2. Ham Radio

Pt. 8060 (W6/NS-166) SOTA Activation 10/02/2013

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My nifty operating spot in the trees.
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My nifty operating spot 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 Pt. 8060, travel on Highway 89 between Truckee and Sierraville and turn onto the paved Tahoe National Forest road 07 that runs to Jackson Meadows Reservoir. A sign at the turnoff points towards the reservoir. Approximately 200 feet past the left turn to Webber Lake, turn right onto Tahoe National Forest road 12 at the F07F12 point (39.49711N, 120.41204W). This road is a high-quality gravel road that any vehicle can travel, and runs north all the way to Yuba Pass on Highway 49. At the major 4-way intersection at F12F15RDGELOOP (39.52109N, 120.43237W), shown on topo maps as Bonta Saddle, go straight ahead to get onto the Ridge Loop road shown in green (signs at the intersection also point to Ridge Loop).
  • Continue on the Ridge Loop road until you reach PT8060RD at 39.54874N, 120.45932W. Turn right onto the dirt road shown in blue. Bear right at the Y intersection. The road will eventually end at an old log landing. Park anywhere you like along this road (or down on the Ridge Loop road like I did), hike to the log landing, then hike up to the summit.
  • I setup my 88' doublet at the top of the steep slope on the east side of the summit.
  • I bungeed the 28' Jackite pole to an old log.
  • The steep slope begins about 10 feet from my antenna. The High Frequency Terrain Analysis (HFTA) plots that I included in <a href="http://www.grizzlyguy.com/HamRadio/SOTA-Activation-8302012-Pt8060">my activation album from last year</a> suggest that the downslope helps a lot.
  • My nifty operating spot in the trees.
  • Looking down at the Sierra Valley to the northeast.
  • Looking north, the peak on the skyline in the center of the shot is Smith Peak W6/NS-198 that <a href="http://www.grizzlyguy.com/HamRadio/SOTA-SmithPeak-W6NS198-2013">I activated the day before</a>.
  • SOTAWatch spots.
  • RBN spots.
  • Logbook page 1. When I finished setting up, I noticed that Frank K0JQZ had been spotted on 30m. I went to his frequency but didn't hear him. A minute or so later I saw his spot for 40m, so I went down there and worked him for my only summit-to-summit QSO of the day. I then moved to 12m CW and the band sounded great. Given the good conditions, I decided to crank my output power up to 10W give 12m SSB a whirl.
  • Logbook page 2. Dan NA6MG was activating at the same time, but he had already done the low bands by the time I got on the air. I couldn't hear him on his 20m and 12m frequencies, so after finishing a nice run on 12m SSB, I decided to head to 30m and 4m hoping Dan would see me spotted and come down for a S2S. That didn't happen, but I made several QSOs on those bands.
  • Logbook page 3. After 40m CW I made a brief appearance on 17m CW, then headed for 20m CW.
  • Logbook page 4. 17m sounded like it was in good shape, so I moved to 17m SSB to finish off the activation. I made 38 QSOs overall including the one summit-to-summit with Frank K0JQZ. Thanks to everyone who called in!
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