2. Ham Radio

Lowell Hill Ridge (W6/NS-306) SOTA Activation 10/05/2013

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I-80 is the line you see going across the photo down in the trees.
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I-80 is the line you see going across the photo down in the trees.

  • 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.
  • To get to Lowell Hill Ridge, take Highway 20 to the unsigned Tahoe National Forest road 20-16 at HWY20F2016 (39.31699N, 120.72451W). This road (shown in green) was recently improved due to logging in the area. There are water bars on the road, but a 2WD vehicle with moderate ground clearance should have no trouble if the road is dry. Park along the road near the LOWELLBEAR point (39.31916N, 120.69796W) and hike up to the forested summit. Rugged 2WD or 4WD vehicles could take the blue roads to get further into the activation zone. The orange dotted line is a single-track motorcycle trail and the turquoise and white dashed line is my estimate of the activation zone. Coordinates of some of the other points shown are:<br /> <br /> LOWELLEDGE - 39.31643N, 120.7147W<br /> LOWELLJUNC - 39.32402N, 120.68994W<br /> LowellOperate - 39.32226N, 120.68435W
  • I hiked to the eastern edge of the activation zone at LowellOperate so as to operate from a location with a steep downslope to the southeast and a more moderate downslope to the east.
  • There are plenty of trees to use as antenna supports but I chose to erect my 88' doublet using my 28' Jackite pole. It ended up being a surprisingly warm day for this time of year, so I setup my gear at the base of the pine tree so as to use its trunk for shade.
  • I bungeed the Jackite pole to a small pine, and tied off the ends of the doublet to other small pines. The antenna ended up being oriented parallel to the steep downslope, basically NE-SW.
  • My doublet towering over Lowell Hill Ridge with its twinlead running over to the big pine tree.
  • I'm standing near my pine tree at the edge of the steep downslope, and wearing a long-sleeved Northern Sierra T-shirt.
  • Another shot taken near my pine tree. The camera is looking northeast.
  • I was up there for a few hours and ended up having to move my operating position several times to stay in the shade of the tree trunk. It was cool enough to sit in the sun, but I wanted to keep my KX3 and iPhone shaded to keep them from overheating. Verizon's wireless Internet signal was strong so I had access to the spotting system.
  • CQ CQ SOTA DE KU6J KU6J K. I love that the KX3 has a memory keyer, it gives me time for housekeeping chores while my CQs are going out.
  • I-80 is the line you see going across the photo down in the trees.
  • Our mini Half Dome, Old Man Mountain W6/NS-184, to the east-northeast. That's Lake Spaulding down below.
  • Just a bit to the right and due east is Red Mountain with its Signal Peak W6/NS-179. For more information on that one, see my <a href="http://www.grizzlyguy.com/HamRadio/SOTA-Activation-842012-Signal">activation album from last year</a>. I'm hoping to hit it and Sand Ridge W6/NS-155 again before the snow falls.
  • Lots of granite across I-80 to the east-southeast. I think that is Devil's Peak W6/NS-197 jutting up onto the skyline about 1/4 of the way from the right edge of this shot.
  • Another shot with Devil's Peak in the center of the shot. The mountain to the left of it and nearer to the camera is on the south side of I-80 near Cisco Grove and isn't a SOTA summit.
  • SOTAWatch spots page 1. I ended up having to spot myself several times because RBNGate kept missing me. I don't know why.
  • SOTAWatch spots page 2. I missed WA7JTM for a summit-to-summit, and couldn't hear Rachel K7NIT on 17m or Etienne K7ATN on 20m (inside the skip zone). I was hoping they would move down to 40m but they didn't, at least not during the time period that I was on the air.
  • Reverse Beacon Network spots.
  • Logbook page 1. Conditions on 12m weren't as good as they have been in the past few weeks, but I still managed to run off a string of 6 QSOs on CW to start the day. I moved down to 20m CW to call W9FHA on Pike's Peak for a summit-to-summit, then did a run on that band.
  • Logbook page 2.
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