Cerro San Luis Obispo (W6/SC-357) SOTA Activation

On Monday 17 Feb. Del and I were getting ready for the three hour trip back up to the bay area and back to our real life! I saw that Cerro San Luis Obispo (W6/SC-357) had not been activated and was a fairly easy hike to the summit. Del was still pretty sore from our hike on Saturday but was up for this one!

Route: 

Once you are in San Luis Obispo this one is hard to miss. The parking area is right off of the Marsh street exit of HWY 101.

Cell Signal: 

Full digital signal.

Radio working conditions: 

No issues. Nice and quiet on the bands

Trail Condition: 

Very nice trail all the way to the top.

Weather: 

Great day at about 55 degrees. A nice breeze!

Fees: 

None 

EveryTrail Route: 

http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=2669698

Setup: 

PFR3 with internal AA batteries - http://www.qrpkits.com/pfr3.html

Note: the AA batteries lasted me on all three activations without a charge. I was impressed.

Lambda Antenna - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXo0XucRpt0&list=FLuy-J6QwwXmIdgM0-I2ue7w&index=1

AME Porta Paddle II - http://www.americanmorse.com/portapaddle.htm

Contacts:

16 contacts on 3 bands. Not to bad for a Monday. Even though it was a holiday I am sure that some chasers were at work. Thanks Wendell from chasing me from Montana! It always makes me feel a little bit at home to get a contact from there!

Charlie's sleeping spot in the back seat. We had all our bags a gear in there and he was sleeping on top of it all.

An amazing view to the West.

This is a view of Bishop Peak (W6/SC-339) We may do this one if we are ever in the area again. You can see the trail all the way to the top and there were plenty of people going up it.

Del and Charlie on the top of Cerro San Luis Obispo. You can see Bishop Peak and the rest of the sisters in the back and all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

A shot of my operating position. I decided to wear the running shoes and give my feet a bit of a break. This was not the best decision as the trail was a bit rocky and uneven.

Over looking San Luis Obispo.

Charlie found a place to lay down. Also, it seems that you can not go anywhere without someone spray painting something these days.

I used the pole for my antenna. Not a lot of height on this one but it seemed to work. I need to get a pole for getting my antenna a little higher in the air. The main element did go off the side of the rocks which gave it some height off the ground below.

At least he is not trying to roll on a dead animal which is normally the case!

Del and I had to get one more Selfie with Bishop peak in the background before heading back down the hill.

Thanks again for everyone that was patient with me on my rookie CW skills. On thing that I have found is that if I just trust myself it is a lot easier. When I start over thinking things I have to refer to my cheat sheet a lot more. See everyone on the next one.