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.  Donate HERE, Mastodon

Check out the latest videos by the Ham Ninja

<<<Latest SAFETY TIPS can be found HERE.>>>

---

SOTA Safety TIP #8 - Reduce Your Navigation Risk

What

Build redundancy into your navigation capabilities and execution.

Why

As to the “why”, well, getting lost is no fun and could be deadly.  Our phones are super capable, and with GPS navigation, it takes the work out of figuring out where you are and how to get somewhere.  It also makes us a little too dependent on our phones.  Breaking your phone, or running out of power can put you in danger if you don’t have a backup plan. 

If your hike is on a well established trail, like the PCT, you may feel like your navigation risk is low but if a fire sparks up, or a flash flood closes off your return route, that won’t be the case.

Hikes that seem simple can look completely different on the way back under different lighting or become a real adventure if you are forced to take a different path.

SOTA Safety Tip #1 - Bring Plenty Of Water

 What

As we roll into summer, bringing enough water really is the number one safety tip.  SOTA operators are always trying to reduce the weight of their pack and a big part of that is the amount of water they carry. The Mayo Clinic recommends 3.7 L of fluids for men, 2.7 for women per day.  Temperature and exercise raises that minimum significantly.  

My SOTA Expedition Loadout

My SOTA Loadout options: (UPDATED)

During SOTA QSOs, a lot of people ask me what I am using so I thought I would describe my setup here.  Take a look and comment on your SOTA setup.
Updated: 7/23/2020 

Updated: 6/10/2021

Updated: 11/19/2024

Updated: 04/10/2026

(BTW, SOTA = "Summits On The Air")  Click on images for larger.

This page is turning into a bit of my "options" for a SOTA loadout. After doing this hobby for a while, gaining experience from my own adventures and learning from others, I've amassed a bit more equipment that changes based on mission. Below you'll see that I use different radios for given mission. I've been trying to lighten my load and go QRP with the KX2 and an ultra-light antenna but there are times when I load up the heavier FT-891 and associated battery when I really want to punch some power out and see how far I can really go.

One of the things that will really help me go QRP (lower power) is CW. Sending morse code over CW allows me to potentially get a lot more contacts farther away because the narrow band provides better signal to noise ratio. As I continue to learn about gear, make new antennas, learn CW, and experiment, I expect things will change. Mission #1 is have fun, and I seem to be nailing that. Pictured above is a complete 10 watt station, radio, antenna, and keyer. All you need to add is a way to get the antenna up in the air (tree or pushup pole) (it has a built in mic).(Note: Originally published Dec 31, 2017, updated Nov. 3, 2019)
 <click on images for larger>

For a full radio review, see my video series at HamNinja.com/radioreview and the slides with all the data I collected at HamNinja.com/radioreviewslides.

Update Your Names DB for Outd

As you may know, I’ve switched to Outd for logging contacts on my iPhone for SOTA operations.  I wrote a review of Outd HERE.  One thing that it won’t do it pull callsigns from QRZ.com.  In addition, if the callsign changed hands, the name will be wrong.  What I decided to do is create an updated file with callsigns that I’ve worked for SOTA that are not in the DB and sometimes fix the names that are in there if I know they are bad.  I’ve added about a 1,000 calls so far that are not in the stock version.  I was hoping to get a dump of calls that are in the SOTA DB but that might not be permissible. 

 

If you use Outd and would like to use my file, go HERE for instructions on how to install the latest version.  If you have calls that you would like to add or repair, feel free to send me a list with the callsign and name separated with a comma (“,”).  Also, if you have any issues, please let me know right away.

N1CLC
Chris Claborne
aka christian claborne

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.

<click on image for larger>

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. 

 <click on image for larger>

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.

<click on images for larger>

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. 

