Sunday, January 20, 2019

2019-01-19 Eagle Peak & Stonwall Peak


Today I decided to hike Eagle Peak (W6/SC-156 - Eagle Peak) and Stonewall Peak (W6/SC-029 - Stonewall Peak).  Both of these hikes are pretty easy and not too far apart.  I thought about doing Middle Peak and then Stonewall because they are very close together but I really didn’t feel like hitting Middle Peak today given that I’m still suffering PTSD from the last time I went up there and bushwhacked from the west side (Adam says there’s a trail from the east side so I will eventually check that out).  I did these two summits at the same time last year so I was fairly familiar with the IAF and routes.  Last year it had just quick snowing on the way to Eagle Peak parking lot and when I started down for the car from Stonewall, it started snowing again.  I remember really being cold last year up on Stonewall, making some hot tea as soon as I got to the car.


It had been raining this week in San Diego so I was a little worried that it would be muddy up at Eagle Peak but, as it turns out, it wasn’t.  We had clear skies and it warmed up quickly.  I started the hike with three layers on and was down to one by the time I got back to the car.  This is a easy hike and the final ascent isn’t all that hard.  There is one place you have to sort of scramble over some rocks but you can actually avoid that if you hook around the north east side at the first false summit.

The wind was howling on the drive up to the area of operation and it took some effort to keep the car on the road as I went up the interstate through Alpine.  It was pretty windy at the parking lot, picking up dirt at time and throwing it into your face.  And speaking of the parking lot, it was locked, probably due to the shutdown caused by our man-baby president (code name “Orange October).  I was expecting a very windy summit but the wind died down as soon as I got the antenna up.  Setup was easy and I was launching RF into space in short order.  I knew there was going to be a VHF contest in the US today but I was unaware of the “North American QSO Party” was running today.  The 20 meter band was packed with guys in the contest so it was very hard to find a spot to park at.  I could have just dialed around and hooked up with some guys that were contesting, which I did for a while, but I had put an “alert” on the SOTA web site so I felt obligated to setup and then post a “spot”.  I settled on 14.323 and quickly had a pileup of chasers.  I had the usual suspects in the logbook in short order as well as a bunus, John (ZL1BYZ) from New Zealand. 

With Eagle Peak checked off the list I headed over to Stonewall Peak (just across the street from Cuyamaca where I was last week.  Because there was a VHF contest going on I decided to just bring my little HT and a directional antenna.  This means I can use my mini-pack and haul less than 10 pounds instead of 35).  I packed an extra layer for the wind at the top and headed out, quickly forgetting my trekking poles which I had to turn around and go get.  You don’t need trekking poles for either of these hikes but I grabbed a big pipe fitting and was planning on mounting the directional antenna on one of the treking poles and then strapping the whole thing to the rail at the top.  I didn’t have time to make a mount this morning and it was going to look pretty frankenstein but workable.

It was an easy hike to the top.  I stopped at an area just below the stairs to assemble the antenna.  I was planning on testing 2 meter and 70 cm so I had to assemble all of the little pieces.  It takes a while since they didn’t mark the elements that screw into the mast.  I like the antenna because it breaks down and goes nicely into a little bag though.  I’ll mark the elements with colored tape next time to make my job easier. 

Once the antenna was assembled and then taped to one of my trekking poles,  I headed up to the top, and just as I got to the stairs my Gopro battery died.  I was afraid I would but I can’t find my spare batteries.... The wind was howling at the top and I then wished I had packed two layers extra and put them in my bag.  I had already put on the one that I did pack while assembling the antenna but it wasn’t enough.  I then spent the next 10 or so minutes screwing around getting the directional antenna lashed to the railing so I didn’t have to hold it.  The problem with this thing is that it’s designed to be held and if all I’m doing is pressing the push to talk (PTT), and pointing the antenna then no problem, but I also have to write down call signs so I can officially activate the peak.  Also the antenna gets heavy after a while. 

My first contact on Stonewall was from a lady on Thomas Mountain (W6/CT-016 - Thomas Mountain) in the Anza desert.  The beam antenna brought her in loud and clear.  She was up there with her husband.  I later got a call from Adam, K6ARK and he thinks he did some CW with her husband who was up there with her.  The summit to summit distance was 46 miles.  That’s not bad using my little hand held radio at 6 watts.  But wait, it get’s better.  I also made contact with someone in San Pedro in the Los Angeles area which is 110 miles from where I was.  We were both pretty surprised.  My last VHF contact was the husband of the first operator that I talked to on Thomas Mountain.

