Hello friends! Not a SOTA activation report this time. I took a break and spent some time with a soldering iron in my hands!

SOTA is not only about hikes and operating radios but also about building your rigs and antennas. When a heap of dead and cold components turns into a radio one can use to make contact with people hundreds miles away it is pure magic. This never gets old. So I couldn’t be happier when Hans G0UPL announced he’s updating his excellent QCX transceiver kit.

I’ve immediately pre-ordered the upgraded version.

Welcome back friends! Yet another activation report - this time our target is Half Dome in Yosemite national park or as SOTA people know it W6/SN-040.

This trip almost didn’t happen. I had completely different plans for the last weekend of July 2020 but for good or for bad these plans became obsolete mid week. The best Plan B I could come up with was to curl up under a blanket and marathon the extended cut of Lord of the Rings. But. I needed a new Plan A.

If you read my previous blog posts you know I spent some time in Lassen Volcanic national park trying to activate Brokeoff mountain (W6/CN-003) and successfully activated Lassen peak (W6/CN-002). So what’s next? Well, the elefant in the room is, you guessed it, W6/CN-001 also known as Mount Shasta.

This mountain is a very special place for me. It comes with glaciers, thin air and scorching sun. It has everything you’d expect from a “real” mountain and then some. I tried to climb it in 2017 first time and had to turn back from the bottom of Misery Hill.

This experience made a great impact on me. It changed the way I see nature and my own place in it.

One of peculiarities of Lassen volcanic is that there are quite a few areas not connected internally, you have to leave the park and re-enter using other entrance.

• I’ve spend two days exploring the central area with Lassen peak - this part gets most tourist traffic.
• There is Cinder Cone / Butte lake area. The trailhead accessible from north and is close to Old Station.
• There is Juniper lake area accessible from south and is close to Chester.
• And finally there is area near Drakesbad ranch accessible from south and is close to Chester.

Planned the hike and SOTA activation of Lassen Peak (W6/CN-002) for the second day in Lassen Volcanic.

The weather was fair and spirits were high. I slept well and was ready for the highest summit in the park.

Lassen volcanic is an extremely diverse place in the geological sense. All four types of volcanoes are represented: Cinder Cone is quite unsurprisingly a Cinder Cone volcano, Prospect Peak is a Shield volcano, Brokeoff mountain is what’s left of a very large Composite volcano and, finally, our star today - Lassen Peak is a Plug Dome.