Mt Pinos W6-CC-002 SOTA

July 26, 2021

Last weekend, Julie (KN6AOC) and I hiked up to the Mt Pinos summit, W6/CC-002 at sunset and made some contacts on VHF FM 146.520.   Although our phones were indicating 5G coverage on Verizon there, we had no data service and couldn’t spot ourselves.  And also unfortunately, none of our contacts had any previous experience with SOTA’s and didn’t know how to spot us.  But despite those limitations, we made 5 contacts before the sun passed below the horizon and before our walk down under the stars.  

For the voice contacts, I brought my Yaesu FT-60 handheld, an Ed Fong DBJ-2…

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Winlink via VARA HF with Yaesu FT-891 and Signalink Working Settings

December 4, 2021

I recently acquired a Yaesu FT-891, a Signalink and a VARA HF license in the hopes that I could get Winlink working over HF radio.  I’m no stranger to Winlink, but HF radio in general is fairly new to me.  In my efforts, I reached out to the ham community to ask others about their equipment and settings.

My first attempt at a connection was a failure.  I watched a few videos on doing Winlink over HF radio, but pretty much all the settings in my radio were factory default.  My second attempt was successful.  I managed to connect to …

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W6/SC-329 East Peak Benchmark Activation / Lessons Learned

August 20, 2022

My wife Julie (KN6AOC) and I planned to do an overnight camping trip and activate the easiest of four summits on Catalina Island, W6/SC-329 – East Peak Benchmark. I’ve been to the island many times, most often brining my mountain bike but have never hiked it. I knew from my previous biking experiences that the trails on Catalina Island can be quite steep at times. The hike was no different.

We took the 6AM boat out of Long Beach.  was that we should have brought two bags each: one for valuables and one for the camping stuff. As soon …

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