2. Ham Radio

Mt. Ingalls (W6/CN-005), Crocker Mtn (W6/NS-207) SOTA Activations 9/28/2013

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The SOTA Northern Sierra region logo. This logo is available on Northern Sierra T-shirts, sweatshirts, beer steins, mouse pads, etc. for SOTA participants who qualify for the Northern Sierra Award (offered by yours truly KU6J). The award rules are linked to from my page on QRZ.com. Although Mt. Ingalls has a "CN" summit reference instead of a "NS" Northern Sierra reference, it still counts for the Northern Sierra award since it is geographically located within the Northern Sierra region.
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The SOTA Northern Sierra region logo. This logo is available on Northern Sierra T-shirts, sweatshirts, beer steins, mouse pads, etc. for SOTA participants who qualify for the Northern Sierra Award (offered by yours truly KU6J). The award rules are linked to from my page on QRZ.com. Although Mt. Ingalls has a "CN" summit reference instead of a "NS" Northern Sierra reference, it still counts for the Northern Sierra award since it is geographically located within the Northern Sierra region.

SOTANorthernSierra

  • The SOTA Northern Sierra region logo. This logo is available on Northern Sierra T-shirts, sweatshirts, beer steins, mouse pads, etc. for SOTA participants who qualify for the Northern Sierra Award (offered by yours truly KU6J). The award rules are linked to from my page on QRZ.com. Although Mt. Ingalls has a "CN" summit reference instead of a "NS" Northern Sierra reference, it still counts for the Northern Sierra award since it is geographically located within the Northern Sierra region.
  • Mt. Ingalls and Crocker Mountain are both near Lake Davis, north of Portola, CA in the Plumas National Forest. To reach Mt. Ingalls, take Highway 70 and turn north onto the paved Grizzly Road east of Portola (the signs on Highway 70 say 'Lake Davis Recreation Area'). Stay on Grizzly Road road as you go by Lake Davis on it's east side, past Lightning Tree Campground, where the pavement will end shortly after. I unloaded my ATV at that spot and rode from there. Continue on the graveled and well maintained dirt road (shown in purple) until you reach my C112P25N10 point (39.93944N, 120.53876W). Turn right onto Plumas National Forest road 25N10 shown in green. This road is not as well maintained as the one you turned off of, but should still be doable for virtually any 2WD vehicle if the road is dry.
  • Continue on the 25N10 road until you reach my P25N10P39 point (39.98199N, 120.60899W). Turn left onto the road shown in blue. This road has some rough spots, but should be doable by 2WD vehicles such as pickup trucks (passenger cars not recommended). Continue until you reach the intersection at my P24N09P24N09A point (39.98199N, 120.62939W) where the road will split into three different roads. Take the MIDDLE road, which is the only one that appears to climb from this intersection. It is much rougher than the one you have been traveling on, and 4WD is recommended. A stock vehicle such as a 4WD SUV or pickup should be able to make it all the way up to the top of Mt. Ingalls if driven carefully.
  • Zoomed in topo showing the P24N09P24N09A intersection and Mt. Ingalls. The turquois and white line is my estimation of the activation zone. I ended up riding all the way to the top, then did a down-and-up hike.
  • Sign at the P24N09P24N09A intersection. The middle road that goes up to Mt. Ingalls is next to the sign on the right side.
  • The top of the mountain has a foundation from an old lookout tower. The camera is looking south.
  • Another shot of the summit.
  • Standing on top. The camera is looking northwest, and I think the bump on the distant skyline is Mt. Lassen W6/CN-002. The wind was howling from the SW, and it was a cold day, so I decided not to operate on the summit itself. I headed down the east side and found a spot that was maybe 15 vertical feet below it and largely sheltered from the wind.
  • Zoomed in on what I believe is Mt. Lassen on the skyline. Mt. Jura W6/NS-285 is in the center foreground, Mt. Hough W6/CN-011 to the left, and Keddie Ridge is behind Mt. Jura and to the right (on the other side of the North Arm of Indian Valley). Keddie Ridge has three SOTA summits on it: Keddie Ridge W6/CN-017, Keddie Peak W6/NS-206 and Dyer Mountain W6/NS-212.
  • My operating spot about 15 vertical feet down from the summit on the east side (just below the road that circles around the summit). By the time I took this shot, I had the loop swung around to the south-southeast to call Mark N6IV for a summit-to-summit QSO.
  • I went with the Alexloop because I was doing two summits on this day, the Alexloop is easy to setup and tear down, and it had performed well the day before up on Verdi Peak (including my first ever summit-to-summit QSO with an activator in Europe).
  • KX3, gloves, and I'm wearing every piece of clothing that I brought along... all I need is a cup of hot chocolate!
  • My view while operating.
  • Lake Davis to the southwest. My next summit of the day, Crocker Mountain W6/NS-207, is the dark looking ridge to the left of the lake.
  • Zoomed in shot of Crocker Mountain.
  • Zoomed in to the south-southwest, that is Smith Peak W6/NS-198 in the center and Beckwourth Peak W6/NS-228 behind it to the left. Beckwourth Peak is on the other side of Highway 70. Lake Davis is just to the left of this shot. See my "<a href="http://www.grizzlyguy.com/HamRadio/SOTA-Activation-10302012-Smith">SOTA Activation 10/30/2012 - Smith Peak, CA (W6/NS-198)</a>" album for more info on that summit.
  • Logbook page 1. I started on 12m CW. After working some of my regular SOTA chasers, I was pleasantly surprised when Tom M1EYP called in for a summit-to-summit QSO from The Cloud (G/SP-015) in England. Until the day before I'd never before made a S2S contact with an activator in Europe, and here was my second one in as many days! EA2DT called in from Spain, and DJ5AV in Germany is starting to become a regular in my 12m logs. Not bad for 5 watts and a dinky little loop antenna, eh? :-)
  • Logbook page 2. I picked up three more summit-to-summit QSOs with Fred WS0TA, Frank K0JQZ and Gary W5ODS.
  • Logbook page 3, including two final summit-to-summit QSO with Mike KE5AKL and Mark N6IV. In an hour of operating, I made a total of 26 QSOs from Mt. Ingalls including 6 summit-to-summit QSOs. Thanks to everyone for giving me a call, and to the other activators for digging my weak signal out of their pileups!
  • After finishing up on Mt. Ingalls, I rode my ATV the 11.5 miles back down to where the Grizzly Road pavement ends near the northeast corner of Lake Davis, loaded it on the trailer, then unloaded it again at the C112P24N08 point (39.88234N, 120.46564W) near the southeast corner of the lake. I sped eastward up and over the ridge on the easy P24N08 dirt road (shown in purple) until I arrived at Crocker Campground and the intersection with County Road 111 (also dirt at this point). I turned left and rode north less than a half mile, then turned left onto the blue road that climbs up the east side of Crocker Mountain. The C111P24N40Y intersection is at 39.89754N, 120.42047W.
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