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I enjoy climbing the various hills of San Francisco and seeing who I can contact over VHF/UHF radio. There are many hills throughout the city which are great for making radio contacts, but only one is actually indexed as a SOTA summit, Mount Davidson (W6/NC-423). What better place to attempt my first proper SOTA activation? I had been here before many times, but never to attempt a SOTA activation.
One of the great things about Mount Davidson is its accessibility via public transit, at least in theory. I started my journey from downtown Market Street where I took the BART to Glen Park. From there I waited for the 36 bus, but it's only scheduled to come every 30 minutes, and there was a delay that day, so I walked a few stops along the path then thankfully caught it for the rest of the way up the hill. Walking the whole way from Glen Park BART station would have been too far. In total, the transit journey there took me over an hour when it should have taken me about a half hour according to transit apps. If you’re looking to activate this summit and are short on time, I recommend taking your preferred rideshare app.
Arriving at the bus stop there is a well-trodden trail up to the summit that can often be quite muddy after a rain. From the bus station to the peak is a very small hike. There were a lot of mosquitos, as always, but the weather was cloudy and pleasant, maybe a bit chilly. When I was there I ran into N6TNO, who was activating the summit on 20m CW. I set my 13 foot telescopic pole up against a park bench and secured it with a transom knot. After I mounted my roll-up J-Pole antenna, I put out a call, and got a lot of static in response. After talking with my first contact, he suggested I might be dealing with an overloaded front-end from nearby Sutro Tower and suggested trying a 2m band pass filter. Despite the challenges, I ended up making 6 contacts on a mix of 2m and 70cm. Maybe I’ll look into a 2m band pass filter for next time. Overall it was a great activation and I had a blast. And as usual, a few curious park-goers stopped to ask me what I was doing, and I introduced them to ham radio to the best of my ability.
Coming back, the transit situation was even worse. Although there was a very nice, newly-installed screen at the bus station indicating the current position of the buses, there was no scheduled 36 bus coming in the other direction at all, so I walked down the hill this time in a different direction, this time catching the M MUNI back downtown from the West Portal station.
Attached to this post are a few photos of the surrounding street, the bus stop for the woefully underserved 36 line, and a few photos from the summit featuring beautiful skyline views of San Francisco and the surrounding area.