by Thomas (K4SWL)

On Saturday, August 22, 2026, I found myself waking up in California, preparing to do something I’d been looking forward to for quite some time: a West Coast SOTA activation with friends.

This one turned out to be one of the most memorable days I’ve ever spent on the air.

How I Ended Up in CaliforniaPreparing to leave Asheville as the chickens were waking up.

So, what took me out of North Carolina and put me in California?

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had been invited by Ara (N6ARA) and Mark (KD7DTS) to be a guest on their podcast, Sofas on the Air. Their Patreon supporters had actually funded my flight out to California, and Ara and his wonderful wife were kind enough to offer me a place to stay for the few days I was in the Los Angeles area.

Preparing to land in LAX

In short, it was an absolutely fantastic trip.

On Friday, August 21, we recorded the Sofas on the Air episode, which was a lot of fun—and quite long. Longer than the average Ham Radio Workbench episode, if you can believe that!

Pre-recording selfie

But I can think of few things better than spending time with Mark and Ara. They’re both awesome friends and genuinely nice guys.

Along with Adam (K6ARK)–speaking of awesome friends–they had also plotted a SOTA outing for me the following day.

Ara had reached out beforehand and asked whether I wanted an easy, moderate, or difficult SOTA adventure in terms of the hike. My response was essentially that something moderate or easier would be perfect.

I wouldn’t have minded a more challenging hike, but I had a pinched nerve in my neck at the time that limited how much weight I could comfortably carry in a backpack. I needed to keep things very light.

Ara replied that they knew the perfect spot.

SOTA With Friends

That Saturday morning, we woke up fairly early, and Mark (KD7DTS) and Adam (K6ARK) rolled into Ara’s house.

I’ll be honest: I was super excited to do SOTA with all three of these guys. All three are people I would encourage you to follow if you’re interested in amateur radio and portable operating. They do some amazing things, and they’re just great guys.

Their channels:

• Mark (KD7DTS)
• Ara (N6ARA)
• Adam (K6ARK)

So it was a bit of a thrill to be able to hang out with all three of them for an entire day and do the thing I love doing more than almost anything else: SOTA!

We hopped in the car, stopped to grab a sandwich to take with us, and headed into the Angeles National Forest.

[Many of the photos in this post were taken by Mark, Ara, and Adam.]

Oh yeah, Angeles National Forest (US-4453) is also a Parks on the Air entity, so this would be both a SOTA and POTA activation! Woot!

Mark was driving, and because Mark was driving, we probably got there much more quickly than we otherwise would have. I’m pretty convinced he was a rally-car driver in a previous life!

Seriously, though, he did a great job, and I really enjoyed seeing the roads and mountains along the way.

I’ve traveled quite a bit around the world, but I’ve spent surprisingly little time in high-desert and desert environments. The arid landscape was fascinating to me, and I was struck by how beautiful the area is—and how close it is to Los Angeles.

I can understand the appeal of living in the Los Angeles area for this reason. You’re in the middle of a major U.S. city, yet you’re remarkably close to numerous summits.

I can also see why so many SOTA activators in Southern California have reached Mountain Goat status. There are simply so many summits to choose from!

The Walk to Vetter Mountain (W6/CT-021)

The drive was beautiful, and eventually we pulled into Charlton Flats and headed toward Vetter Mountain.

The great thing about this particular summit is that it’s maybe a mile and a half each way.

I didn’t even need my hiking sticks, which was great because that meant I didn’t have to take them with me on the trip.

In fact, the route is paved for much of the way because you’re actually following a Forest Service road that goes all the way to the tower at the top of Vetter Mountain.

Other than the heat, it was an absolutely ideal day for SOTA.

Side note: There was another interesting aspect to this activation. This was the first time I can remember in perhaps 15 years that I flew somewhere without taking a radio with me. I had originally planned to bring my Elecraft KH1, but in the end I traveled with only my 20-liter Savotta backpack and the hip pack that attaches to the back of it.

My Savotta Niukka 20L pack

I travel pretty lightly and don’t check bags, and I also wanted to bring a couple of things to Mark and Ara. More importantly, I was trying to keep the pack weight down because of the pinched nerve in my neck. And, hey! I was staying with Ara. Ara already owns most of the QRP radios I use in the field anyway.

So, for the first time I can remember, I traveled without a radio. It felt strange.

In fact, I think this was also the first activation I’ve ever done where the only thing I really carried up the mountain myself was water.

