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China Hat, OR 7 June 2015

KG7AV's picture
Summit: 
W7O/CE-053
Voice Cellular Coverage: 
Spotty, may not work at all
Data Cellular Coverage: 
Don't know
Cellular Provider: 
N/A
APRS Coverage: 
Don't know

Having made my QSOs at Pine, scrambled down the summit, and headed back over the observatory and down the south access road - 4x4 only and not for the faint of heart.  Once on the valley floor, took NS-2310 south toward East Butte and China Hat, swinging back to pick up NS-1849 and circle up toward the summit.   The easiest route to China Hat is to take China Hat Rd NS-18 from south of Bend, but I was on the wrong side of the basin for that. Parked the truck and hoofed it the last mile as the manzanita was encroaching on the double track pretty tightly.

On China Hat, made more QSOs to SoCal,  two of which were maritime (Midway and Star of India), and made the Noontime Net check in on 40m.   Once I had all my QSOs, packed up, and and again scrambled back to the truck and headed back down.   Continued on NS-1849 until it met with NS-18, the a quick cut south to NS-2710 / Pumice Butte Road, which takes you up the long climb of east face of the Newberry Caldera complex and into East Lake.  From there a short drive to the summit road to Paulina Peak, which was..... CLOSED !!  Apparently there was still some snow blockage near the summit.  Ah, June in Central Oregon.  Paulina will have to wait for later in the season.

Rig was an FT-817 with external 9ah battery and roll-out solar, so 5W into a homebrew linked dipole kit supported by a telescoping 9m squid pole.  Was going to do some digital with the little Winbook tablet, but forgot the USB hub at home.  Oh, well, SSB was fine today.

All in all, 12 points for the activations and a 10pt S2S.  Not a bad day at all.