W6/NS-187 Smith Peak SOTA Activation on May 26, 2025

 If you’re fit enough to hike 10+ miles in Yosemite, you’ll enjoy this SOTA summit.

The trail is well-maintained for the first 5 miles. The last 1.7 miles are slightly overgrown, but the brush is mostly below knee level. Wearing long pants will keep you comfortable. The trail can be a bit confusing in a few spots, so it's a good idea to have it mapped out on your favorite app (I recommend CalTopo).

I started feeling nauseous above 6,000 feet. I just slowed my pace to around 1 mph, took frequent breaks, and sipped water every 10 minutes. After spending about 30 minutes at the summit, I felt fully recovered. Altitude sickness is real, so plan your trip conservatively and listen to your body.

There aren’t any trees tall enough to support an antenna, but I brought my own mast and set it up next to a large rock that also served as a windbreak.

The summit offers an unforgettable panoramic view.

Setup sota station
QMX with truSDX as backup

The camera cannot capture the magnitude of the view, but you get the idea.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

20m-EFHW for 40-30-20-17-15-12-10m

Image
 40m EFHW resonates at 40-20-15-10m, but it’s 20 meters long, I think it’s too long for SOTA activations. I opt to a 20m EFHW which is about 10 meters. It resonates at 20m and 10m, to get 12-15-17m, I simply cut the wire and tune each band, form a linked wire EFHW. For 30m, I add ~10uH inductance at 17m joint; for 40m, I add ~20uH at 12m joint. I have tuned all bands(40-10m) below SWR 1.3:1 and the antenna performed well in the field. The wire is from Ethernet cable twisted pair and the whole antenna weighs 1.5oz For reference: 10m: 4.61m (15' 1-1/2") (not necessary, just in case) 12m: 5.15m (16' 10-3/4") 15m: 6.04m (19' 9-5/8") 17m: 7.22m (23' 8-1/8") 20m: 9.51m (31' 2-3/8) 30m: Add 10.7uH at 17m joint 40m: Add 20.3uH at 12m joint The 49:1 transformer has 2T for primary and 14T for secondary. Use 2m (6') coax, no tuner required for CW only operations.
Read more