After being on the summit in the high winds, which were at times gusting to 40, I was getting very chilled and my back and fingers were cramping up.  I used painter’s tape to secure the antenna to the rail so it wouldn’t leave any marks and it was easy to remove and get off the summit.  I climbed down to a spot with no wind, packed up and headed back to the car.  Even with the VHF contest going on, it wasn’t easy to get contacts up there.  Setting up a HF antenna has to be done away from the tippy top given the number of people that are up there.  It would be kind of cool to try my vertical HF antenna up there though. 

I hadn’t eaten anything other than trail bars for the day so I was hungry.  I stopped at my favorite Mexican food restaurant in Descanso and then headed home. 

So there you have it.  Someone mentioned that I should continue shooting video so, here you go, a VLOG with the BLOG.



Contacts


Summit
Date
Time
Freq
Mode
Call
Summit to Summit
W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1801
14.318MHz
SSB
NE1C

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1810
14.318MHz
SSB
N0XNN

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1812
14.318MHz
SSB
KA0KWU

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1813
14.343MHz
SSB
KD0IRW

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1816
14.331MHz
SSB
KT4Q

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1819
14.323MHz
SSB
W6GAE

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1820
14.323MHz
SSB
KR7RK

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1821
14.323MHz
SSB
N4EX

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1822
14.323MHz
SSB
NW7E

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1822
14.323MHz
SSB
AA1VX

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1823
14.323MHz
SSB
K3TCU

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1824
14.323MHz
SSB
K0LAF

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1824
14.323MHz
SSB
KD1CT

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1824
14.323MHz
SSB
K6MXA

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1825
14.323MHz
SSB
NS7P

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1826
14.323MHz
SSB
K6RKY

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1826
14.323MHz
SSB
N0RZ

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1827
14.323MHz
SSB
W6IPA

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1828
14.323MHz
SSB
ZL1BYZ

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1829
14.323MHz
SSB
W0ERI

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1829
14.323MHz
SSB
W0MNA

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1830
14.323MHz
SSB
W5BOS

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1831
14.323MHz
SSB
K9IR

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1831
14.323MHz
SSB
W5ODS

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1831
14.323MHz
SSB
W4KRN

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1832
14.323MHz
SSB
VE7KPM

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1832
14.323MHz
SSB
KC0JGE

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1833
7. 251MHz
SSB
K6MXA

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1838
18.145MHz
SSB
W6ADV

W6/SC-156
19/01/19
1846
146.52MHz
SSB
WA6MH

W6/SC-029
19/01/19
2145
146.52MHz
FM
N2ZIP
W6/CT-016
W6/SC-029
19/01/19
2240
146.52MHz
FM
KJ6TDC

W6/SC-029
19/01/19
2246
146.52MHz
FM
KK6YB

W6/SC-029
19/01/19
2248
146.52MHz
FM
K6ARK

W6/SC-029
19/01/19
2305
146.52MHz
FM
W6GWC

W6/SC-029
19/01/19
2308
146.52MHz
FM
KK6TOS

W6/SC-029
19/01/19
2310
146.52MHz
FM
KK6UC

W6/SC-029
19/01/19
2311
146.52MHz
FM
KB6WGS

W6/SC-029
19/01/19
2317
146.52MHz
FM
KI6SVI

W6/SC-029
19/01/19
2318
146.52MHz
FM
KM6BIO

W6/SC-029
19/01/19
2325
146.52MHz
FM
N0OI
W6/CT-016
W6/SC-029
19/01/19
2334
446.0MHz
FM
W6RDF

W6/SC-029
20/01/19
41
446.0MHz
FM
KF6ODE


Loadout for today:

      Yaesu FT-891D HF Radio at 100 watts
   30’ of coax feed line
      Yaesu FT-2DR HT
      3 L of water (8 lb)
      SOTA Dog
      iPhone with All Trails, MotionX GPS and sota goat
      MFJ-939Y auto antenna tuner for 891
      Trekking poles
     Packtenna.
   Extra LiFePO Battery
   AnyTone AT-868UV DMR radio for testing.
   Delorme Inreach satellite tracker and communicator.
   Yaktrax
   Directional backpackers Yagi Antenna (used on Stonewall Peak)

73,
N1CLC
Christian Claborne
Chris claborne




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