ACØPR, ham radio blog: New POTA of K-6083 Rim Rock Trail (w/ K-6084 Santa Clara Reserve) Good Conditions

Next on the list of never-before-activated POTA places was Rim Rock Trail. It lies within the Santa Clara Reserve which I have activated before. The trail is very close to my house, maybe an 8-minute drive to the trail head. From there it's just a mile and a half hike to the highpoint of the trail.

In the area:

It was set to be another scorching hot day--like 110 degrees, so I wasn't going to stay long and I got

there early. I pulled up a little before 7am and it was just barely where you could see, but still pretty dark. There were already three or four vehicles there, being that it was Labor Day and everyone has it off.

I took the light day pack I've been using lately for activations. The hike was pleasant, not cold, barely even counting as cool. The trail is wide and was once used by vehicles until reaching the entrance into the reserve area. Even then, a very well-traveled trail. The area is a little more barren than some of the other desert reserves. The trail circles around a butte near some of the other popular trails used by mountain bikers, but not the main one so even though there were quite a few people around, I didn't really come across them.

I reached the high point fairly quickly, took some pictures, and looked for a place to set up. It wasn't far from the top that I used some rocks and bushes to get the antenna up in the air but out of the way in case someone wanted to come to the top (but it didn't lead anywhere else or go farther, so no one came up). I sat on my little mat on the ground and got going.

On the radio:

I got setup and all ready to go and spotted myself. I started on 40m because it was still really early and

20 wouldn't be good yet. I got my first call right away from Kansas. It was then I noticed I hadn't even hooked up the battery and was using the internal battery of the radio--good to know it's still good. But I got more volts and thus maybe a watt more out of the external battery and hooked it up right away.

I was getting several calls on 40m which I hadn't been before. Oh, and I switched back to my old standard homebrewed linked dipole instead of the commercial vertical. I ended up activating it in about half an hour--the fastest I had done since starting POTA. I kept going. I ended up with 21 qso's and did it within an hour. So conditions must have been much better or it was being higher up and using my old reliable methods.

Video of the activation

Date / Time	Call	Bnd	Frequency	Mode	Name	ST	POTA	Rec	Snt
9/7/2020 13:54	K0ERE	40	7.027	CW	WILLIAM	KS	K-6083	559	579
9/7/2020 14:08	WD5CSK	40	7.048	CW	Ronald	OK	K-6083	579	579
9/7/2020 14:10	N0UMP	40	7.048	CW	Bill	MO	K-6083	559	599
9/7/2020 14:13	N0UR	40	7.048	CW	JAMES	MN	K-6083	559	579
9/7/2020 14:14	AC0A	40	7.048	CW	William	KS	K-6083	559	599
9/7/2020 14:16	KF9RX	40	7.048	CW	HERBERT	TX	K-6083	559	579
9/7/2020 14:23	K8HU	20	14.059	CW	ROBERT	VA	K-6083	599	599
9/7/2020 14:24	K1RO	20	14.059	CW	Mark	NH	K-6083	579	579
9/7/2020 14:25	WD8RIF	20	14.059	CW	Eric	OH	K-6083	539	559
9/7/2020 14:25	N4EX	20	14.059	CW	RICHARD	NC	K-6083	439	579
9/7/2020 14:26	N4MJ	20	14.059	CW	GLENN	TN	K-6083	599	579
9/7/2020 14:30	W6OUL	20	14.059	CW	JAMES	CA	K-6083	559	559
9/7/2020 14:32	K0YY	20	14.059	CW	ROGER	TX	K-6083	449	599
9/7/2020 14:34	VE3LDT	20	14.059	CW	David Wg	ON	K-6083	559	579
9/7/2020 14:35	N9OL	20	14.059	CW	JOHN	IN	K-6083	599	599
9/7/2020 14:35	KD8DEU	20	14.059	CW	Allan	MI	K-6083	559	599
9/7/2020 14:37	N9VFR	20	14.059	CW	DAVID	IL	K-6083	599	599
9/7/2020 14:42	N8WS	20	14.059	CW	WILLIAM	OH	K-6083	559	559
9/7/2020 14:49	KT4UE	20	14.059	CW	Keith	VA	K-6083	339	559
9/7/2020 14:51	N6MRS	20	14.059	CW	Michael	FL	K-6083	549	559
9/7/2020 14:52	AF8E	20	14.059	CW	John	OH	K-6083	599	599