.  I had a lot of issues yesterday with people calling CQ on top of me or tuning up on frequency (they send a loud solid tone over the frequency to adjust their antenna connection).  It can be very frustrating.  SOTAGoat app wasn’t working correctly either.  To make matters worse, I found out this morning that I left the plastic cover for the KX2 on the mountain yesterday. 

The biggest issue I had today was working down the pileup of chasers trying to contact me.  They were hungry, no, ravenous.  It’s really hard to get a letter out of at-least one of the calling stations.  Once you do that, you can call out with the starting letter and a “?”.  If there’s multiple callers with a starting letter of something like “W”, I try to get the second digit of their call and then send something like “W6?”. 

I worked a lot of the same chasers as on previous outings but this is probably the most CW stations I’ve worked in one sitting.  Some of them were buds from the slack group and of course, my friend Adam, K6ARK, and Jake, W6RWS who are my San Diego homies. 

The weather was perfect for hiking, with a solid overcast and a small breeze.  Today was the sort of hike that I’ve been wanting this week.  Things went smoothly and it was relaxing.  I think if I skip the coffee in the morning, my CW might be better.  I’m looking forward to next week and I think I need to start working on my head copy abilities.

Contacts

Date:05/04/2020 | Summit:W6/SC-365 (1109) | Call Used:N1CLC | Points: 1 

Time	Callsign	Band	Mode	Notes
16:56	WG0AT	7MHz	CW
16:57	WU7H	7MHz	CW
16:58	K8TE	7MHz	CW
17:04	K6KM	7MHz	CW
17:05	NU7Y	7MHz	CW
17:06	K6HPX	7MHz	CW
17:07	WA9STI	7MHz	CW
17:09	KD7WPJ	7MHz	CW
17:10	WA6KYR	7MHz	CW
17:11	NK6A	7MHz	CW
17:12	NG6R	7MHz	CW
17:14	WW7D	7MHz	CW
17:14	K6ARK	7MHz	CW
17:16	K6HPX	7MHz	CW
17:18	W7RV	7MHz	CW
17:18	NQ7R	7MHz	CW
17:19	K6QCB	7MHz	CW
17:20	WC6J	7MHz	CW
17:24	W6JP	7MHz	CW
17:24	K6DMR	7MHz	CW
17:27	W6RWS	7MHz	CW
17:29	KH2TJ	7MHz	CW
17:31	KX0R	7MHz	CW
17:38	VE7JH	10MHz	CW
17:45	K5DEZ	10MHz	CW
17:49	K6MXA	14MHz	SSB
17:52	VE7JBT	14MHz	CW
17:54	W0MNA	14MHz	CW
17:55	W0ERI	14MHz	CW
17:56	K0BWR	14MHz	CW
17:57	WB7BWZ	14MHz	CW
18:00	K4MF	14MHz	CW
18:02	NS7P	14MHz	CW
18:02	W5ODS	14MHz	CW
18:03	WB7VTY	14MHz	CW
18:05	WN4AT	14MHz	CW
18:06	EA7GV	14MHz	CW
18:08	VE7HI	14MHz	CW
18:08	KI4SVM	14MHz	CW
18:12	WB5USB	14MHz	CW

Loadout:

●      GoPro Hero8

●      Gregory Zulu 40 backpack

●      First aid kit.  Make sure it’s a good one... like ability to patch up an impalement wound. 

●      Elecraft KX2 10 watt HF Radio

●      The K6ARK Spider Thread Antenna

●   30’ of coax feed line (not needed

●      Slim Jim dual band antenna for my HT.

●      3 L of water (8 lb)

●      iPhone with All Trails, MotionX GPS and sota goat

●      Trekking poles (not today)

●     LNR End Fed multi-band antenna

●   SOTAbeams Tactical 7000hds Compact Heavy-Duty Telescopic Mast TAC7000HDS

●    MFJ MFJ-1714 144 MHz 1/2 Wavelength Antenna for my HT

●   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 MicroMo cooking system (left at the car this trip)

●      Yaesu FT-2DR HT (backup left in the car)

●     Packtenna. (did not take)

●      CHA MPAS with spike and additional MIL mast (and version 2 of the top section) (left in car)

●      Yaesu FT-891D HF Radio at 100 watts  (left this in the car :) )

●     Extra LiFePO Battery (not needed)

●     Helinox Chair Zero Ultralight Compact Camping Chair.

73,

N1CLC

Christian Claborne

(aka chris claborne