w6csn’s outdoor amateur radio

The town of Sonoma, about an hour north of San Francisco by car, is a location steeped in California history. In fact, the current US State of California can be said to have originated here.

In the middle of the 19th century, before the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill, this region was under the control of Mexico. And before Mexico, this land was the home of Coast Miwok peoples, indigenous tribes that occupied all of what are now Marin and Sonoma counties.

In the Summer of 1846 small band of Americans rebelled against the Mexican rule and declared the California Republic an independent breakaway nation, adopting the grizzly bear on their flag. The rebellion held for 25 days before the U.S. Army stepped in and took control of the region. The state flag of California still features the bear and the words “California Republic.”

I had no such rebellion on my mind today, I was just here for lunch, and maybe I could get a POTA activation that had been on my radar for years. For radio kit, I had only the Elecraft KH1 and Tufteln right-angle adapter.

We got to Sonoma with about an hour before our 2PM lunch reservation. The YL’s were poking around the many shops that surround the town square so I excused myself and headed over to the old Sonoma Barracks, across from the square, right off East Spain street. There are plenty of more discreet operating locations from which one could attempt an activation of Sonoma State Historic Park US-3570, but this was an activation of opportunity, not an expedition.

I was really stacking the odds against a successful activation. Low power, a four foot long HF antenna, a hard stop in less than an hour, and “active” geomagnetic field conditions was making propagation a challenge. Not wanting to commit, I started just hunting with no active POTA spot of my own. Working AB9CA in New Mexico gave me enough confidence in my signal to at least try for an activation.

When you are facing an uphill battle just to be heard, it is much more advantageous to have people actively looking for your signal rather than trying to bust pileups with your five watts. I posted a spot for W6CSN on POTA and started calling CQ.

Honestly, I did better than I expected to. I would have been content to log just a handful of contacts so that hunters could get credit for US-3570 even if I failed to collect the 10 QSOs needed for a complete activation. By 2PM I had logged eight contacts by working the KH1 from a bench next to the servants quarters using the right-angle adapter to hold up the antenna, but I had to stop. The ladies texted me that they were at the restaurant and had already been seated.

Fast forward through lunch, the beginning of the next UTC day was less than 15 minutes away. I still had a shot at completing the activation, but needed to work quickly and have a bit of luck if I was going to bag the last two QSOs in time.

Walking down the sidewalk, I had my nose buried in my phone actually spotting myself on 20 meters even before I’d reached the activation zone. A moment later the KH1 was deployed again, this time in full pedestrian mobile configuration. There was no time to find a bench and set up the right-angle adapter, I would just operate standing up.

My fingers were crossed that the frequency I’d chosen for my spot was not already occupied. Turning on the radio, a strong CW signal emanated from my ear buds, darn it, I chose poorly. Then I listened for a moment, wait, that’s my callsign being sent! K5LG was already calling on my spot frequency, before I had even turned on my radio and made a call. I gave Les a 599 for his good signal from Arkansas, signed 72, and started calling CQ just minutes before the clock rolled over.

With a total of 11 QSOs in the log, I wrapped up the activation at 23:53 UTC. Just in the nick of time. Honestly it’s not as dramatic as I make it out to be. If I’d gotten only eight contacts, that would have been perfectly fine. You don’t have to twist my arm to get me to come to Sonoma, so I would have been happy to just try again next time.

73 de W6CSN