2020-09-20 Pipestem Mtn

Today’s summit of Pipestem is in lue of doing Red Mountain.  Dale and I had planned on doing Red Mountain but the trail was closed.  Pipestem is a good alternate summit and is in the same general area but further south down the Mogollon Rim.  The summit is lower than all of the peaks farther north, it’s about 7,244 feet at the summit.  I met Dale at his cabin in Alpine at about 6AM and we headed out. 

On the drive down we saw several small groups of deer and some baby deer as well.  In addition, we came across some large wild turkey hens and further down the road there were some tom turkey.  We stopped pretty close to the toms and watched them for a moment. Dale was running my camera most of the time.  We got pictures of all the wildlife except for the toms, I think they were too close.

<Click on images for larger>

2020-08-01 SoCal SOTAFest

Today’s SOTA activation is part of “SoCal SOTAFest 2020”.  A group of hams, including myself, had been planning this for a while.  The idea is to get as many of us on a summit as possible to enable a whole bunch of summit-to-summit contacts and have fun.  As word got out, a lot of other SOTA operators took advantage of this as well.  A group up in Oregon and Washington were on the air and a Colorado group called the 14’ers had scheduled to have an event of their own on the same day.

If you want more info on the event, checkout socalsota.com.  That will bring you to a mailing list site that we use to communicate.  The group also hosts a zoom meeting ever two weeks.  It's a great bunch of hams, some new at SOTA and some that have been doing it for a long time.  

2020-07-18 Porter Mtn.

Today was a quick activation up to Porter Mountain located in Pinetop-Lakeside.  I need to run to Home Depot not far from there so it was a good excuse to hit another quick summit.

The drive in from the north was a bit nicer than I expected.  There is a road that goes up to a parking area within a half mile of the highest point.  There are a lot of towers up there with microwave and what looks like a FM station and some VHF/UHF repeaters. 

My setup was almost good.... The antenna went from the top of the antenna to the bottom of a pine tree but just outside the shadow so I was sitting in the sun.  Most of my contacts were on 20m CW.  I did get a few on 40m cw and one on 20m SSB.  I netted 25 contacts in all.  I was going to try to work a few more SSB but I was getting hot and I wanted to finish my errands before it got too late. 

2020-07-17 A Tres Cabezas Activation

I’m in a SOTA Slack group with Charlie, NJ7V who lives in Mesa Az and the creator of Red Summit RF YouTube channel.   Charlie has come up to the area near my cabin several times to work Summits On The Air (SOTA).  We’ve talked about doing some joint activations and he was able to make that happen while I’m here at my cabin, or as I like to call it, “my summer villa”. 

I met another ham, Dale, AA7OY, exchanging email about SOTA summits near my cabin.

(Pictured from left, N1CLC, AA7OY, and NJ7V.  Click on Image for larger)

2020-07-12 Another New Mexico FA

Today’s mission was for me to be the first activator of another New Mexico Summit, W5N/AP-007.  I’m happy to report, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.  This is the 4th “First Activation” (FA) that I’ve completed in New Mexico.  I was thinking of doing this summit along with W5N/AP-015 last week but I didn’t have my plans solid enough on it.  I charted it but hadn’t really done the research well enough to be comfortable with it and I didn’t know what I would run into on AP-015.  BTW, getting FA for a summit is only good for the ego because you are listed first on the summit page.

2020-07-07 Epic Mt. Baldy Hike

I had been looking forward to hiking up Mount Baldy, W7A/AE-004, for a month now.  It’s not too far from my cabin and the reviews say it’s awesome.  I didn’t realize what a cool hike this was or I would have done it a LOT sooner.  It was an epic day on the mountain for sure.

I got up at about 5AM to be on the road by 5:30.  I wanted to be at the trailhead by shortly after 6AM so that I could beat any possible thunderstorms that would develop.  The monsoons haven’t started yet but when they do, we get some massive thunderstorms and they form in that area by 1100 or noon.  I didn’t want to be caught on top of the mountain and be the tallest thing there.  Today, the forecast was for dry conditions but you never know in this area.

