On 23 December my son Peyton and I headed up to San Francisco to work. We took advantage of 1/2 day schedule for Christmas and headed over to Mt. Diablo after getting off of work. This is the first time that I had been to Mt. Diablo but my GPS had taken me right there. I had looked at the imagery on Google maps prior to going and saw what looked like a parking area about a 1/2 mile short of the summit. We found this parking area with no problem with room for 5 or 6 cars on the side of the road. This ended up being a good idea as the parking lot at the top is small and very popular. We parked the truck and headed up the summit. We saw all there is to see at the top and then slipped off the Side a little bit to get away from the crowds. I verified that we were still in the activation area and then set the radio up.
Route: This is an easy trip as I searched for the park in google maps on my iphone and it took me right to the summit. The park website also has a good map with trails and roads. http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=517 As you can see the North Peak Trail starts right off from where I parked. This will be getting some use in the near future.
Cell Signal: Yes (Verizon). Was able to self spot on SOTA Goat and make phone calls. Most of the way up the mountain my phone was searching for signal though.
Interference: None.
Distance: Round Trip .5 mile. The every trail route will show a little longer as we did a quick recon for our follow on trip after the new year to North Peak. If you just hiked from your car to the summit it would be about 1/2 mile.
Trail Condition: Easily identifiable trail but a little loose in places and you need to watch your step.
EveryTrail Route: http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=2520069
Log: I only did 20m today as I seemed to have a good short skip today and was able to get the short chasers and the long ones across the country. Was in a little bit of a hurry so left it at that. I am sorry if you were waiting for me to change bands. The next time I will spend a little more time.
The first group of Antennas that we came to.
Peyton just short of the actual summit. It was a great day for a short sleeve hike. Mid 60's at the top.
A little schack on the trail up to the Summit. Pretty well camo'd.
Lookout on the summit. This is where all the tourists go. We avoided it.There are plenty of views in other areas.
This is a picture of Devil's Pulpit, which can be seen on the map above. We hiked down and around it to get a good look at the route to North Peak.
In the last few weeks, I have been building a few kits. I have a PFR3 that is up and ready to go. I will probably start out with this on 40m and then work my way up as I feel comfortable. So my PNW chasers (K6EL & NS7P) will get to work me on CW. I will definitely get to the lower bands but it may be on SSB. I also built a Rock mite which is coming together though I am having some fun issues with that. I ordered the Super Rock Mite from China and have that a little bit assembled. My advice to you on this is DONT BUY IT! The instructions suck and a lot of parts are missing. I am hoping to have it together and working one of these days though. I am working with the seller to get some good English Instructions up on the Website.
Thanks to all the Chasers!
73s
Matt
KF7PXT
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