KG6MZS

Summit 4,020′ Zulu New Year

The big sky country looking northeast off the summit of 4,020′

31 DECEMBER 2021 / 1 JANUARY 2022 W6/CT-158

It was Scott WA9STI that first alerted me to the “Zulu New Year” phenomenon last year. This is one of those great SOTA events when there is a lot of summit-to-summit activity and this year’s event was no exception. Unlike last year’s drought, this year the New Year came one day after a huge rainstorm blew through the Southland. My Davis Instruments Vantage Pro registered 5.64″ of rain in one 24 hour period so I expected any activation was going to be muddy with mountain roads a little sloppy.

I had no idea if the Santa Clara Truck Trail up to Contractors Point and Fire Camp 9 was going to be open as the Angeles National Forest ranger stations didn’t seem to be picking up the phone on New Year’s Eve Day.

I drove up Placerita Canyon to Sand Canyon Road and everything seemed to be freshly plowed of mud and rock. The gate was open and the truck trail was all clear. David N6AN had warned me that the gate closes at 6pm and care must be taken on Zulu New Year to get back to Bear Divide by that time to avoid being locked in overnight.

I got to this near drive-up about 22:00 and parked a few hundred feet from the site where I set up. There were big fluffy cumulus clouds flirting with the summit and the surrounding countryside was dappled with the cloud’s shadows. It was a gloriously fresh and clear day after the rain.

As I expected the activation was a delightful chaos of rapid-fire logging with cold hands. This event is really a lot of fun and I managed 18 summit-to-summit contacts. I tried to fit in as many chasers as I could but I did need to give myself plenty of time to retreat to that gate at Bear Divide by 6pm. Besides, siting for almost three hours I got pretty cold in the fresh wind blowing out of the southwest. Thank you all activators and chasers!

Here’s the station in the clouds – the 40m half wave doublet and the rollup slimjim

The sun sets on New Year’s Even from Contractor’s Point.

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KG6MZS Summit Index by Year

Summit 1,428

Fresh snow on the San Gabriel Mountains from the trail head.

Finally a series of storms had broken the horrendous drought that has plagued Southern California in the 2020-2021 rain year. This is tremendous news for the chaparral but had put a bit of a damper on my SOTA activity recently. The day after Christmas was forecast to be if not dry, at least free of rain. I picked summit 1,428′ in the La Puente Hills just because it appeared from the satellite imagery to have a paved road to the summit. This, I thought, might mitigate the mud.

The trailhead is easy to find at the end of Vantage Pointe Drive in Rowland Heights

The hike is a short half mile up the paved road to the substantial radio facility on the summit. There are PRIVATE PROPERTY NO TRESPASSING signs but everybody in the neighborhood seems to walk their dogs up there. While the paved road did reach the activation area, the site I chose to set up was just to the east of the actual summit. There was one fence to climb over and cattle are run on the other side. I saw some longhorns and heard them lowing while I set up. The field I set up in was thick with a squishy adobe mud from the rains and care was needed to avoid the numerous cow pies.

The San Gabriel Mountains were wreathed in cumulus clouds, but the very snowy summits of Mount San Antonio and others poked through the top. The cloud layer built during the activation as the next storm impulse made its way down from the Gulf of Alaska.

Radio conditions were pretty poor. With the preamp on the KX2 my noise level was about S9 on 20m, so I had to turn it off after a while. I forgot to repack my Kenwood TH-F6A on this trip, so no UHF/VHF. Sorry local chasers!

Cumulus clouds building behind the “Techno-Summit” infrastructue.

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KG6MZS Summit Index by Year

San Juan Hill

A collage of textures in the Chino Hills just after sunrise. All the big San Gabriels in the background.

18 DECEMBER 2021 W6/CT-230

I had planned to activate Parker Mountain out in the Acton/Crown Valley area, but a formidable forecast of high winds sent me to a lower summit further to the south. I thought about taking the mountain bike and it turns out that this would be an excellent summit for a mountain bike. The hike is just over three miles and has about a thousand feet of elevation gain. The hike is a bit of an up-and-down roller coaster. I don’t think the Gaia GPS tracks below handle the elevation loss well. The elevation loss is certainly more than the nine feet listed in the ascent track. I got going just before sunrise and was treated to a fantastic view of the length of the San Gabriel Mountain. The sun rose over Santiago Peak.

