N1CLC: 2018-05-12 Denk Mtn.

I didn’t have a lot of time for a big hike today given that I wanted to attend the ARES volunteer meeting and run some errands. I decided to fit in a quick hike with the radio to Denk Mountain (W6/SC-368 - Denk Mountain), just up the road near Encinitas. It’s an easy 3.8 mile hike with .6 of that being a screw up (left turn too early). The trail is heavily used by mountain bikers but for hiking, it’s a good family trail. The summit is only 1,050 feet but it has a really nice view of the ocean. Actually, it has a great 360 view.

Setup was easy, I just strapped the vertical onto a wood bike stand. Everyone I run into are always very interested in what I’m doing and although I think it’s geeky, they generally think it’s cool. Making contacts today was difficult on 20. I tried to run at 30, but got nothing for a long while so I bumped it up to 90 watts and started getting results. I talked to another ham and he said it seemed pretty dead today. I’m really looking forward to when the solar conditions are conducive to really long distance QSOs. When there is a lot of traffic on a frequency, a lot of hams will see it on their waterfall display and hone in on it. Because of this, I was able to eak out a few more contacts for a total of 10.

One interesting thing to note. I can only activate a mountain once per year, but chasers can activate it more than once. I was activating right at midnight so I’m wondering if the guy I was talking to when it went from Saturday to Sunday (GMT) if he got two points :). Certainly two log entries.

So once again, this geeky hobby has pulled me into an area that I would have never thought to venture into. I didn’t pack the GoPro today so the video below is from my new Iphone 8-Plus. The stabilization on this camera is definitely better. Enjoy.

W6/SC-368 - Denk Mountain

Association:	USA
Region:	Southern Coastal Ranges
Lat / Long / Height:	33.0874°N -117.214°W 320m / 1050ft
Locator:	DM13jc Show »
Points / Activations:	1 points, activated 10 times
Latest Activation:	2017-09-30 by K7WYV IAF 33.08595, -117.22245 3.8 miles

Contacts

Date (UTC)	Time UTC	Call	State
2018-05-13	0:05	NS7P	OR
2018-05-13	0:04	NW7E	OR
2018-05-13	0:02	KI7PXR	ID
2018-05-13	0:01	AG7KO	WA
2018-05-13	0:00	W8UIL	AL
2018-05-12	23:59	W9MRH	IN
2018-05-12	23:58	W2SE	NJ
2018-05-12	23:57	K7MTD	MT
2018-05-12	23:56	K8TE	NM
2018-05-12	23:43	N4EX	NC