And yet another SOTA report from the Bay Area - this time it is about Montara mountain with its highest point - Scarper peak also known as W6/NC-288.

It may be of a surprise to you but european explorers were oblivious of San Francisco bay existence for quite a while. For example Sir Francis Drake most likely stopped to careen his ships in what is now called Drakes bay during his 1579 circumnavigation voyage and search for a North-west passage. English later were trying to use his landing to dispute Spanish and American claims on California.

Only in 1769 Juan Gaspar de Portola and his companions discovered the Bay. The monument commemorating this event is located on the Sweeney ridge trail hugging Montara mountain from the north.

I’m back with a new report - I had quite a bit of fun in the North Bay last November activating Mount Tamalpais aka W6/CC-063.

The mountain is a birthplace of mountain biking and had been mentioned in The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac - the book made me fall in love and eventually move in with California.

Also this is the place where apes from Dawn of the planet of the Apes live.

Hey-hey, buckle up for yet another SOTA activation report! This time our guest is Mount Diablo aka W6/CC-045.

Need to confess - as a kid I spent an unhealthy amount of time playing Diablo and Diablo II games. Dark atmosphere, fast paced real time isometric combat and RPG elements made for an ideal mix. While I could spend more time studying instead of wasting time playing games there is hardly any other piece of media that made me wish to become a software engineer more. Well, maybe Might & Magic VI. And also probably Doom. But Diablo is definitely one of the trinity.

Why do I mention that? Because Diablo game had been named after Mount Diablo. Don’t trust me, check David Brevik talking about the game.

Welcome back friends! It’s been a while since the last blog post - I was busy (and lazy!) Time to clean the backlog up a bit and write about Clouds Rest aka W6/SS-257 activation.

The Bay Area was extremely smoky in the middle of September and I hoped I could get some cleaner air higher in Eastern Sierra. Right before my planned trip all national forests had been closed due to fires. Sequoia National park started to burn as well and winds pushed smoke toward Yosemite. I decided to go anyway - if there is no escape from ash I’ll breathe ash with a view at least.

Hey-hey friends! If you read my previous post you know I’ve built a QCX+ kit from QRP Labs recently. Naturally I was eager to try the rig in the field but at the same time I didn’t feel like doing any serious hike plus I wanted to maximize the probability of a successful activation. Ideally the summit should be close to a ham brood, the hike should not be boring but still allow to bring some backup equipment just in case QCX+ fails me.

Meet Mount Caroline Livermore W6/CC-075 in the Angel Island State Park located (quite unsurprisingly) on Angel Island, the second largest in San Francisco bay.