My graduate lab took a group retreat to the South Lake Tahoe area and the festivities included snowshoeing. We didn’t have a destination in mind, so I suggested why not go up a nearby peak and bring the radio along? We ended up at Carson Pass where we had easy access to Red Lake Peak (10063 feet!), which has the distinction of being the subject of the first recorded ascent of a peak in the Sierras. The ever-present Lt. John C. Fremont was involved, and from the summit he first spotted Lake Tahoe.
Our expedition was ultimately not so successful. It was relatively easy snowshoeing up the first 2000 feet, after which four of us broke off from the main group to take a stab at the remaining 1000 feet. After about 500 more feet of climing, we reached a lower summit. Up here winds were over 40 mph, which made the final summit approach along an exposed ridge much less appealing. On top of that, the prospect of eventually putting up a fiberglass mast without it sailing away was daunting. We decided to huddle behind a boulder to escape the winds, eat a few Nilla wafers, and then mosey on back.
The group at about 9000 feet!
Looking back at Carson Pass.
The summit looms. We made it to the rock on the left peak.
Falling over to the 40+ mph winds at the top.
Bailing! The wind made it quite hard to get down the first 500 feet…
Lessons learned:
Snowshoes are amazing!
Wind is… a force of nature
John C. Fremont’s been everywhere, man
We’ll have to return to conquer this peak another time. 3/4 of the successful SOTA activations were done during the summertime, so a change in timing may make things easier.
Another weekend, another SOTA activation. This time I went up to Robert Louis Stevenson State Park to scale Mount St. Helena. It was a long and somehwat boring hike, with lots of meandering switchbacks spreading 2000 feet of elevation gain over 5 miles or so.
At the trailhead.
About 1 mile into the hike, the trail opens up into a fire trail.
Bubble wall.
The pole held up despite the low guying.
The acrylic guy ring.
I got to try out my new 31 foot fiberglass antenna mast, which held my end fed up well. I laser-cut a piece of acrylic to use as a guy ring and it worked well, though I think I was guying the pole a bit too low to the ground to be super effective and there were some frightening wobbles accompanying the stiffer breezes. I could probably improve the setup by staking the center of the mast, but all in all this wasn’t too bad for the first field test!
Lots of folks called in this time and the activation was very fast. Good thing, because it was rather cold and windy at the summit. Thanks to all the chasers!
On February 11, I returned to Kennedy Grove Park for my first hike for the East Bay Trails Challenge to get to know the regional parks a bit better. Of course, the radio came along so my group could make a SOTA excursion to Abrott Benchmark (here’s the first time I went with KJ6GLR’s company).
After one week of solid rain, this Saturday was a beautiful day with clear skies and a great time to return to this peak! Overflow from the reservoir was pouring down a spillway and the trail was quite muddy in places. The hills were a beautiful green this time around.
Our East Bay Trails Challenge started on the Laurel Loop Trail. We then went up the eastern Lower Sea Foam Trail to the Upper Sea Foam Trail to the Black Oak Loop Trail. We then came back down on the Kennedy Creek Trail to finish the loop.
In order to get to Abrott Benchmark, we had to do a little bit of backtracking. This time we took the north leg of the Lower Sea Foam Trail and turned onto Upper Sea Foam Trail, but once we reached the high point on Upper Sea Foam Trail, we broke towards a fire trail on the east edge of the park that heads toward the peak. There’s a green swing near the entrance to the fire trail. You have to cross a fence to get to the trail, walking along a bit of grass in between. Take the fire trail to your left and you’ll make your way to the meandering fire trail that eventually takes you to the benchmark.
When you approach this structure, you are near the high point on Upper Sea Foam.
Here’s the swing near the fence to get to the fire trail.
After going over the fence, you’ll see this fire trail (you have to walk through a bit of grass to get to it). Take a left to get to the summit trail.
The tree cover will drop after a bit, leaving you to see the path meander along the rolling hills.
The final summit approach is shown to the west.
Enjoying the sights.
There’s the Benchmark!
Reservoir nice and full from all that rain!
Slug life.
I also experimented with APRS location reporting. Nearly all the packets that I sent while on the Black Oak Loop were lost to the ether, but I managed to get a halfway decent track towards the peak. I was able to spot myself with the APRS2SOTA service, so everything was done on RF this trip.
The contacts went by quickly, and I got a number of summit-to-summits this time. Of particular note was KE6MT who was just across the bay on Richardson East Benchmark, which I had activated a few months ago. It must have been a wonderful view that day! Thanks to all the chasers!
