After my very successful SOTA activation of San Pedro Mountain the previous weekend, and the San Francisco Radio Club Angel Island expedition at the same time, the club decided to do another SOTA activation on Saturday November 14th. Antonis AA6PP, Jeff KK6JJZ, Rick K6TOR, David KN6HFV, and myself went up to the top of Mt. Davidson and activated the peak under the club's callsign W6PW.

It was a beautiful day, very clear after the rains the previous evening. We had a total of five stations. Antonis AA6PP and Jeff KK6JJZ ran the HF voice stations, trading off on 40, 20, and 15 meters during our activation. Rick K6TOR ran HF CW, and Dave KN6HFV ran the UHF station on 445.525 MHz with his HT and an Elk Antennas 5-element log periodic antenna.

Here is Antonis AA6PP running one of the HF SSB stations with an Elecraft KX2 transciever, AX1 multi-band whip antenna, powered from a Bioenno 4.5 Ah LiFePO4 battery. Notice the antenna counterpoise on the ground, stretched out in front of him.

I was using the same equipment as my previous activation. I had my Icom IC-T7H transceiver with 4 AA batteries, and a 3-element Arrow II yagi antenna. Jeff KK6JJZ is visible making contacts behind me, with his custom HF whip antenna lashed to a tree on the far left. I traded off using the Arrow directional antenna and the stock HT rubber duck antenna.

Off in the trees, Rick K6TOR was manning the CW station.

I made a total of 21 contacts on 146.505 MHz. The furthest contact I made was again with Alex KN6BAZ in the hills above Los Gatos.