(click on images for larger)

2020-07-06 Praririe Point Peak

I was chatting Andrew, KD5ZZK, who is familiar with a lot of the SOTA summits around Catron County New Mexico.  New Mexico state line is about 3 miles from my cabin, and as I looked at those summits Monday afternoon, it struck me that I could pop over there and activate one.

Prairie Point Peak (W5N/AP-031) is a “drive up” that isn’t that far from another no named peak that is actually on the other side of a canyon, W5N/AP-024.  You could actually do both of them easily in one day.  The drive over to the turnoff is about 30 minutes from my cabin, just past Luna, New Mexico.  I might have been able to drive all the way to the top but I got to a sketchy point on a very old unimproved road that I didn’t feel like getting stuck or tearing out my muffler.  I really didn’t mind parking and walking the rest of the way anyway. 

2020-07-03 A New Mexico Double Summit

I’ve had my eye on a summit in New Mexico that had not been “activated” yet for a while.  “Not activated” means that no other SOTA operator has gone up there yet with a radio and submitted their contacts, so I get to be “First Activator” (FA).  It’s kinda cool in that your name is listed first and is always shown at the “first”.  This will be the fifth FA for me.  The peak doesn’t have a name so the person that setup the peaks for this area just gave it a number, 8961 (which is normally the elevation of the peak).  It SOTA designation is W5N/AP-015.  Check it out, you’ll see my call sign listed as the first activator (it’s all about pumping up my fragile ego :). 

(Click on images for larger)

2020-06-28 Turner Pk. & Road to Mountain Goat

I’d been trying to figure out what summit I wanted to do this week that would push me over the 1,000 point mark.  In Summits On The Air (SOTA), at 1000 you make “Mountain Goat”.  It’s a cool award and a tough one to get.  So my selection had to involve getting my goat on.  Turner peak does require a bit of goat skill and it’s 8 points would push me over the 1000 I need to be “Mountain Goat”.  In this post I’ll cover today’s summit but also the road to Mountain Goat, 1000 “activator points”.  (click on image for larter)

I started doing SOTA on October 31st, 2017.  I was a pretty new ham with a general license but my home station kinda sucked.  It was really hard to get the home station performing well given that I didn’t have a lot of room for antenna wire and suburbia has a lot of radio frequency interference (RFI).  I somehow stumbled upon “Summits on the Air”, a part of the ham radio hobby where you take a radio to the top of a mountain, get a minimum of 4 contacts with your radio and and log the points for the summit.  These contacts have to be radio to radio so you can’t use repeaters.  

2020-06-27 Noble Mountain

I decided to head up to my cabin and work from there since the coming week is a short one given the fourth of July holiday.  The weather is absolutely unreal right now.  Highs of about 73 with a light breeze.  The house is at 8,300’ so that helps.  I was here last month by myself for 10 days and I activated 20 summits in 9 days of hiking.  I had a great time.  I really wanted to see how many I could comfortably activate in a short amount of time.  This trip I have a minimum of 3 summits that I wanted to do, and possibly a couple of others in New Mexico that have never been activated. 

I headed over to Noble Mountain which I can see from my cabin and setup in the activation zone.  I saw three deer on the way up the mountain.  The top is pretty flat so you basically drive into the AZ and then decide where you want to setup.

2020-06-20 A San Gabriels Triple

After a long week in the chair I really wanted to get out and do some hiking.  I had been up to the San Gabriels near LA with Adam, K6ARK in April 2018.  We hiked Mt. Islip, Mt. Williamson, and did a quick drive-up to Table Mtn.  I really wanted to go somewhere where the country was more alpine like and this area is good for that, similar to last weekend up at Tahquitz.  If I’m going to drive all this way, I might as well make it worth it and try to do a triple.  In addition, all of these are 8 pointers, helping me get a little closer to breaking the 1,000 point mark.

(click images for larger)