2019-12-22 San Gabriel & Occidental

This weekend may be the last chance that I can activate up in the San Gabriels in 2019.  A storm is moving in and will most likely dump quite a bit of snow, making the trails on San Gabriel (W6/CT-019) and Occidental (W6/CT-098) too treacherous to pass until it melts next year due to the narrow path on a very steep hillside.  A couple of hams that I’m acquainted with went up there on Friday, so I figured it was still open, meaning no deep snow and ice.  Adam, K6ARK mentioned he was willing to go on Saturday so we decided to link up at my house and depart at about 0530 PST.  Adam was right on time and we quickly launched after loading our packs into my car.

(click on image for larger)  (Updated and replaced pixi radio with Rockmite )

The drive up took a little over two hours.  Both mountains are next to Mt. Williams which is packed with antennas (route here). 

We hiked up via a well worn trail that’s cut into the hillside.  A stumble could send you tumbling a long way down.  The winds were at about 15 to 20 kts at the top making it cold.  I setup the antenna mast at the top and then tucked down the hill a bit.  While I was setting up I worked a few stations on my HT and asked one of them to spot me on SOTAwatch.org.  I worked a pretty big pileup on 20 meter and bugged out with after working 33 stations, most of them on 20 meters.  (Take a look at the track to the right and you’ll notice Occidental Peak in the lower right corner.)

Adam was on the windy side of the mountain.  Although not in the wind he was in the shade and got chilled.  I broke out the jetboil stove and we had hot drinks in about two minutes.  While Adam warmed up, I packed up my antenna and then joined him with some hot tea.  We de-summited and reached the car in probably 30 minutes or less. 

The drive to the Occidental trail head took about 5 to 10 minutes.  We parked just outside of the antenna farm on Mt. Williams. It’s a funky hike with only 400 feet of elevation gain from where we parked.  There is a ridge from Mt. Williams but the hiking path is along the eastern side of that.  It does follow the ridge for a while, which is only 15 feet wide in places.  It was pretty easy to follow the path but it was mostly loose loamy dirt, a nice change from the hard granite. 

I spent way too long looking for a place to setup the antenna.  Adam was setup on the peak and I worked to find a place down the ridge to put the antenna away from him.  I didn’t have cell service to spot myself and I then screwed around calling CQ without a spot.  My gear was kinda spread out with my pack on the ridge and my operating position down below that out of the wind.  I got a tad chilled so I went up, made some hot tea and then sent a spot out using my sat comm device (Garmin Inreach).  By the time I got back to the radio the frequency was taken over by some guys shooting the shit.  I had several VHF contacts with the HT and did manage one on 20 meter SSB and another via CW so the summit was activated with points.  I was just getting ready to respot when Adam came by and I decided to call it a day.  I didn’t get a whole lot of contacts on this one but I had a blast on the last one. 

Adam activated using his Rockmite radio, that is CW only and is 0.3 watts!  The Rockmite radio is in an Altoids can and has a built in keyer with touch sensitive “paddles”.  The the ultra light setup for geeks that love to hike and it worked awesomely.  He also broke out his custom QCX unit and got some contacts on that. 

The walk back to the car was probably 20 to 30 minutes.  We loaded up and went down the Angeles Crest Highway into La Canada Flintridge and had some of the best burgers to date at North Shore Burgers.  That pretty much topped off an epic day in the mountains.  The hikes were short but rewarding.

Below is a video by K6ARK of our trip.  Check it out.

Contacts

Date:22/Dec/2019 Summit:W6/CT-019 (San Gabriel Peak) Call Used:N1CLC Points: 6 Bonus: 0   Delete

Time	Call	Band	Mode	Notes
16:42z	KN6CSQ	144MHz	FM	Summit to Summit to Vetter (W6/CT-021)
16:47z	K6LDQ	144MHz	FM
17:00z	KM6PRD	144MHz	FM
17:01z	K6YRA	14MHz	FM
17:16z	N4EX	14MHz	SSB
17:16z	NA6MG	144MHz	FM
17:20z	W0MNA	14MHz	SSB
17:20z	AJ6MZ	14MHz	SSB
17:21z	WA2USA	14MHz	SSB
17:22z	W5ODS	14MHz	SSB
17:23z	K6QCB	14MHz	SSB
17:23z	WW7D	14MHz	SSB
17:24z	KB5EDR	14MHz	SSB
17:25z	AB4PP	14MHz	SSB
17:25z	VE7NCD	14MHz	SSB
17:26z	W5CSR	14MHz	SSB
17:26z	W2SE	VLF	SSB
17:27z	VE6AGR	14MHz	SSB
17:28z	K0LAF	14MHz	SSB
17:29z	N5ZC	14MHz	SSB
17:29z	NE4TN	14MHz	SSB
17:30z	KI4TN	14MHz	SSB
17:31z	WB7BWZ	14MHz	SSB
17:32z	KF7JQV	14MHz	SSB
17:33z	N6UTC	14MHz	SSB
17:34z	VA6FUN	14MHz	SSB
17:34z	K1LIZ	14MHz	SSB
17:35z	VA7QZ	14MHz	SSB
17:36z	VE7KPM	14MHz	SSB
17:36z	KG5ZUF	14MHz	SSB
17:37z	VE2JCW	14MHz	SSB
17:37z	W6TVQ	144MHz	FM
17:38z	NS7P	14MHz	SSB

Date:22/Dec/2019 Summit:W6/CT-098 (Occidental Peak) Call Used:N1CLC Points: 6 Bonus: 0   Delete

Time	Call	Band	Mode	Notes
19:34z	KI6PMD	144MHz	FM
19:35z	N6CHE	144MHz	FM
19:43z	N0OI	144MHz	FM
20:12z	K5JPR	14MHz	SSB
20:28z	AG7SU	14MHz	CW
20:45z	WB6MYL	144MHz	FM

Loadout:

●      Gregory Zulu 40 backpack

●      First aid kit.  Make sure it’s a good one... like ability to patch up an impalement wound. 

●      Elecraft KX2 10 watt HF Radio

●      The K6ARK Spider Thread Antenna

●   30’ of coax feed line (not needed

●      Slim Jim dual band antenna for my HT.

●      3 L of water (8 lb)

●      iPhone with All Trails, MotionX GPS and sota goat

●      Trekking poles (not today)

●     LNR End Fed multi-band antenna

●     MFJ-1910 telescoping mast (holds the antenna up)

●   AnyTone AT-868UV DMR radio for testing.

●   Custom wine bottle cork paddles for CW (crafted by K6ARK)

●   American Morse Porta Paddle for CW

●   Delorme Inreach satellite tracker and communicator.

●      Jetboil MicroMo cooking system

●      Yaesu FT-2DR HT (backup left in the car)

●     Packtenna. (did not take)

●      CHA MPAS with spike and additional MIL mast (and version 2 of the top section) (left in car)

●      Yaesu FT-891D HF Radio at 100 watts  (left this in the car :) )

●     Extra LiFePO Battery (not needed)

73,

N1CLC

Christian Claborne

(aka chris claborne