Here is my ascent track up San Juan Hill

Interestingly it took me longer to descend:

Here is my descent track

Conditions on HF were very good and I hung out for over an hour making 35 contacts. Thank you chasers for helping to make this an enjoyable activation

Cell coverage from Verizon was spotty and I had to move around a bit to get SOTAgoat to work. It was fairly windy but I was able to avoid the biggest blasts over the crest of the hill. There is a benchmark that has an 1896 date on it that provides a good built-in table.

The station with the San Gabriel Mountains in the background

The carbon fiber fishing pole doing double duty with the slim jim and Packtenna antennas.

Cucamonga Peak in the San Gabriels on the left and San Gorgonio and the San Bernardins on the right

Santa Catalina Island over San Pedro Bay

Sunrise over Pleasats Peak and Santiago Peak

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KG6MZS Summit Index by Year

Black Butte

Whitedog – my brand new SOTA machine.

11 DECEMBER 2021 W6/ND-311

After activating Table Mountain I got a chance to put Whitedog, my new Toyota Tachoma SR5, through his paces out in the Mojave desert. I left Highway 18 at Avenue 293 and switched into four wheel drive on the dirt. The approach is pretty level but goes over a few bumps and through some deep sand. My old Audi would not have been happy.

When I got to the east side of the base of Black Butte I discovered that there were two parties of target shooters squeezing off all manner of ordinance. After thinking about it for a while, I got back in Whtedog and drove around to the west side. I could still hear semiautomatic and fully automatic gunfire in the distance, but there was no target shooting debris where I parked, so I decided to chance it.

My hike went straight up the side of Black Butte and quickly left the sandy floor of the Antelope Valley and my way became littered with the characteristic black basalt that gives this Butte it’s name.

My track up Black Butte from the west side

The hike is about a half mile and goes up about 500′. It took me a half hour. I had summit-to-summit contacts with Mark N6XZN on Onyx Peak and with a group on 9,465′ next door to Onyx. Thanks to all chasers and S2Sers!

There is excellent cell coverage from Verizon on the summit.

While I was operating an ultralight aircraft came overhead and flew within a couple of dozen feet of my mast knocking it over. This was waaaaay closer than the 500′ that the FAA dictates pilots maintain.

One note: besides a lot of target shooters, I passed a lot of what appeared to be clandestine marijuana grow operations. Next time I do this summit I think I will plan on being here very early in the morning and hopefully avoid any contact with any of the general lawlessness that seems to be endemic to the area.

The station with the low end of the Packtenna

Looking west toward the Lovejoy and Saddleback Buttes over the high end of the Packtenna

Looking south to the San Gabriel Mountains

Here are some cool links to Summits on the Air (SOTA)

KG6MZS Summit Index by Year

Table Mountain

Mount Baden-Powell from Table Mountain on a crisp winter morning.

11 DECEMBER 2021 W6/CT-067

After buying a new Toyota Tundra — christened Whitedog –the previous week, I was ready to try him out on a SOTA activation. While I wanted to get Whitedog in the dirt to properly exercise the 4×4 capabilities, I also wanted to score some winter bonus points before the big storm was forecast to drop a lot of snow on the higher elevations. My compromise was to set out and do two activations — One; to return to Table Mountain and activate it from a postion I have learned would not draw the attention of the NASA/JPL security guard, and, Two; one of the buttes out in the Antelope Valley that would provide an ample dirt road approach.

My last time up Table Mountain I was asked to leave by a JPL/NASA security guard before I could activate. After doing a bit of research and talking with some of the guys on the SoCalSOTA reflector, I found out that as long as you stay on the Mountain High property and go up to the left of the restaurant, you are good. I spoke with a Mountain High employee and he asked visitors to stop by if the restaurant is open to sign a liability release before going up to the summit. This seems entirely reasonable to me.

My Mountain High approved route up Table Mountain

The “hike” is about a third of a mile and gains about 200′. I did it in 7 minutes.

Cell coverage from Verizon is excellent but UHF/VHF coverage into the Los Angeles Basin is very limited by the San Gabriel Mountain crest – notably Blue Ridge and Mount Baden Powell. I did lens a summit-to-summit contact over the crest with Hal N6JZT on Workman Hill and Mike KI6SLA came in loud and clear from Cerritos but others tried and said they could not hear me.

