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!
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!
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!
Stef and I went to Sugarloaf Ridge State Park (parking in the state park costs $8, which you slide into an envelope and box) on September 3 for another activation: a 7.5-mile round trip hike ending on Hood Mountain (833m, 2pts) along Goodspeed Trail. The hike started easy enough, with about 300m of elevation gain for the first 2.1 miles up to the border with Hood Mountain Regional Park. Nattkemper Bench sits at the border with a beautiful view of the Sonoma valley. It was a good thing that we rested here, because the next 1.3 miles were a surprisingly strenuous series of switchbacks and climbs. Mercifully, this second half of the trail had ample tree cover.
Once we made it to Mount Hood, the end-fed wire went up and I got to work on 20m CW. After 6 quick QSOs, I switched to 2m FM with the Yagi and got a couple more QSOs: a summit-to-summit with KB1KXL on Mount Diablo (W6/CC-045), and another with KO6PS who has chased me for 46% of my activations.
Since there were no views from Mount Hood, we stopped by Gunsight Rock on the way down and were not disappointed!
Here’s a video that shows some of the sights on the hike as well as a QSO with N4MJ. You’ll be able to hear a sample of my poor (but improving) mobile CW skills.
Today, Stef and I ventured to the South Bay to climb Black Mountain (857m, 2 pts), the most prominent peak in the ridge visible from Mountain View (and that I can’t help but speculate is the origin of Mountain View’s name). We parked at the Monte Bello Open Space Preserve and hiked the ~2.5 miles to the summit. It was a sunny and hot day, so we were happy to take a service road for the second half of the hike which was better obscured by shade.
Light activation today, since I only brought my HT with a whip antenna. One CQ later, I had already made contact with Will AA1FD, who was just five miles away. Then there was radio silence for fifteen minutes. A bit trickier to get out without a Yagi…
I called in to the BAYNET repeater system, with a transmitter conveniently located on Black Mountain, and immediately Don KG6IRS in Fremont came back and we were able to copy each other on 440 MHz simplex. I then was able to enter the tail end of a QSO between KI6BEN in Fremont and Mark WB6DCE at Monterrey. I couldn’t get Mark to copy me, but George KM6UM did his best to relay, giving me the four QSOs necessary.
A bit messier than usual because I went with a whip antenna to keep the pack light, but the magic of the Bay Area is that a casual activation like this is possible because there are hams everywhere. Thanks to everybody who called in!
Tom Zajdel 