Petaluma Adobe SHP

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w6csn

on

October 29, 2023

This activation took my XYL and myself on a Saturday drive from chilly San Francisco to the lazy autumn warmth of Sonoma county and Petaluma Adobe State Historic Park (K-3531).

Our visit started with a little reconnaissance of the site’s historic adobe building and grounds across Adobe Creek and up a low hill from the parking lot. This site was the heart of General Mariano Vallejo’s ranch operations prior to California statehood.

There are a variety of engaging indoor exhibits and recreated displays showing the life of early California, as well as working exhibits of some of the activities that took place at the adobe.

After getting our fill of history, we walked back to the picnic area to see if we could complete a Parks On The Air activation from this location.

I suspect that on weekdays the picnic tables would be filled with youngsters on field trips from nearby schools, but today we had the whole place to ourselves.

We had our pick of tables from which to activate.

Sometimes my crusty old phone will just refuse to take a picture, such was the case when I attempted to document the antenna setup. So, please picture in your mind a 17 foot telescopic whip antenna sitting atop a tripod with six radial wires spread out on a soft carpet of autumn leaves.

For the radio, it was a tossup between the Yaesu FT-818 and the Mountaintopper MTR-4B. The Yeasu won today since the vast majority of my other activations have been with the Mountaintopper recently.

Here, at the eastern edge of Petaluma, there was just enough cellular signal to spot myself on the POTA web app before I started calling CQ on 14.061 MHz.

The first station to respond was NN9K from Illinois. The calls came fairly steady for the next 20 minutes before tapering off after working K6EL, a well known local SOTA man. I had the needed QSOs for a complete activation so I sent QRT and secured the station.

Both my companion and I were feeling a bit peckish so we took highway 116 east, around the southern end of Sonoma Mountain to get lunch in the town of Sonoma.

“but right now, it’s Cheeseburger Time!“

I’d left open the possibility of a second activation from General Vallejo’s domain at Sonoma State Historic Park, but after our late lunch we opted for an afternoon drive through the Sonoma valley wine country before heading back down highway 101 to San Francisco.