SOTA

Hello friends, It’s Field Day time of the year, providing a good excuse to venture deeper into the Sierras. So, here’s my SOTA activation report for the North Sierra Buttes, also known as W6/NS-139.

The weather was fantastic, with clear skies in the morning and a few clouds appearing in the afternoon. Despite the end of June shaded areas in the forest still had a decent layer of snow.

I can’t say everything went according to plan, but despite some hiccups, I managed to activate the summit and gained a few valuable insights about my antenna setup along the way.

Today’s post is about Bay Hill, aka W6/NC-434 SOTA activation. I can’t say that the summit is of any particular interest to me on its own. It’s just me trying to hit two birds with one stone: I’ve never been to Bodega Bay before, and Bay Hill is the closest SOTA hump.

A quick and easy activation of the Big Hill aka W6/NS-290 in the Eldorado National forest.

Nice forest and lake vistas with a simple access. Not that far from the world famous Rubicon Trail, Jeep Rubicon is named after.

Welcome back folks, reporting on Briones Peak aka W6/NC-371 SOTA activation.

I hiked the loop from the western park entrance via Mott and Briones peaks.

Briones regional park is a decent sized park near Lafayette, CA. At the time of discovery by Europeans the area was inhabited by Sacklan Miwok but by the 1810s combination of ecosystem-disrupting ranching and smallpox decimated the community. The land was used for cattle grazing ever since.

Hello friends today presenting a SOTA activation report for W6/NC-407 aka Richardson East Benchmark. Can’t say anything specific about this hump except it is a SOTA summit nearest to the Golden Gate bridge and it hosts a huge antenna farm.

Also - while I do believe losing some of your property in a smash-and-grab theft incident is a centerpiece of an authentic San Francisco experience, maybe you don’t feel like supporting someone’s drug addiction. Who knows?

Anyway if you are interested in how to enjoy the Golden Gate bridge responsibly - read on.