The station safely out of sight of the JPL/NASA security guard overlooking the Antelope Valley

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KG6MZS Summit Index by Year

Cerro Noroestre

Kern, Ventura and Santa Barbara Wilderness. This is the upper Cuyama River watershed off Cerro Noroestre

4 DECEMBER 2021 W6/SC-001

Recovering from some health issues, I decided to do a couple of what I thought would be easy ones — Cerro Noroeste and San Emidigo Peak. As I started the old Audi at 4:30 AM a warning light came on – low coolant level. Back in ancient times when I learned about cars, one always filled the radiator directly with the engine running. Without actually reading the warning message on the dash, this is what I did. Turns out the newer reservoirs want the engine off when filling the car with coolant. This mistake resulted in several refills during the course of this misadventure. Moreover, I miscalculated the amount of gas I needed so when I reached the summit of Cerro Noroeste, another warning light went off.

At this point I decided to scrub San Emidigo and just enjoy this nice drive-up. It was pretty cold – 21ºF in Cuddy Valley on the way up. I broke out the winter gear and had fun making 34 contacts including 5 summit-to-summit contacts.

There was good cell coverage from Verizon on the top of this drive-up.

I limped down the mountain, free-wheeling it most of the way to save gas. This was my Audi’s last SOTA activation. I sold Pfeffernusse on December 8th to CarMax and bought an almost-new Toyota Tundra SR5 4X4 — Whitedog. I’ll miss the Audi’s great road performance and all-out fun mountain road handling, just not her low clearance.

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KG6MZS Summit Index by Year

Occidental Peak

Mount Lowe, Mount Markham and San Gabriel Peak

27 NOVEMBER 2021 W6/CT-098

I love heading out my driveway in the predawn hours off to another summit adventure. This Saturday morning it was 62ºF in my driveway and by the time I was only a few miles into the deepest part of Topanga Canyon it was 38ºF and the little snowflake icon on the dash of Pfeffernusse had lit up. Canyon temperature inversions are not uncommon, but a 24 degree inversion is pretty steep.

I reached the parking spot at about 5:30 AM. This is the driveway to the 972 foot tall KCBS TV tower. The whole area is completely RF saturated to the point that my car’s remote locking device did not work! This parking spot is about 4.8 miles from the junction of the Angeles Crest Highway and the Mount Wilson road.

It was interesting to me that this hike follows a threaded use trail and is only about half as far as the nearby hike I did last week to San Gabriel Peak. I left the car about the same time as last week and the hike still took the same amount of time. This is largely due to the up-and-down, rough nature of the use trail on this one. I do not recommend carrying a tall mast in your pack. I had to remove mine from the pack and carry it because it kept getting caught on low-hanging trees and brush. The trail passes by two of the massive guys for the 972′ tower.

My track up Occidental Peak

My track down Occidental Peak

Occidental Peak illuminates for me some of the vagaries of the SOTA system for selecting peaks. I gather the criteria is predicated on a summit’s geographical prominence. However rigid adherence to this rule seems to include some peaks of questionable enjoyment and exclude some other interesting summits. To me nearby Mount Lowe and Mount Markham are much more interesting and enjoyable summits but lack the necessary credentials to be included. Pity.

There is little room on the summit of Occidental Peak to set up and the view is largely obscured by brush and California Scrub Oak. I set up my Packtenna Mini Random Wire because of the limited space. I ran 12 watts on HF and 5 watts on VHF.

Cell service from Verizon was very spotty. I only managed one spot and the rest had to be done through the Garmin InReach Mini and the Iridium Satellites. Not sure if it was the RF saturation or just bad coverage. The Kenwood TH-F6A performed okay with no intermod.

Rather cramped conditions for the station

Santa Catalina Island and Palos Verdes over the Los Angeles Basin

Here are some cool links to Summits on the Air (SOTA)

KG6MZS Summit Index by Year

1,470′ x2

Hines Peak at sunrise from 1,470′.

23 NOVEMBER 2021 W6/SC-347

One of the things I really enjoy about the SOTA program is how it motivates me to do hikes that I might otherwise miss. Summit 1,470′ is a good case in point. I’ve been hiking around the Santa Monica Mountains all my life and I never thought to explore this particular corner of the range. When I first hiked up this summit last year, it was completely encased in a deep marine layer of stratus clouds. Kobe Bryant’s helicopter went down a short distance away and I can see how that might’ve happened given the dense fog.

Here was last year’s hike up 1,470’

I left Topanga before it was light again and drove over the top of Saddle Peak. Being a Tuesday, I had to be back home by 9:00 AM for work. This morning was sparklingly clear after a mild Santa Ana wind event over the weekend that kept me home. There was a layer of cirrus clouds high in the sky and a waning gibbous moon lighting my path. All the elements seemed to be in place for a colorful sunrise, but it wasn’t to be. It’s funny how that works. The hike is under a mile with over 500′ of elevation gain.