Mark, Adam, and Ara carried all of the radio equipment. It was like having my own personal entourage of SOTA porters.

It was absolutely brilliant!

Thank you so much, guys!

A Luxury SOTA Station

We had a wonderful time walking up to the tower, and when we arrived, I discovered a big pergola made from small I-beams. It was a total luxury site for a SOTA activation.

You can see the pergola in the middle of this photo (taken from the tower)

It’s not often that you reach a summit and discover an actual picnic table waiting for you. Vetter Mountain has some pretty nice infrastructure at the top, and there were also a couple of park staff members there who were very kind.

The guys got to work immediately.

Adam deploying his 6 lb 15 m Moxon

Mark installed a 20-meter dipole on a POTA20 Explorer pole.

Next to it, Ara set up an end-fed half-wave antenna on a fiberglass fishing pole.

And Adam, being Adam, started installing his 15-meter Moxon antenna off to the side.

Three different HF antenna options? This was shaping up to be quite the station!

Once everything was set up, I settled in with an Elecraft KX2 and key.

I started my activation video with an introduction, then introduced the guys before sitting down and calling CQ SOTA.

And that’s when the fun really began.

Gear

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Radio

• Elecraft KX2
  • G7UFO USB-C Charging Board
  • Tufteln KX2 Protective Cover
  • Elecraft KXBT2 Li-Ion Battery Pack

Key

• SUR Kobo CIR-45D
• Retractable Key Cable – 2.5 Feet
  
• Senrog Bench Block

Antenna

• Fiberglass Fishing Rod Pole
• Explorer POTA20Carbon Fiber Mast and Adventure Gear Ground Spike
• K6ARK Antenna Kit built as a 20 meter Dipole
• K6ARK 20W Antenna Kit built as an EFHW
• K6ARK Homebrew 15 meter Moxon

Logging supplies

• Rite In The Rain Top Spiral Notebook
• Rite in the Rain All-Weather EDC Pocket Pen

Camera

• DJI OSMO 4 action camera with Joby Telepod Sport Tripod

On The Air

Conditions had been pretty poor lately, so I started on 20 meters.

The first portion of the activation produced 10 contacts on 20-meter CW, followed by three more contacts on 17-meter CW.

I really loved using Ara’s SUR Kobo CIR-45D

On 20 meters I worked, in order: NI5V, N7UVH, N7CCD, KA0WKG, N0GQ, KQ6YW, WA1VEI, K3ES, N6JW, K1PAP.

The 17-meter run produced: W7RF, AI5DD, WD4MSM.

So, 13 contacts in the first segment.

These guys are a riot!

It wasn’t exactly a huge pileup–in fact, it was pretty slow-going–but that was perfectly fine. We were sitting on top of a mountain with a beautiful view, I was surrounded by three good friends, and I was making contacts with five watts.

Then we took a break for lunch at the watchtower.

A VHF SurpriseMark (KD7DTS) striking a SOTA pose!

After lunch, Mark encouraged me to test the VHF waters, and I was eager to do so!

This portion of the activation wasn’t filmed because I had put the camera away, but it ended up being one of the most remarkable parts of the entire day.

I made 46 contacts (!!!) on 2 meters using FM, SSB, and CW.

The breakdown was:

• 22 FM
• 16 SSB
• 8 CW

This was a completely different experience from the typical VHF operating I’m accustomed to doing on SOTA summits here in North Carolina.

There was an insane amount of activity.

I made contacts on FM, SSB, and even CW, and several of the contacts were summit-to-summit contacts. Some of the distances involved were pretty impressive as well.

What made it particularly enjoyable was that, once again, I basically got to sit there and operate.

Mark and Adam were taking care of the antennas and getting everything pointed in the right directions. I just had to use the microphone or key and make contacts.

It felt like such an honored guest!

I’ve made plenty of VHF contacts with other SOTA activators over the years, but that’s usually happened at SOTA campouts. I’ve attended the W4G SOTA campout, for example, where a group of summit activators can head out onto summits and make a large portion of their activation contacts using handheld radios.

That’s a lot of fun. But this was different.

This was a sustained VHF activation from a Southern California summit, and it gave me a glimpse of just how much potential there is for VHF SOTA operating in an area with the population density of Southern California.

It definitely got me thinking about doing more of it.

Back to HF: 15 Meters Comes Alive

Eventually, I made my way back down to the HF station and moved over to Adam’s 15-meter Moxon.

And WOW!

