W6/SD-497 – Lead Mountain

https://blog.benmook.com/w6-sd-497-lead-mountain/ Lead mountain is a bit east of Barstow, CA. I first became aware of this mine form the Mineralogical society of Southern California when they hosted a field trip to the area. I didn’t make the trip, but I’ve been curious about visiting since. Additionally, I worked two SOTA stations from the summit above the mines for So.Cal Winter Field Day, so activating this would make it a complete. Getting there was pretty easy. I found a few interesting rocks while hiking up which appeared to host interesting minerals, but honestly I didn’t know what I was looking for. At the top I setup a 40M EFHW antenna and connected it to my MTR3bv2 and worked several stations on 40M and 20M. No DX or S2S unfortunately. Overall, this is an easy one to activate but it’s a bit far off road. I wouldn’t drive a sedan there. The total hike was less than a mile and 400′ of elevation gain.