Copasetic Flow

 I continued my recent trend of ham radio in atomospheric rivers at the San Bruno Mountain summit. It was my first SOTA. Park: San Bruno Mountain State Park W6/CC-072 , K-1196 I climbed the mountain from the South San Francisco Side. I took BART to South San Francisco station, and then took the free blue circulator bus from there to the Chestnut and Hillside stop. The climb was very reasonable. There was a well worn trail the entire way. It would have been a bit more pleasant without the rain, but then in March and early April here in San Francisco, I wouldn't have done much of anything if I'd waited for the rain to stop. Radio Details: The antenna setup worked amazingly well! With the lack of trees, and the driving, nonstop rain storm going on, I just laid the antenna across two bushes, held the radio in my hand, and hoped for the best. And it worked!!!    QSO/ RBN spot map: Happenings of Interest   It was wet! I didn't expect to make any QSOs with the bush-bor...

 On the first POTA activation, the kids had hiked the mountain before, but it took ham radio to get me up there. The views ere incredible! I had no idea! Here's the view from the radio in the halfwave dipole. Park: San Bruno Mountain State Park ( K-1196 ) So far all the California POTAs have been reached via public transit. I took the SFMTA 43 to Chicago and Cordova and then hiked the rest of the way up the hill. Radio Details: Rockmite 20 meters using a Hamgadgets PicoKeyer. The halfwave dipole with embedded radio was about 8 feet up. This is evidenced in the picture above where I was able to get the camera very close to the radio.   QSO/ RBN spot map: Happenings of Interest   It seems like antenna height might not matter as much up here as I would have thought. The Rockmite and antenna were a few feet lower than on our second outing to this site , but QSOs were made further out.  This, of course, could have also depended on the time of day, and/or the io...

 In our last ham radio POTA at San Bruno Mountain State Park, I got to eat lunch with a Peregrine Falcon while I listened for QSOs! Park: San Bruno Mountain State Park ( K-1196 ) Radio Details: Rockmite 20 meters using a Hamgadgets PicoKeyer. The halfwave dipole was about 12 feet up, but I feel like I frequently oversestimate these sorts of things. As far as where the radio felt like it was, well... There's quite a slope headed over the edege of the mountain:    QSO/ RBN spot map: Green lines are QSOs, blue lines are Reverse Beacon Network Spots. See 'Happenings' for explanations of the circles around the station. Happenings of Interest   I got to eat lunch with a peregrine falcon!!! The raptor perched on one of the two trees that was supporting the antenna as I was making calls. It hung out, scanning the hillside below us, paying me no mind at all. Ultimately, it got a mouse! We had lunch together, although separated by about 10 meters. Also, we didn't trade food. L...