Recently I had the opportunity to visit San Bruno Mountain State Park and activate the summit for Summits on the Air (SOTA), and I attempted a Parks on the Air (POTA) activation. This was a very transit friendly destination to make radio contacts. Starting from downtown San Francisco, I took BART to Daly City, where I caught the 130 bus to the Royce Way Trailhead. You can also take the 130B bus. The trailhead is easy to miss from a distance, but there is a small set of wooden stairs leading to the trail from the street.
From the trailhead to the summit, the hike is around 2.3 miles. A sizable increase from my previous SOTA at Mt. Davidson, but manageable. This was the perfect moderate hike for me. The beginning is quite steep and rocky, however, and I would not recommend it for people with mobility issues. I almost slipped several times. It was particularly challenging on the way back coming down. The trip up was very foggy, but if the fog does break, the journey offers scenic views of the rest of the city and the greater Bay Area.
Once you reach the top, you need to walk along Radio Road to the summit. There’s a small parking lot where I did the activation, attaching my telescopic pole to a fence with a transom knot. I made one contact on 10m and three on 2m, all local to the Bay Area. The propagation for 10m wasn’t very good that day, but I made enough contacts to activate the summit for SOTA, but didn't reach the 10 required for POTA activation.
This convenient location offers the opportunity to activate the SOTA summit W6/CC-072 and the POTA park US-1196. I hope to come back to this location, hopefully when the 10m propagation is better, and make even more contacts next time.
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