Inspired, I guess, by yesterday's peformance by American Pharoah, I had intended to attempt a trifecta of 6 point peaks this day - Pine Mountain W7O/CE-058, China Hat W7O/CE-053, and Paulina Peak W7O/CE-009.
The approach to Pine Mountain is straightforward. Many folks go up to the observatory, take the road about a mile further, and hike approx 3/4-1 mile along the ridgeline to the summit. I chose to turn off on East Basin Rd, just before the final switch backs to the observatory start, and head east along the north facing slope. There was an open place for parking on a promontory just below the summit - the 500 foot, .25 mile banzai route.
20m was good in the early morning, and with the Maritime Museum Weekend, there were plenty of targets for QSOs. I was especially pleased to make a QSO to the Big Island of Hawaii. He was running 300W, but dialed it down to 5W, and we had a QRP to QRP QSO on USB from the mainland to Hawaii. Gotta love physics.
Also made a great S2S with Rob AE7AP, who was working W7M / HB-101.
continued.