Kel and I hiked up W6/CT-146, Hoyt Mountain. This is worth 4 points for SOTA folks. Parking is just off Highway 2, at Grizzly Flat Trailhead. Once you’re there, follow the big fire road. Stay to the right at the split by the old water tank base. Eventually, the road kinda just stops under the high tension power lines at the top. It took a bit of time to find, but here is a narrow, somewhat overgrown trail right in the middle of the hill which goes up to the summit. Further up, the trail gets better and more defined. This bit was somewhat challenging for me, and presents you with a few false summits.
I started out working 2M FM thinking someone could spot me on SOTAWatch. To my surprise, I could only get a single station! I’m generally able to get tons of 2M contacts, but this was a holiday weekend so….. I setup my HF station – Yaesu 817 into a resonant vertical antenna cut for 20M, supported by a squid pole. While doing this, I figured out how to self spot using the APRS-> SOTA gateway. After getting a message back from the system informing me I was spotted, I started calling out on 14.340Mhz, where I was immediately picked up by W0MNA in Kansas, followed by ZL2IFB in New Zealand, my first QRP/ SOTA DX station. 🙂 I made several more contacts, noticed the time and started packing down the station when I found the radio was configured to transmit at 2.5 watts. No wonder I was getting 44~47 signal reports. The hike down is the reverse of the way up. Overall, this is a fun hike.
https://summits.sota.org.uk/summit/W6/CT-146
Date:30/Nov/2019 Summit:W6/CT-146 (Hoyt Mountain)
Time | Call | Band | Mode | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
09:55z | AI6SP | 144MHz | FM | |
10:15z | W0MNA | 14MHz | SSB | |
10:17z | ZL2IFB | 14MHz | SSB | |
10:18z | WU7H | 14MHz | SSB | |
10:19z | W0ERI | 14MHz | SSB | |
10:20z | N4EX | 14MHz | SSB | |
10:21z | N5HA | 14MHz | SSB | |
10:22z | K6LDQ | 14MHz | SSB | |
10:25z | K5SVV | 14MHz | SSB | |
10:28z | KI6EAB | 14MHz | SSB |
Max elevation: 4409 ft
Min elevation: 2969 ft
Total climbing: 1814 ft
Average speed: 0.00 m/s



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