Summit: W6-CT-014
ATT Data Coverage: Excellent but intermittently off
ATT Voice coverage: Unknown
Hike stats: 1.5 miles roundtrip and 700′ ascent
The Angeles Crest Highway (highway 2) turned out to be a really beautiful drive after a rather ugly drive along highway 91 and Interstate 15 up to the trailhead for Kratka Ridge. High 2 is mainly on the north side of the San Gabriel’s and has great views.
Shortly after getting on highway 2 I spotted what I considered to be a very auspicious event; two real mountain goats! I’ve never seen a mountain goat in all my time hiking in California. I’ve seen deer, bobcats, coyotes and even a mountain lion but never a mountain goat. This surely bodes well for today’s activations!!
The hike to the ridge is about a 1.5 mile roundtrip hike covering about 700′ of elevation gain. The views at the ridge are great looking down into the greater LA basin.
I wanted to try an activation without my 50 watt Hardrock amp and simply use the 10 watts the KX3 generates. I had received a lot of encouragement from fellow SOTA-ites on NASOTA group. Needless to say the 10 watts was sufficient and I was able to make 10 contacts on 20m and 3 more using my Yaesu 2m.
Thanks to these chasers on 20m;
W0MNA, K8TE, K4MF, NG6R, W0ERI, K7ZO, KB6CIO, N4MJ, KF7JQV and NE4TN
and these on 2m;
KM6CEM, K6QCB and NA6MG
This all resulted in a smiling face while operating!
Paul Gacek 