Another year, another trip to Vollmer Peak. Today (Jan 29) I took the KX2 with an MFJ-1899T whip to try a pedestrian mobile-style activation. Since it was a Sunday afternoon, the steam trains were running and made a nice background noise for the hike. My sideband signals seemed to make it out, reaching AC1Z in NH and AA0BV on Mount Caroline Livermore on Angel Island. For the rest, I had to crack out the CW paddle. W0MNA and W0ERI were quick to respond, as always. After a few more contacts, it was time to call it a day.
I was very lucky to receive a KX2 recently as a gift from KK6MRI. I took the radio out on January 14 to two peaks for its maiden voyage: Mount Diablo and North Peak, and it was a joy to use. After this pair of activations, I made it to the milestone of 25 activator points. Slow and steady progress…
When we arrived at the summit parking lot for Diablo, it was still a bit early (just after 9 am) and we were not prepared for the cold, windy weather! We huddled in a small patch of woods on the summit trail near the parking lot to set up and stay out of the wind. I slacked a bit on finding a good spot for the antenna, so there were some difficulties getting out, but I did manage the four required QSOs.
The view from the observation tower on the summit of Mount Diablo
The patch of trees that we used to hide from the wind
Getting used to the KX2
A lot of folks biking up to the summit today
The view of North Peak from Mt. Diablo
The summit museum has a nifty scale model of the two peaks and the surrounding area
The hike to Black Point was about 5 miles round trip from the Mt. Diablo summit lot, and the last little bit to the summit of North Peak was very steep. The surrounding area was beautifully green due to the large amount of rainfall this winter. It had warmed up substantially by the time we got to the summit, so we stuck around for an hour, racking up 18 QSOs, which is a new high for me. I learned that my pileup-managing skills on CW (and my CW copy in general) could use work, and the increased activity from the North American QSO Party did not help, but fortunately the chasers were patient.
Embarking on the North Peak trail
Along the ridge
Looking back at Mt. Diablo
The end fed on the summit
Looking out on Diablo during the activation
Ladybug’s shell on the summit
A bounty of contact on North Peak!
Thanks to all the chasers! Special shout-out to WBØUSI, WØMNA, and WØERI for catching me on both peaks this time. Looking forward to more activations this year!
This post was originally written in December 2016. I returned to activate again in May 2025. Scroll to the bottom for the update!
I was in Cincinnati, Ohio on Christmas Eve’s Eve and decided to get in one more SOTA activation in Ohio. Even though Cincinnati itself is quite hilly, nearly the entire state north of the city was pressed flat by large glaciers during the last ice age. As a result, the majority of Ohio does not have much in the way of dramatic topography. In spite of these crushing efforts, the high point of Hamilton County is still about 12 km north of downtown Cincinnati near the neighborhood of Mount Airy, and is worth one activator point.
There are a number of radio antennas that take advantage of the region’s prominence, many of which are seated on top of a castlelike pair of water tanks nearby. A church parking lot next to the water pumping facility was within the activation zone, so I tossed a wire up into a nearby tree to get started on the most urban of my SOTA shenanigans.
This parking lot is near a busy street, so it should have been no surprise that a couple of people walking by were suspicious of the guy huddled in the grass with a wire in a tree sketching gibberish on a yellow notepad. I made sure to explain that nothing nefarious was going on here – just some good old-fashioned amateur radio. They seemed impressed that I managed to contact stations in California, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, and Florida.
The water facility.
Antenna hoisting kit: filled water bottle and kite string.
The parking lot.
Nearby radio tower.
This was a fast activation for me. The required four QSOs were finished within the first five minutes on the air. Thanks to the chasers (and some of the usual suspects) who put up with my rushed QRP CW!
Update 17 May 2025: At Xenia Hamvention this year, I learned that this peak is colloquially known as the Taco Bell parking lot SOTA. Sure enough, just across the street from the Mt Airy Tanks is a Taco Bell. Adam K6ARK put it this way: “When you have the opportunity to activate from a Taco Bell parking lot, you take it!”
The activation zone is massive, and 3.5 miles north of the Taco Bell down Colerain Ave is the Farbach-Werner Nature Preserve, a 22-acre Hamilton County park. Roughly half of the park is within the AZ, and it’s better for your gastrointestinal health to hang out here than at TB. The park technically charges a Hamilton County parks entrance fee ($8 day pass, $16 year pass), but nobody was around on this busy Saturday morning to check, and it wasn’t clear if anybody does check at this small park.