Here is my track up Summit 1,470’

Here is my track down Summit 1,470’

Cell service from Verizon is excellent. I made my 11 contacts fairly easily this time now that I have the KX2 and the HF bands in my toolkit. I ran 12 watts into the 40m multiband doublet on HF and 5 watts into the roll-up slimjim on VHF.

The Station with Sandstone Peak in the background.

Castro Peak behind the station in action.

Here are some cool links to Summits on the Air (SOTA)

KG6MZS Summit Index by Year

San Gabriel Peak

The long shadow of San Gabriel Peak stretching west at sunrise

13 NOVEMBER 2021 W6/CT-019

This was my fourth trip up San Gabriel Peak. I first hiked to this grand summit over 40 years ago with my friend Linnea Gardner. I left Topanga well before dawn to get to Eaton Saddle at 5:30 AM. I started out in the glow of the city lights far below, but was obliged to get the headlamp out to go through Mueller Tunnel shortly after starting out. It was a little spooky.

The hike is a little over a mile and a half with about 1,000 feet of elevation gain. I hoofed it to the top in about an hour and just missed the sunrise from the summit.

Here’s my track up San Gabriel Peak

Here’s my track down San Gabriel Peak

Cell coverage from Verizon was in and out but I did manage to get spots out via SOTAGoat eventually. I made 30 contacts – a record for me in my short SOTA career. I was the first one to the summit on this fine morning. However a number of other parties visited this popular mountain top during my two hour activation. I handed out a lot of SOTA cards to interested people. Perhaps even better than my first summit-to-summit with Wisconsin, even better than a DX QSO with Christian in France, was connecting with David N6AN and arranging to meet for the first time in La Cañada for a cuppa. I really got a kick out of meeting David as we have had many S2S QSOs.

For this activation I just threw up the Packtenna end fed random wire and it performed very well. All HF contacts were at 12 watts, all VHF contacts were at 5 watts.

A big thank you to all the chasers – so many loyal chasers really make this fun!

Looking over Mount Wilson to Santiago Peak

Looking over Mount Lowe to Palos Verdes and Santa Catalina Island.

Catalina a litte later in the morning. If you look carefully you can see all the container ships backed up outside the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro Bay behind the Spanish Dagger yucca,

The west side of Mueller Tunnel on the way down.

Here are some cool links to Summits on the Air (SOTA)

KG6MZS Summit Index by Year

Haddock Mountain

Cottonwoods in upper Sespe Canyon on the way home.

23 OCTOBER 2021 W6/SC-005

This trip took a lot longer than I planned. I left Topanga at about 4 AM in a thick drizzle. As I slowly made my way through Calabasas, Agoura and Thousand Oaks it became a steady rain. This slowed me down a bit and it took me two and a half hours to reach the trail head. It was sunny and clear and a bit breezy when I left the car. Deer season was in full swing and there were lots of hunters camped at the Pine Mountain campground. I was a bit worried about being mistaken for a deer as I started out, but I hoped my bright orange Jackite pole would flag me as not very tasty eating. Turns out I had nothing to worry about. The early morning crowd of hunters — and I saw quite a few — seemed to be quite skilled. I only heard 4 rifle reports all day. More Robert De Niro than John Cazale 🙂

I last climbed Haddock Mountain May 15th, 1996 with Cassie KG6MZR and Chauncey the dog. This time it seemed a lot farther than I remember it. There is about 1,000′ of elevation loss on the way out. Of course this translates to a thousand feet of gain on the return and this always seems disproportionately hard. It seems like the return from climbing a mountain should be all downhill. The total hike is a little over eight miles and has 2,500′ of elevation gain. I got there much later than I anticipated and wandered around over a few false summits. The actual summit has a pretty big summit block

Here’s my track up Haddock Mountain

As I was setting up, I heard KN6IUF on Mount Baden-Powell so I hastily snagged a juicy summit-to-summit to start. Conditions were decent and I managed to work Christian F4WBN in France for the first time in a while. Thank you all chasers!

The dramatic sedimentary bands of Haddock Mountain. That’s Hines Peak (W6/SC-010) just off the right shoulder of Haddock.

The large summit block behind my station

Looking back at Reyes Peak (W6/CC-005) from atop the summit block of Haddock

Mount Pinos (W6/CC-002) and Cerro Noroestre (W6/CC-001)

Here are some cool links to Summits on the Air (SOTA)

KG6MZS Summit Index by Year