WELCOME

Welcome to my amateur radio BLOG. Here at N1CLC.com (aka HamNinja.com), I hope to cover my exploration of ham radio, summits on the air (SOTA) and general RF geek stuff.  My other BLOGS focus on technology (cloudrant.com), photography (cameraninja.com/blog), and life (thethroboflife.com). QSL via QRZ, LOTW, cards.

* Reference Links Page    * SOTA Specific Links  
* My Equipment Loadout    * DMR Tips    * My Youtube Channel

I monitor 146.520 and DMR SOTA (973), track me on the trail HERE or APRS.

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20-11-26 Twin Peaks with some DX

Well I’ve got the day off, it’s Thanksgiving day, I thought I would get some exercise, work the radio, and see if I can get a little DX.  The solar conditions are finally improving, mainly the solar flux mainly caused by bright regions on the sun improve the ionization of the upper atmosphere, providing better skip for HF signals.  I thought if I got up early, I might be able to work stations in Europe.  I’ve already done this hike and activation for SOTA this year, so no points but it’s close to the house, RF quiet and simple. 

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2020-11-21 Mount Tule

While on Hot Spring Mountain last weekend I talked to another ham buddy, John (K6MXA), who was on Mount Tule.  I wasn’t familiar with that one so I took a look at a map and thought that might be a good one to do this weekend.  I asked John about it and he mentioned it was a pretty easy hike, described the road conditions, and sent me his gpx track which I uploaded into Gaia GPS.  It doesn’t get any better than that.  I didn’t commit to doing it till Friday night however so it was sort of last minute.  For some reason, it had been a crazy week and I really needed to get outside and play radio for the day, but was having a hard time deciding if I would do it Saturday morning or Sunday.

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2020-11-15 Hot Springs Mountain

Today’s expedition is another joint activation with Jacob, W6RWS to Hot Springs Mountain, the highest peak in San Diego County.  I’ve done this one before with Adam, K6ARK but it was a new one for Jacob.  Jacob stopped by and picked me up and we drove up to the Coyotes Indian reservation by Warner Springs.  There is a day campground there and the tribe charges $10 per car to come onto the area. 

 The hike is up a road that leads all the way to the top which has a very old lookout mounted on it.  It’s a little over 4 miles to the top and I’d say the first two miles are the steepest. 

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2020-11-01 An Icehouse Double

Today, I meet up with Jake (W6RWS), and we head up to Icehouse Canyon near the Baldy Wilderness area to do a summit or two.  I’ve been looking forward to this trip for a while, as I hear that it’s a pretty hike and there are 4 summits in the area of operation.  I had a pretty bad showing on last weekend’s hike, most likely because I had been sitting on my ass all week.  I meant to do a bit of training before this one  but as luck would have it .... and lack of some sort of motivation I sat for another week.  So, after discussing with Jake, who is in a similar position, we figured the best we could do were maybe 3 summits, and most likely two.  The drive to the trailhead is about 2.5 hours from my house with a stop to get Jake.  My goal was to be at Jake’s place by 0530.

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SOTA Gear Survey Results

 This is a placeholder for the results of our SOTA gear survey.  Stay Tuned...

2020-10-17 A Washington Double

I traveled up to Seattle to visit my son who just moved there.  Juan’s got an awesome little place and getting in the Seattle city groove.  I had given Josh, WU7H, a heads up that I was coming and was hoping to join him on an activation.  I met Josh via the hobby and he’s a member of the SOTA slack group that I hang out at.  He lives in the Seattle area and has been doing SOTA for a long time and very familiar with the area.  He’s chased me a ton this year and we’ve gotten a lot of summit to summit (S2S) contacts.  Josh activates a lot with Darryl, another prolific activator and S2S junkie. Normally, if Josh or Darryl works you S2S, the other will be right behind him.  I’m hoping that Darryl will be able to join as well.  Josh originally chose a peak that would have some awesome views but the road into the area was closed so he chose a summit North East of Seattle, about 2 hours from where I was.  I was really looking forward to it.