I spent the weekend camping in the area and planned 4 or 5 summits to hike while I was out there. It took me some time to actually leave the house, so by the time I got to the desert it was much later than I would have liked. As such, I started my SOTA day with the easiest one – Government Peak. This is basically a drive up, however, I took many wrong turns on the maze of roads. Recent rains washed out a chunk of one such road and my rear tire fell into the resulting hole, and with an open differential the tire just spun. I needed 4wd to get out. Not far from where I got stuck, I stopped the truck and hiked the remainder of the road up. You could drive straight to the top, but I was in the vehicle for a few hours already and wanted to stretch out a bit.

The top is a narrow ridge with a few communication equipment shelters and some towers. I couldn’t locate a benchmark, but perhaps it was behind a fence. I stretched out an EFHW antenna and leaned my mast on an unused utility pole to support the wire. Worked 7m and 14m CW; didn’t bother with 2m FM on this one. Wanting to get one more summit in before it got dark, I packed up the equipment and headed to the paved road. This would be a good one to do in the summer as you get 3 extra bonus points and the risk of environmental exposure can be reduced by driving to the top.

https://sotl.as/summits/W6/ND-224

Download file: Government_Peak.gpx

Date:16/02/2024 |  Summit:W6/ND-224 (Government Peak)

Time	Callsign	Band	Mode	Notes
22:04	WB6POT	7MHz	CW	S58N R57N
22:05	N7AMA	7MHz	CW	S55N R57N
22:07	N6WT	7MHz	CW	S52N R599 S2S W6/SC-357
22:07	NT6E	7MHz	CW	S58N R57N
22:09	W7SKH	7MHz	CW	S44N R22N
22:10	W6LEN	7MHz	CW	S44N R599
22:11	W6KME	7MHz	CW	S599 R599
22:20	K7EFW	14MHz	CW	S55N R55N
22:20	NR7Y	14MHz	CW	S52N R55N
22:21	N7EDK	14MHz	CW	S44N R55N
22:23	WU7H	14MHz	CW	S57N R55N
22:24	AD0WB	14MHz	CW	S55N R33N
22:25	NT2A	14MHz	CW	S52N R33N
22:26	W7SKH	14MHz	CW	S55N R55N
22:27	W5ODS	14MHz	CW	S55N R55N
22:28	W7CBR	14MHz	CW	S57N R5NN
22:28	K5EM	14MHz	CW	S55N R55N