This year I decided to set up a Field Day station using only a handheld radio.  Since VHF/UHF bands are line of sight only, I chose the highest spot I could find near a large population area.  I operated on the summit of Mt Baldy overlooking Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernadino and several other counties.

Early Saturday morning my wife and I took the ski lift up to the Devil's Backbone Trail and then hiked 4 hours to the summit at 10,064 feet.  We set up camp, put up my 8 foot "tower" and I got on the air.  I used a 10 watt solar panel to charge a lithium motorcycle battery to power the radio. 

The 2M band was full of activity most of Saturday.  My biggest problem operating was that I could hear every simplex station on the frequency within a 100 mile radius but they could mostly only hear other stations within 20 or 30 miles their location.  Sorting that out, trying to find moments when the frequencies were quiet kept me busy all day long. 

The summit of Mt. Baldy is popular place in the summer.  We had over at least a hundred people hike to the summit on that sunny Saturday and most of them had lots of questions about the antenna tower and radio that I was operating.  Fortunately my wife was able to answer most questions and I was able to stay on the radio.

We had a great time camping overnight on the summit.  We were surprised that about 15 other people camped nearby.  I thought we would be the only campers up there!  After a gorgeous sunset it started getting windy and cold so we shut down for the night. 

I operated a few more hours on Sunday morning but the bands were much slower and only a few new stations turned up on Sunday.  I had time to chat with stations in the area before we packed up and headed down the mountain.  We both had a really enjoyable weekend and it was a lot of fun talking to hams (and hikers) from all over.

Photos can be found here.

73, Gary KK6YB