Activating parks and summits has become my primary form of recreation. However, this evening I needed a break from my “home park” in the Presidio (K-7889), so I headed across the Golden Gate to send out some radio waves from Mt. Tamalpais State Park (K-1178) in Marin county.
I didn’t go to the top of the mountain despite the Mountaintopper MTR-4B being the radio of choice today. Instead, I pulled off Pan Toll Road at Trojan Point where I knew of a nice spot to setup a field radio station.
My first ham contact wasn’t on the radio at all. Just as I was finishing my setup, a gentleman approached asking about my doings on the hillside. He turned out to be a fellow amateur named Kesari, VU2MTK, visiting from India. We enjoyed a nice “eyeball” QSO and I gave him the rundown on my field radio setup.
The activation was a little slow getting started, as is often the case. I hunted K0NIA in Iowa at K-9349. He didn’t know it was a park-to-park, but he’ll find out when he uploads his log. I called for a while on 20M but wasn’t getting any bites. I dipped down to 30 meters but nothing was happening there either.
More POTA spots were appearing on 20M, so thinking that conditions might be improving, I went back and continued calling on 14.060 MHz. W1TM responded with a call from Kansas and for the next 15 minutes hunters filled out the 10 contacts needed for a complete activation. KC3MIO in Pennsylvania was the last call before I went QRT.
The following equipment was used in today’s activation:
- Mountaintopper MTR-4B QRP CW transceiver
- CW Morse N0SA SP4 Mini Paddle
- Gabil Radio GRA-3750T portable antenna system
- Gabil Radio GRA-ULT01 MK2 Lightweight Tripod
- One Tigris lightweight folding camp chair
w6csn’s outdoor amateur radio 
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