First activation of the holiday and a first activation of Ladyface (W6/SC-285).
The walk up was a little bit more of a scramble than we expected but nothing too bad as it was bone dry grippy basalt. We met a really nice person at the bottom of the walk who happened to be a local geocacher (working his way around the hills and climbing this one for the first time also) and he accompanied us to the top.
The summit itself was very pointy with limited space for antennas but the vertical fitted fine.
First four contacts for me and Helen were into the US (thanks guys: N4EX, N6JZT, NS7P and W4ZV) on 18 MHz and then a surprise contact with John (GW4BVE) who was very strong signal. This was quickly followed by MM0USU, DJ5AV, GM0AXY and GM4YMM. Really pleased to work back to Europe.
I finished on 18 MHz with AD4J, W0MNA and W7CNL before making some further “local” contacts on 14 MHz with N6JZT, W7KBF, K0YO, W7RMO, N6KZ, W7CNL, K5ADT and K6JMO.
Propagation was very variable with lots of QSB so sorry if I missed anyone. If anyone could hear us it would be good to know where you were. The weather was reasonably cool with hazy sunshine which soon cleared to strong sunshine and really hot so plenty of sunscreen was used and lots of water drunk.
Equipment used: FT-817, HF Packer amplifier @ 30 W and quarter wave vertical ground mounted for 17/20 metres.
Hopefully we will be up another hill tomorrow early for us late in the afternoon for Europe, Black Hill (W6/SC-378).
It was nice to work you and Helen. I found some pictures of Ladyface, quite rugged. I guess you may have been on one of the crags on top. Your antenna seems to be the greatest! Will look for you as you go up the coast.
Today was a planned trip from Arroyo Grande via Morro Bay to Monterey along what is regarded as the best bit of the Pacific Coast Highway, Route 1. We had visited Pismo beach (a very nice seaside town) the night before for food and set off early this morning to head to Morro Bay and our only planned summit of Black Hill (W6/SC-378). The walk up was very nice with views out to Morro Rock in the bay, an plug from an extinct volcano as was Black Hill.
We were hoping to get the summit cleared quite quickly based on our previous experience the day before where contacts came reasonably easily. As it turned out conditions had deteriorated badly suffering from high levels of QRN masking the weak signals. Helen managed to get her four contacts on 20 metres but this took almost half an hour. I then spent twenty-five minutes to make five contacts. Two of these were regular SOTA chasers (N4EX and WA2USA) and three others who were close to each other in Colorado and New Mexico.
Route 1 is stunning. The road winds its way along the beautiful and picturesque coast with so many stopping points for photos and walks that our trip took twice as long as it could have done. Highlights included: seeing a (quite large) beach packed full of female and juvenile elephant seals; three whales not that far from the coastline as they migrated north; a 30 metre waterfall draining into a turquoise cove on the coast; a hidden beach with waves crashing in to rocks and arches that was a 2 mile drive along a single track road; and a large single-span concrete arched bridge built in 1932.
No summit planned for tomorrow at the moment (although there are some possible summits in the parks in the San Francisco) but maybe the next day north of the city over the Golden Gate bridge,
We got up early and made our way to the old part of Monterey. There we had a brief look at the Fisherman’s wharf and the old cannery district before heading up I-101 towards San Francisco. Realising we were going to make good time a quick SOTA could be done.
San Bruno Mountain (W6/CC-072) was not far from our route and only a few miles from our stop over. We parked below the summit and had a very pleasant 45 minute walk along a flower decorated trail.
The summit has many commercial/private radio masts covering the main summit with warnings of high RF levels! We were going to add to this. We allowed ourselves an hour to get contacts and in the end we managed 8 QSOs in this time with some very loud and others very weak in the QRN and QRM of the summit. HF propagation still seems to be very poor. My W6/G6WRW/P is causing lots of confusion with non-SOTA contacts when the signals are marginal.
Sorry to any that we could not work as signals were up and down with QSB. Hopefully things will improve on our next summit.
On Saturday (4th May) we made our plans for our last activation in California. We had been e-mailing and texting Elliott (K6ILM); who is currently the s2s chaser leader and a local to San Francisco. He was in Scandinavia until the night before so still running on EU time when we arranged to meet up with him early in the morning.
After a good breakfast in our hotel we set off for Mount Davidson (W6/NC-423), the only peak within the San Francisco city limits. This was an easy hill with parking nearly in the activation zone and only a short, but steep, walk to the summit. This summit has a large area of trees covering most of the top with a large cross in the centre (used as a assembly point during Easter festivals). A small clear area with commanding views over downtown is where we set up the antennas.
Elliott set up for CW with a half-wave end-fed for 20m and I set up the quarter-wave 17/20m vertical while Helen went searching for geocaches. Again propagation was generally very poor but 17 metres was still providing reliable contacts in Colorado and Washington state. Helen operated on 20 metres and had a harder time but managed to get the four contacts required. My highlight contact was with a captain of a 737 flying over New Mexico. Elliott managed to get plenty of CW contacts including quite a few summit to summits. We didn’t miss out and succeeded in getting two summits on 20 metres SSB and 2 metres FM.
Elliott was keen to chase his local summit (the main reason he is the leading chaser is that he often works from home and the summit is very close allowing quick assents as soon as spots are seen) and we provided the ideal opportunity. As soon as he had packed away his kit Elliott descended outside GZ with Helen providing the contact.
When we returned to the car he drove us to Twin Peaks a slightly lower hill that has even better views over the city (a few metres higher and it would’ve also been another city enveloped SOTA). Where normally you could see superb views of the Golden Gate bridge we arrived as the sea mists were rolling in from the ocean obscuring the iconic bridge apart from the tops of the towers.
We parted with Elliott at lunch time with the intention of crossing the Golden Gate to activate Mount Talmalpas. Unfortunately the park rangers closed the access road 8 miles away from the summit and were discouraging visitors because of a very high fire risk in the area so we left a little disappointed. We made contact with Elliot on 2m (who was back up on Mount Davidson chasing) and he suggested another summit not far from the bridge and along our route back to the city. Richardson East Benchmark should have been an easy activation but we were back in the sea fog. At the parking spot the hill was obscured by the mist and the wind was howling through the trees on its flanks. The first part of the climb was up steep steps through the trees which were collecting the moisture from the fog turning it into rain which quickly got us quite wet. Clearing the tree line and the wind was far stronger. Following the winding track leading to the towers on the summit it was clear to us if there was no shelter on the top an activation was going to be unpleasant. At the top visibility was down to 50m and the wind was strong. Now I’ve been in these conditions on many Welsh summits (some I’ve even just walked over and not activated) so a quick activation then? Everything was damp, we were wet and not in appropriate clothing and were getting chilled would you believe? I decided I didn’t want to get all our HF kit wet so Helen tried a 2m activation. She called and called and called with no replies. A large conurbation not too far away and no contact. Either no one around or they only talk to friends either way the summit wasn’t activated. Elliott missed out on a s2s he had succumbed to the time difference and had fallen asleep.
We have now left the sea far behind and are now 1 mile (1500m) above sea-level for the next part of our adventure.