The sun must have downed a few of its own version of chalupas this morning, as a minor geomagnetic storm (Kp ~5) was brewing. I spent some time trying to work the activators in the Catskills for the W2 campout, but could only work a few S2S: AC1Z on W2/GC-105 (30m and 17m), and WB2FUV on W2/GC-042 (20m). I only got 5 QSOs this time, and that includes working AC1Z twice… Still, this was a pleasant place to activate, with plenty of park benches to sit at, and I recommend checking it out!
The large baja-blast-blue region is just a fraction of the activation zone. The peak is labeled near the bottom right of the map, and is by the Mt. Airy Tanks and Taco Bell. The pin is where I operated at the nature preserve.
Today, I activated Campbell Hill (4 points), which at 1550 feet (472m) above sea level, is the most elevated place in Ohio. The broad, sloping hill has such a shallow slope that its prominence is not immediately obvious. There is a plaque there that assures you that you are standing at the highest point in the state.
The approach to the summit was an easy drive through the campus of the aptly-named Ohio Hi-Point Career Center. The summit site had some convenient benches, but they were covered in a sheath of ice about 2 millimeters thick. I used an end-fed tossed into a nearby pine tree which worked well enough. Chasers came from CO, AZ, and FL- not bad for 2.5W! When the QSOs slowed down, I decided to pack up because the temperature was just below freezing.
Thanks to all the chasers! Special thanks to W7RV and K6HPX who have now chased me 3 times each.
There’s a nearby point of interest for civil engineering history buffs: Bellefontaine, Ohio is the home of Court Avenue, which has the distinction of being, circa 1891, the first street in the US paved by concrete. There’s a concrete statue of George Bartholemew, the pioneer who convinced city hall to let him pave the road to prove the virtues of “artificial stone.” He posted a $5000 bond to ensure that the road would last for at least five years. The experiment succeeded magnificently – portions of the original pavement still persist to this day.
Since it had been a long time since I did a SOTA activation, I did a low-key hike to try out an Elk log periodic antenna, going to Richardson East Benchmark near Sausalito. I parked at the Park & Ride on Spencer Avenue to get to the Morning Sun Trailhead and got going up 0.3 miles of a switchbacking staircase until I got to the Alta Trail, where I took it south. After making it to Wolfback Ridge Road (there’s a sign telling hikers to stay away from the homes that way), I followed a chained service road the rest of the way up while rain showers and wind started to pick up.
The Morning Sun Trail trailhead
About halfway up the Morning Sun Trail
The rain started to let up
KABL-FM et al.
Headed back to beat the sunset
Once I saw the radio towers, I knew I had made it. It continued to rain and breeze while I got set up, but about twenty minutes after getting set up, the weather cleared up a bit and I was able to get some pictures of the spectacular views. Even with the Elk antenna, I had a good deal of noise on 2m (often S9) from the tower, which made it very hard for me to hear some chasers. I’m thankful for their patience!
Today, Stef and I finished the 2016 Sonoma Regional Parks Trails Challenge by hiking our fifth trail in the Sonoma Regional Parks system. It was a great way to see the parts of Sonoma that one doesn’t go to when wine tasting. 🙂
We started with a camping trip to Stillwater Cove park, which let us hike three different trails along the beautiful Sonoma coast (Stillwater Cove, Bluff Top Trail, and Pinnacle Gulch). Then we did a couple of ham radio summit activations, climbing Hood Mountain and Taylor Mountain. All in all, it was a terrific experience that we hope to repeat next year.
Watch the video to see some of the sights we caught along the way!
Stef and I went to Taylor Mountain Regional Preserve to hike up the namesake mountain for another 1-point activation. This was a 5-mile round trip with 1100 feet of elevation change through cow grazing territory. We took the Eastern Trail up and returned on the Western Trail. This was also the last hike we needed to complete the Sonoma Parks Trails Challenge.
The peak of Taylor Mountain is on private property and fenced off, about 20 feet away from the highest point accessible in the park. I attached my Yagi to a wooden pole by the fence and had an easy 2m-only activation.
Eastern Trailhead
A foggy day in Santa Rosa
After the activation, stopping at Russian River Brewery for delicious craft brews
Thanks to all the chasers – my SOTA activator score is now 15 and counting!
Tom Zajdel 