W6/ND-289 – Wells Benchmark

A few times a year I camp with a group on a dry lakebed near the edge of Fort Irwin, and while I was aware of opportunities for SOTA in the area, I never activated – until Wells Benchmark. This summit is easy to find, located right off Copper City Road In addition, the hike up was easy, only taking 20 minutes or so. What made this activation difficult for me was the wind, which was extremely strong and relentless. I was able to get my antenna up and thankfully nothing got destroyed. Worked 40, 30, and 20M but didn’t make a ton of QSOs. I hiked down basically the same way. Back at the truck, I had a light breakfast and made my way over to an unactivated summit which turned out to be just on the other side of the Fort Irwin boundary fence, thus, no access.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/ND-289

Total distance: 1.53 mi
Max elevation: 3913 ft
Total climbing: 1052 ft
Total time: 02:11:59
Download file: W6_ND_289.gpx

Date:06/05/2023 |  Summit:W6/ND-289 (Wells Benchmark) 

TimeCallsignBandModeNotes
16:03WB6POT7MHzCWS599 R599
16:05KT0A7MHzCWS33N R33N S2S W0D/BB-029
16:07K7EFW7MHzCWS33N R55N S2S W7O/NC-056
16:08KR7RK7MHzCWS56N R53N
16:10KN60MN7MHzCWS57N R53N
16:23KT5X10MHzCWS57N R57N
16:25K5DEZ10MHzCWS33N R53N S2S W5N/SE-029
16:29KX0R10MHzCWS35N R55N S2S W0C/PR-148
16:42AK5SD14MHzCWS52N R51N
16:46K0LAF14MHzCWS32N R32N
16:47KF9D14MHzCWS33N R33
16:49N0DET14MHzCWS44N R44N

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