I’ve had my eye on this summit for a while but never went after it. After a couple of other hams summited and activated, I decided to get after it. It’s a simple and short hike, and it’s near my house between Iron Mountain and Mount Woodson. Today’s summit has no name so they call it “2703”, most likely the elevation of the summit. There is iron ore on one side of the trail and the other is granite. It’s interesting country here, mostly granite boulders though. The summit is just a tad funky, in that the high points are on top of massive granite rocks.

My first contacts were summit-to-summit with someone on Viejas Mtn and then Mike on Sheephead Mtn. I found a spot between a couple of massive rocks and setup the K6ARK random wire antenna, did a little chasing, and spotted on 17m. I racked up some contacts there, did some chasing for some more summit-to-summit points and then setup my LNR endfedz antenna to show the difference between the two antennas on video below.

I had a pretty good pileup on 20m which included a Christian in France. Once I worked the pileup down I got a couple more summit-to-summit contacts on my HT. One contact was Chris K6XUL on Gordon point and another operators on Mt. Helix. Chris gave us a trail report for Gordon point, a summit that Drew and I wanted to bike up on the 26th. Today’s weather was low 70s and crystal clear, perfect SOTA day.

My hiking partner, Drew (N7DA) failed on the HF setup due to a bum battery. I had one for him to use, but by the time I found out, he’d already committed to just using 2m on his HT.

The nice thing about this hike is that there were just a few people that we passed on the trail. Had we been on Iron Mtn. Or Woodson, it would have been bumper to bumper people and dogs. We closed out the activation, and I had a pretty good haul, 44 contacts and ~11 summit to summit contacts. It was good propagation today from France to New Zealand.

Expedition Summary

SOTA summits:W6/SC-212 (Hill 2703)
Points:2
Activation Date: 2020-12-19 (UTC)
Unique: Yes
Activation No: 225
Call sign used: N1CLC
Radios: KX2
Antennas: K6ARK random wire & LNR Endfedz 10,20,40
Band/Modes used: 17m 20m, 30m, 40m, CW (morse) SSB (voice), 2m FM
Cell Data: AT&T
Miles Hiked: 3.5 mi
Hiked Elevation Gain: 1,059

Contacts

Date:19/12/2020 | Summit:W6/SC-212 (2703) | Call Used:N1CLC | Points: 2

Time	Callsign	Band	Mode	Notes
16:28	W9SSN	144MHz	FM	Summit-To-Summit!
16:39	KN6MGZ	144MHz	FM
17:07	AK8A	18MHz	CW
17:08	KU4R	18MHz	CW
17:09	K4MF	18MHz	CW
17:10	VE2DDZ	18MHz	CW	Summit-To-Summit!
17:11	AC7P	18MHz	CW
17:12	K9OZ	18MHz	CW
17:13	W6TED	18MHz	CW
17:14	W9SSN	18MHz	CW	Summit-To-Summit!
17:15	N4HNH	18MHz	CW
17:17	KY9KYO	18MHz	CW
17:17	K2LT	18MHz	CW
17:18	KT5X	18MHz	CW
17:19	K0NO	18MHz	CW
17:19	VA6FUN	18MHz	CW
17:21	KI4SVM	18MHz	CW	Summit-To-Summit!
17:32	NE2P	14MHz	CW	Summit-To-Summit!
17:39	KW4JM	14MHz	CW	Summit-To-Summit!
17:45	K6MXA	144MHz	FM	Summit-To-Summit!
18:10	N4ARY/P	14MHz	CW	Summit-To-Summit!
18:13	NW7E	14MHz	CW
18:16	W0MNA	14MHz	CW
18:17	F4WBN	14MHz	CW	France
18:17	W0ERI	14MHz	CW
18:18	WW7D	14MHz	CW
18:19	NS7P	14MHz	CW
18:20	AB4PP	14MHz	CW
18:21	ZL1BYZ	14MHz	CW	New Zealand
18:21	W7EEE	14MHz	CW	Tim in Seattle
18:22	K7MTD	14MHz	CW
18:23	K7ULM	14MHz	CW
18:25	WB6CTS	14MHz	CW
18:26	W7JKC	14MHz	CW
18:27	KD8DEU	14MHz	CW
18:28	N0RZ	14MHz	CW
18:29	KX6IK	14MHz	CW
18:30	NU7A	14MHz	CW
18:31	KI6KU	14MHz	CW
18:32	WA6MM	14MHz	CW
18:43	VA2EO	14MHz	CW	Summit-To-Summit! In Quebec
18:45	K6MXA	7MHz	SSB	Summit-To-Summit!
19:02	KK6VLO	144MHz	FM	Summit-To-Summit!
19:17	N3XUL	144MHz	FM	Summit-To-Summit!