That antenna was spectacular.

I started calling CQ on 15-meter CW and suddenly had a completely different activation on my hands. An insane pileup.

I logged 25 contacts, all on CW.

I was working European stations from Southern California with five watts.

Among those 25 contacts were F4WBN in France (good ole’ Christian!) and IU2UEQ in Italy, along with stations across the United States.

I even worked several stations on the East Coast that I’m accustomed to working from my home station in North Carolina. More than one of my friends was surprised to discover that I wasn’t actually on the East Coast. My signal was apparently strong enough that they assumed I was much closer to them.

That 15-meter Moxon really impressed me.

It also made me realize that there’s something to be said for occasionally going the extra mile with a SOTA antenna. Most of the time, I’m perfectly happy with a simple, lightweight antenna that allows me to get on the air and make my activation.

But an antenna like Adam’s Moxon can turn a summit activation into something much more interesting than simply getting the required contacts in the log.

I may have to experiment with that idea myself.

QSO Maps

Here’s what this five-watt activation looked like when plotted out on a QSO Map. Click on the map images to enlarge.

VHF Detail

Activation Video

Here’s my real-time, real-life video of the entire activation.  As with all of my videos, I don’t edit out any parts of the on-air activation time. In addition, I have YouTube monetization turned off, although that doesn’t stop them from inserting ads before and after my videos.

Note that Patreon supporters can watch and even download this video 100% ad-free through Vimeo on my Patreon page:

Click here to view on YouTube.

An Amazing SOTA Activation!

When I thought about it later, I realized that this was my very first SOTA—or POTA—activation on the West Coast of the US.

I’ve traveled to the West Coast many times, but most of those trips happened before I became so involved with Parks on the Air and Summits on the Air.

So I’d never actually activated a summit anywhere on the West Coast.

This was my first…and let me tell you: it set the bar incredibly high!

Heading back to the car.

Adam’s Moxon got me to thinking about putting together a SOTA station designed not just to get the activation done, but to see just how much I can accomplish with a higher-performance antenna.

The VHF experience also got me thinking about doing more VHF SOTA operating.

Meeting the Southern California SOTA Group

There was one more part of this trip that made the day especially memorable. Before I arrived in California, Ara sent a message to the SoCal SOTA group letting them know I’d be in town. He picked a pub in Pasadena, and that evening Adam, Mark, Ara, and I headed over to meet everyone.

A whole bunch of Southern California SOTA folks were there.

I had such a wonderful time meeting people whose callsigns I recognized but whom I’d never actually met in person.

I heard about their fascinating careers, their adventures, and their love of Summits on the Air.

The Southern California SOTA group is such a dynamic and interesting collection of people–and this was just a few of them! They’re passionate about field radio, they’re active, and they clearly enjoy what they’re doing.

It was a real honor to spend the evening with them.

And the food was good, too!

A Day I’ll Remember

I’d like to thank Ara, Mark, and Adam for making the day so memorable.

As I’ve mentioned before, one of my great joys in life is meeting up with radio friends and doing SOTA and POTA activations together.

You might remember the activation I did with Fraser, Neil, and Alex in the UK this June. That was one of the highlights of my UK trip.

And that’s one of the wonderful things about radio friends.

When you meet up, you just pick up where you left off. That’s the way friendship should be. It’s brilliant.

And this particular activation? I don’t think I’ve ever had a SOTA activation where I logged 84 contacts.

I know I’ve never had one where I logged 46 VHF contacts!

One is for the books.

And I’m not going to wait nearly as long before heading back to the West Coast for more SOTA.  I’m also eager to SOTA in other parts of the West, especially the Pacific Northwest. KJ6VU better prepare his guest room!

I have a feeling there are a few more summits waiting for me out there!

Thank you

Thank you all for joining us all during this amazing activation!

I hope you enjoyed the field report and my activation video as much as I enjoyed creating them!

Of course, I’d also like to send a special thanks to those of you who have been supporting the site and channel through Patreon, and the Coffee Fund. While not a requirement, as my content will always be free, I really appreciate the support.

As I mentioned before, the Patreon platform connected to Vimeo makes it possible for me to share videos that are not only 100% ad-free but also downloadable for offline viewing. The Vimeo account also serves as a third backup for my video files.

Thanks for spending part of your day with me!

One final note:

Thank you for being a kind person on this wonderful planet.

Thank you for being you.

You’re appreciated here!

Cheers & 72,
Thomas (K4SWL)

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