w6csn’s outdoor amateur radio

Most of the canyons between the Pacific and Skyline Drive in San Mateo county are private land or regional open space.

However, if you head up Higgins Canyon Road, past several farms you will come to Burleigh Murray Ranch State Park, POTA reference US-7376.

This park, acquired by the State of California in 1983, extends from the parking area, up the coastal hills to Highway 35 and features several 19th century structures that are “maintained in a state of arrested decay.”

A sign warned of mountain lions, but I think the extensive poison oak is the greater hazard here.

I was fortunate to have a hiking buddy join me for the mile long trek up to the activation spot at a couple of picnic tables just shy of the old barn. A single table is available at the trailhead if you wanted to activate without the walking.

The road winds up a gentle slope with sturdy wooden bridges crossing over Mills Creek a couple of times along the way.

The fancy new KH1 has been getting all the love recently, so I decided to give the Mountaintopper MTR-4B a chance to activate a park. The QMX came along in case high bands were needed, and of course the KH1 was there as a backup station in case I’d forgotten any crucial piece of kit.

An 8 ounce throw weight easily lofted a length of arborist throw line with which I hoisted a 20 meter EFHW. The Spark Plug matching transformer offered an SWR of 1.1 to the MTR, and with 11.7 volts remaining the battery from the previous activation, the rig put out a solid 4 watts.

I’d forgotten how quiet a radio the Mountaintopper is. Turning it on I feared the 20 meter band was “dead” or that the coastal hills were blocking all the signals. I tuned around a bit and chased KD2KW in Texas, this told me 20m was working fine and that my 4 watts would be enough power.

I started calling CQ POTA and the RBN picked me up, causing my scheduled activation to be spotted. I know this because I started getting responses to my calls. With no cell service this far out of Half Moon Bay I was unable to access pota.app to see all the action on spots page.

About 45 minutes of calling yielded the 10 QSOs needed for a complete activation. Mapping the contacts showed that from this location 20 meters favored stations to the North and East today.

We packed up the station and began the easy “hike” back to the car, stopping occasionally to carefully snatch some sweet blackberries that were abundant along the trailsides.

73 de W6CSN