Presentation on Navigation for Summits On The Air ..read more

As you can see from the stats picture, I broke most of my "personal best" records in 2023.  If you don't count the uniques from my first full year, I bested that stat too.  Came in short on MTB miles because I hiked a couple of summits that had good MTB access. In addition, here are some other personal best records in 2023 for me: Most radiation absorbed, 200 centigray.  Least blood spilled doing SOTA (so I must be figuring this out.  ) Most summits in a single UTC day, 5 Most bands used during an activation, 10 Most associations activated, 6 Most summit-to-summits, 560 f ..read more

 I'm looking forward to presenting to the Palomar Amateur Radio Club on August 2nd. If you'd like to look at the presentation directly, go HERE ..read more

Welcome to my amateur radio BLOG. Here at N1CLC.com (aka HamNinja.com), I hope to cover my exploration of ham radio, summits on the air (SOTA) and general RF geek stuff.  My other BLOGS focus on technology (cloudrant.com), photography (cameraninja.com/blog), and life (thethroboflife.com). QSL via QRZ, LOTW, cards. * Reference Links Page    * SOTA Specific Links   * My Equipment Loadout    * DMR Tips    * My Youtube Channel I monitor 146.520 and DMR SOTA (973), track me on the trail HERE.  Donate HERE, Mastodon Check out ..read more

The Summits On the Air (SOTA) amateur radio hobby is a gamified affair.  Radio operators, geeks like me, summit various designated peaks (all have at least 500’ of prominence) and depending on the elevation of the summit, receive the alloted points for the summit if they make  four contacts and have not logged that summit more than once during the calendar year.  Some of my fellow SOTA operators had plans to use the rules to get double points on one trip to the summit of a designated peak by being there as the calendar year crosses over from 2020 to 2021 on new years eve.  ..read more

A friend of mine activated Owens Peak earlier this year and I’m surprised I never considered this one.  It’s easily accessible and a short little hike.  I joined a friend of mine, Jacob, W6RWS, and Jacob’s two kids, at the trailhead and we made quick work of the trip to the top.  The trail was a good climb but less less than a mile.  It was beautiful weather and enabled a quick getaway.  Once on the summit, Jacob used his HT and quickly bagged 4 contacts.  I setup my HF end-fed antenna and fired up the KX2 and landed 15 contacts and one with my HT.  It was ..read more

I'm pleased to present to the Qualcomm Amateur Radio Club Summits On the Air. You can access the slides ---> HERE < ..read more

 I'm pleased to present to the San Diego Ham Forum. You can access the slides ---> HERE < ..read more

Wow!  2020 has been one hell of a year for me and Summit On the Air (SOTA).  As you can see in the table below, 2019 was busy, but 2020 achievements were insane, given that I racked up 104 summits for 543 points (and I’m not retired).  That's a 68% increase in summits and 48% more points.  Also, there was 66% more climbing year over year, for a total of 83,390 feet climbed while doing SOTA.  Also, as you can see in the table below, I focused more on summit-to-summit (S2S) contacts points.  This year I had a 258% more S2S than 2019.  For 2020, I ranked #3 in ..read more

Today’s expedition takes me to Toro Peak, where I’ll meet Ted, aka W6TED.  We’ve both been wanting to do this one and it’s taken a little planning.  Ted contacted the Santa Rosa Band of Cahuilla Indians tribe that owns the land where the summit is located to see how we could get permission to access.   Ted eventually figured out the process to get a permit and after stopping by the tribal office, we had a ticket to play.  The cost however was a tad pricey, $40/person. <Click on pictures for LARGER> It took less time than anticipated to get to the tribal offi ..read more