3-28-21 W6/CC-055 Fremont Peak


We had originally planned to visit Mount Diablo today with our wives (who don't really enjoy hiking but love views) and do a quick activation, but I found out at the last minute that the upper parking lot was closed and the steep hike from the lower lot to the summit viewing area was probably not a good idea for either of our better halves. So Peter and I got on a local 2 meter repeater and identified a couple of potential peaks we could do easily, and Fremont Peak fell out as the best plan.

It was a little over an hour away from my house, and looked like almost a drive up, but even so it would still take at least 3 to 4 hours round trip.  So we took off and eventually started to wind up San Juan Canyon Rd toward Fremont Peak State Park.  We were amazed at how few cars we on the road.  We got to the park and stopped at the self-service pay station. The fee was $6 for day use, and there's also a campground there (with a little higher fee of course) and a few tents were set still up from weekend camping.  But the parking lot only had a couple of cars in it.  Apparently not a very popular spot on nice spring days, or maybe the bulk of the campers had already gone home for the weekend.  So this is a note for next time: Go on a Sunday.

There was a short hike on a mostly paved "authorized vehicles only" road from the upper parking lot to the summit area.  It's a fairly steady uphill but not very steep.


The views were amazing.



You could see for miles and miles, clear back into San Jose and south into Watsonville and Salinas.  Here is a photo with what I think is Mount Umunhum in the center.  I'll try and identify all the peaks and update this.


As on most high spots in California, you can't really just have a State Park open space, but you have to have radio towers too.  It only makes sense.  As we got closer we started hearing a really high pitched sound that may have been some sort of alarm.  I didn't bother to check VHF to see what the RFI was like but we did have both our HT's sending out APRS spots.  When I got home I checked the APRS tracking and found that it didn't see very many beacons, even though there is a major digipeater on these towers, so I suspect the RFI was pretty high up close to them.



The paved road stops at the communications installation and the actual peak is several hundred yards beyond it.   You can see the flagpole structure marking the very top just behind that guy wire.  You get to hike on a good trail for a little while to get there.,


As soon as you get to the peak it gets quite rocky.  There is a clear path to get all the way to the top, but you have to traverse it among rocks and it can be easy to twist your ankle or lose your balance, especially for us older guys.  And there are 360 views so it might not be that fun if you have a fear of heights.  Peter made it to the top and then carefully backed down the trail because we decided it was just too scary to try to erect an antenna up there, even with the flagpole structure at the top to provide support.  I decided to stay down below and not chance it.  While we were there a number of young kids scurried up to the top and I wished I was 30 years younger again.


We were hoping to find the 0:0 spot for the summit (and our phones were telling us it was several hundred feet from the the actual peak) but with the rocks it seemed like a difficult task, so we found a small semi-shaded area on the north side of the peak and decided where to set up my end fed antenna.  There are no trees at the top and shade is at a premium. I erected my Sotabeams carbon 6 mast and found a nice crack in the rocks that seemed like it was made for holding masts up, and used both ends of the inverted L antenna to guy it down.  There wasn't a lot of wind, but it would have required additional guying if it was gusting any more.  Fortunately it was a quick set up.


The antenna feed point ended quite a distance from the radio so Peter pulled out his length of RG58 and we attached it to the antenna and ran it back to our operating "shade".  After getting out the seat pads, one of which functions as his neat little table, Peter hit the tune button on the radio and we got an amazing 25:1 SWR.  Both of us sat their for a minute wondering if the rocks were causing antenna trouble.  He hit the tune button again, and same 25:1.  After a quick round of "I thought the KX2 could tune up a tree", Peter noticed the dangling BNC connector he didn't plug into the radio.  Whew!  I guess you do have to have somewhere for that RF energy to go, huh?


We've fallen into a pattern of Peter starts on 30m CW and works whoever is there, and then I move over to SSB.  So we did the same thing, and made my four contacts on 40m.  Then, I got up the nerve to try a little CW.  I did a QRL? on 14.061 and then spotted myself.  I was literally reaching for the key when someone else started calling CQ directly on the frequency.  So I re-spotted a couple of KC away and started my CQ.  In both spots I put a note to pse qrs.  I was very nervous and not very confident.  But as people started coming back, I was surprised I was able to copy most of the callsigns, even though it felt that they were coming at me faster than I was sending.  Peter had to correct one or two letters in a couple of call signs, and I made a few sending mistakes.  But all in all it was a great experience and I was surprised how it all came back.  

I think the highlight was when we heard F4WBN.  I heard him once and replied with a signal report, but then someone else came over the top with a stronger signal and drowned him out.  The same thing happened a second time. Since my CW nervousness was still high, I was fumbling a little bit as well.  Peter said he hears this guy a lot when he does SOTA's and thought maybe he was running Web SDR or some other setup that wasn't actually transmitting from France.  And I didn't log him initially because it wasn't clear that he heard our reply back.  But when I got home I had a nice email from Chris, F4WBN, thanking me for the SOTA QSO and that I had a great signal.  So I responded to Chris and asked him if he was truly in France or running something remote, and he came back that he was truly in France, near the Spanish border, with an Optibeam on a telescopic pylon in a great geographical position.  So between our elevation and his setup, we were able to get into France with 10 watts on a simple end fed!  Amazing little radio this Elecraft KX2!

The radio towers were just a little ways from us but still didn't seem to impact HF at all.  I decided to give a shout out with my Kenwood TH-D74A back to a San Jose repeater on VHF and UHF, and 5 watts was full quieting both directions so they didn't seem to bother the higher frequencies much either.  APRS tracked both of us at the top.



Peter tried for a few more contacts on 17m.  The way we split the QSO's and bands seemed to work perfectly.  Then we packed up and started down the trail to the parking lot, which you can see down below our antenna mast.



As we started down from the upper parking lot, the ranger was checking the pay station at the campground.  So they do check.  Put your money in.

Great and easy activation.  I would come back again.  But next time, I'll put on sunscreen.  Ouch.


SOTA Activation Info:

Several parking spaces not far from the top, doesn't seem to be a very popular weekend spot
Decent ATT cell service, good APRS at the summit itself
Hike isn't bad - mostly on paved road.  But top is very rocky.
$6 parking fee, self service
Bathrooms in campsites
Very rocky terrain at top, no trees
HF works great from here - we got into France

W5RJD's Log

TimeCallsignBandModeNotes
20:06K6KMH7MHzSSB
20:10W6OBI7MHzSSB
20:11N6AN7MHzSSB
20:12K6TUY7MHzSSB
20:19WW7D14MHzCW
20:20F4WBN14MHzCW  Yes, really France! 
20:21W0MNA14MHzCW
20:23W0ERI14MHzCW
20:24AB4PP14MHzCW
20:25N0RZ14MHzCW

WB6POT's Log

TimeCallsignBandModeNotes
19:54W7VI10MHzCW599/599
19:55N4LAG10MHzCW599/539
19:55WA7JTM10MHzCW599/559
19:56KX0R10MHzCW559/559
19:58WW7D10MHzCW559/339
19:59NW7E10MHzCW559/559
20:00NU7B10MHzCW559/449
20:01NT5X10MHzCW579/229
20:32W4JL18MHzCW579/339
20:33W5GDW18MHzCW549/549
20:34WC0Y18MHzCW559/559
20:36AB4PP18MHzCW449/549
20:37K2LT18MHzCW559/339

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