w6csn’s outdoor amateur radio

The Golden Gate National Recreation Area is large park entity ( https://pota.app/#/park/K-0647 ) with a great variety of POTA operating locations.

For this activation I set up on a WW2 gun battery on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge at Fort Baker.

Parking is easy and free at Cavallo Point, then a short trek up a set of wooden stairs to the old concrete battery. There are no trees to speak of at this location so the seven meter push up mast lashed to a steel pipe with bungees held the EFHW aloft, sloping to the east.

The FT-818 running QRP (5 watts not 6) brought in 7 contacts in fairly short order, but conditions changed and the qso rate slowed down considerably. The afternoon west wind and sun exposure really starts to wear on you, making the 20 minutes needed to get the last three contacts seem like forever.

After 40 minutes since my initial CQ, the 10 contacts need for a valid activation were in the log. And given the windy conditions, I decided to pack it up. Note: T-Mobile cell service is notoriously bad at this location, but I was able to get one bar of LTE long enough to spot myself.

Be careful on the stairs to and from the battery position! In some places there is nothing to stop you from a 20 feet drop into the frigid bay waters.

The Golden Gate National Recreation Area is a great candidate for going after the Repeat Offender activator award since there are so many locations to operate from. Perhaps I’ll try the Marin Headlands next.