Covid-19 and SOTA

Finally I got Covid-19. It is good and bad. “What can be good?” - you may ask.
Well, first of all I may develop some immunity and may not get Covid-19 in the near future.
Second - I have some sick leave from my work.
In general, I shall be self-isolated for at least 5 days. Self-isolation does not mean that I shell stay in my room like in the jail. It can be very boring, if Covid-19 illness is mild or medium severity. So, I decided to make some SOTA activation during my Covid-19 time. It was my personal decision, and it may not be right for you, considering your health, your country regulation, and other factors.
I carefully planned my SOTA activations.
First of all, I measured my blood oxygen saturation. It was 99% which is ery good.
Secondly, I choose SOTA summits with driving time less than 1 hours and hiking distance 1-2 miles (1,5-3 km), not crowded, with wide hiking trail or road that allow to maintain social distance.
What were benefits hiking during Covid-19? I am not a doctor, but I see many benefits:

  1. There are UV rays outdoor. UV kills viruses.
  2. Sunshine helps to develop vitamin D which improves immune system.
    3.Moderate exercises also stimulate immune system and remove some bad components from your body.
  3. Going outside from your room reduces risk to get infected to people who live together in the same house.

What is the risk of spreading infection during hiking and SOTA activation? Usually risk is very low, and most people get Covid-19 indoor - at work, school, etc.

During my Covid-19 time I already activated 3 summits in Southern California around San Diego - Monserate Mtn W6/CT-235, Sycuan Peak W6/SC-203 and Black Mtn W6/SC-338. I did not meet many people on those trails, I were mask when passed people and I even considered wind direction to decide on which side of road/trail to pass people.
After each activation I noticed improvement of my health conditions. However, this is just my personal experience and everybody should make a careful judgement, using common sense and taking into the consideration a lot of factors.

73! Oleh
KD7WPJ

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Hello Oleh,

I worked you S2S yesterday! Thanks for going out!

The weekend Ireached 996 points, with option to go to another summit and get MG, I got Covid, sick on Tuesday. Other than the first 2 days very mild. But my OM was isolating from me so I had to put MG on hold until negative. I really wanted him and possibly others to come with me for MG. In the meantime i did morel mushroom hunting, making sure to leave my radio at home so i wasn’t tempted to just do it!

It took me a full 2 weeks to officially be negative and not contagious despite feeling pretty good for all but the first 5 or 6 days.

Good luck and heal up!

Amy/AG7GP

I suppose the argument against would be if you need to visit a petrol station or risk of accident/breakdown that would expose others to possible infection. But it sounds like you’ve planned explicitly to eliminate, or at least significantly reduce such probabilities.

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