November 10th, 2019. This was a quick activation. I cycled up to the top, made 10 contacts, and was back at the starting point within an hour. Getting to the actual summit is impossible as there is a fence to keep folks out of the antenna area. I didn’t bother setting up the HF station, so I just worked local 146.520 Mhz, 2M FM using the Yaesu 817. RF levels felt high, as my HT was struggling to pull signals from the Mount Wilson repeater which is line of sight to this point. Furthest contact goes to WB2WIK, who was near the Ventura County line.

https://summits.sota.org.uk/summit/W6/CT-225

(Update 05-09-2022 – a server migration, plugin and php update revealed the timestamps on this .gpx file are broken. I’ve added fake times so this page renders correctly)

Date:10/Nov/2019 Summit:W6/CT-225 (Flint Peak) 

November 9th, 2019 – This was the second summit of the day with Lars, KJ6CBE. The hike up, and down from this point was uncomfortable for me with loose sand and rocks most of the way. The trail starts very steep, then follows the ridge line (also steep) up to a false summit where it flattens out for a bit. Continue along the trail to reach the real summit. I worked 40M, and 20M SSB. Lars worked 2M FM. The radial system on my vertical antenna broke, leaving me with higher SWR than I wanted on 20M. Still made a contacts. Not bad for 5W at solar minimum.

https://summits.sota.org.uk/summit/W6/CT-150

Date:09/Nov/2019 Summit:W6/CT-150

Edit – 010325 -I’ve removed the gpx map from this post as it was crashing the page. I’ll add a new one in the future.

November 9th, 2019. I like this summit. I’ve been up to this location before, not knowing about SOTA. It’s a pretty easy hike with rewarding views. The original fire lookout tower was destroyed in the 2009 Station Fire. 10 years later, they are constructing a new lookout. Lars, KJ6CBE worked 146.520 FM and I worked 20M SSB. My furthest QSO was W4KRN in Virginia. Thanks!

https://summits.sota.org.uk/summit/W6/CT-021

Date:09/Nov/2019 Summit:W6/CT-021 (Vetter Mountain) 

Edit 010325 – I’ve removed the gpx file for this post as it was causing problems. I’ll add a new map sometime in the future.