Summits On The Air

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GrizzlyGuy
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Re: Summits On The Air

Postby GrizzlyGuy » Thu Dec 29, 2011 9:20 pm

Ah, my bad for not being clear. Todd (KH2TJ) was at home down in Portola. He has activated 7 summits in the past and is currently #5 on the CA SOTA honor roll, but wasn't on a mountain at that time. I think he just saw the activation alert I posted the night before (or the spot) and stopped by the frequency to give me another contact. He occasionally comes to our Friday morning ham-group coffee gatherings here in Truckee.

I posted to the SOTA group about my trip and Todd said that the radome in my photos is the NOAA weather radar, and that the winds had got so bad a couple years ago that the radome was DESTROYED! I guess that's why it looks so shiny-new in my photos. And yeah, I was cowering up against the equipment building so as to use it as a wind break. It was perfect as the wind was howling from the west and I was leaning up against the east side of the building, enjoying the warm sunshine and nice view with virtually no wind, while it was blowing 40 just a few feet away. Score! :D

I had no issue with RF from the other transmitters because I think they are all up in the VHF/UHF/microwave bands rather than HF. That wasn't the case on Santorini back in 2000 with the same equipment. The shortwave broadcasters in Europe were killing me on 40m and the band was completely unusable even though there was no transmitter located on my island. The rest of the bands were fine.

I was kicking around the idea of doing another activation on Saturday if the winds aren't too bad. One possibility is Granite Hills, the ridge that Ken and I rode up and over on the way out to Moonrocks. ATV's required for that one although it would be a real short ride of maybe just a few miles. The other would be McClellan Peak on the other side of Carson City. SOTA calls it Mount Scott, but it's a hang glider launch that we've always called call McClellan. No ATVs needed for that one, an easy dirt road goes to the top. The problem with both of these locations is that there is nothing to shelter you from the wind. I know it howls up at McClellan (people hardly fly it anymore because of that), and I imagine the winds can be big on Granite Hills too.

Hopefully the W6 area manager will add the new summits I've requested to the database and we'll have a lot more options that are closer by (like Signal Peak) by next summer. I operated field day solo from Sardine Peak several years back (rode up on the Grizzly and camped) and it worked out OK, made over 300 QSO's. So that's definitely a possibility although I wouldn't want to hike the gigantamous 110 AHr battery that I used up to any summits! A few hours on the air with a tiny KX3 running on internal AA's is more my style. Speaking of KX3's... see what I posted here, Elecraft is now taking orders: :D

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GrizzlyGuy
Forever On The trail - RIP
Posts: 1411
Joined: Sun Jul 08, 2007 6:11 pm
Location: Truckee, CA
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Re: Summits On The Air

Postby GrizzlyGuy » Thu Dec 29, 2011 9:43 pm

Oh yeah, there's also Warm Springs Mountain out in the Moonrocks area (where I thought I might ride to if I had time yesterday) and also Dixie Mountain up by Frenchman Lake. No idea if you can get up there this time of year but Dixie is worth 8 points all by itself without the winter bonus. It's only 8200 (lower than Virginia Peak at 6 points) so I guess the CA association gives out higher points than NV(?). Warm Springs Mtn and Granite Hills are only worth 2 points, and Mt. Scott (McClellan) is worth 4 points.

Of course after Sat at 4 PM (midnight UTC) when we go into 2012, you can claim points for all the same peaks that you activated before. Hello Peavine my old friend... :)

Check that SOTAPeaksGPX file I sent you, there might be other options as well.
TV For Thrill Seekers: http://AdventureWorld.TV
More Videos: http://GrizzlyGuy.TV
Some More Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/ATVGrizzlyGuy
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My quad: Grizzly 700, 25" Bighorns, Bash Plates,
Warn 2500 Winch


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