About 10 days ago, I published a tentative report on

our group's mirror flashing activities of 9/12/98. Since

then, I received quite a bit of input and now have a final

report which follows:

PATH APPROX. DISTANCE

(1) Cuyamaca Peak to

Palomar Observatory

Two-way Contact 32 Miles

Final Report: Mike Doyle Sr., AB6QT, of the Palomar

Observatory writes: "...there were multiple two way contacts.

All were with the standard small mirror except for one which was

a 12 inch, and that was from their end, and I am not sure which

one of them did that one."

__________

(2) Mt. Baldy to

San Gorgonio Mtn.

One-way Contact 48 Miles

Final Report: It didn't happen. Lorraine Aubert, AC6XK,

writes: "I apologize for the confusion over flashes. I did

not see flashes from Mt. Baldy. I would have expected to see

them as Mt. Baldy is much closer than Cuyamaca." Lorraine

did not have a flashing mirror with her, so no return

flashes were seen by the Baldy crew.

__________

(3) Mt. Baldy to

Palomar Observatory

One-way Contact 79 Miles

Final Report: It didn't happen. Mike Doyle Sr., AB6QT,

of the Palomar Observatory writes: "I never saw any flashes

from Baldy." Likewise, the Baldy crew never saw the

Observatory through field glasses, let alone any repeated

flashes from the general direction of the Observatory.

__________

(4) Cuyamaca Peak to

San Gorgonio Mtn.

One-way Contact 81 Miles

Final Report: This appears to be our club's new

distance record. Lorraine Aubert, AC6XK, writes:

"I did see the faint flashes (through the haze)

from Cuyamaca and I saw them more than once." When

asked how many bursts were seen, she replied that

three or four flashes were seen in the first session

and two were seen in the second.

Unfortunately, Lorraine did not have a signaling

mirror with her, so this was a one-way contact.

__________

(5) Mt. Baldy to

Cuyamaca Peak

One-way Contact 111 Miles

Final Report: It didn't happen. Ed Butler writes:

"You asked about what I saw.... Mert and I were using

binoculars to look for flashes and at the end of the day the

consensus was that we saw nothing. No light flashes at all.

I wish we could say otherwise. We looked really hard, I'm

not sure we were even looking in the right place but we did

our best. Everyone seems to have had a good time so the

hike was a success anyway."

__________

Here is the list of hams who were on mountaintops:

Cuyamaca Peak:

Bob W6VR

Stan W9FQN

Nirmal KF6RAC

Glenn KE6ZLY

San Gorgonio:

Lorraine AC6XK

Palomar Mountain:

Mike AB6QT

Cuyamaca Peak:

Ed KF6DXX

Al W6GNI

Mert KF6KCE

Best 73, Bob, W6VR

_____

MT. SAN JACINTO NOTES

Here are some notes on W6VR's 9/19/98 hike from

the Palm Springs tram to San Jacinto Peak:

* A promotional sign says the new tram cars will

be operational 9/99. These will be revolving cars

according to Lorraine.

* There are two Rangers who take turns running the

State Park at San Jacinto. For the record, they

are:

Eric Hanson, AC6YB

Jerry Frates, KF6GBB

I had the pleasure of meeting Jerry for the first

time yesterday. He said Lorraine calls him "Great Big

Boss" which makes his call (GBB) easy to remember.

* One Park Aide speculated that there will be less

emphasis on ham radio by Rangers and Park Aides now

that Lorraine has departed the mountain. He thought

she was a terrific inspiration.

* The mountain was loaded with Boy Scouts. I found two

troop leaders using Family Radios which - according to

their theory - would allow their San Jacinto Peak expedition

to contact their Wellman Divide expedition in case of an

emergency (they were unaware of terrain blockage effects).

They used Channel 9 with PL #9. They were Troop #99.

* Sometimes my HT receiver takes severe desens hits on

mountaintops where there are no obvious sources of RF

nearby. This happened yesterday (again) and would be

a good topic for discussion. The problem could affect

others and impact long distance QSOs.

* Someone on the tram repeater mentioned that there is

another two-meter repeater atop the tram on 145.200 MHz.

I don't know if it's open or PLed. Let's check it out

next time.

_____

S.D. Hiker Posting of September 1998

MIRROR POWER

If the power density of the noonday sun is about

a kilowatt per square meter (a figure from a solar

hot water heater book):

A 3" X 5" mirror should throw out about 10 watts

of power (ignoring the sighting hole loss).

A 2" X 3" mirror would put out about 4 watts.

Stan's 12" X 12" blowtorch should blast through

the haze with just over 90 watts of juice.

Power (in watts) = 0.65 X (mirror area in sq. inches).

Next trip, I'm hikin' with Stan.

_____

SAN JACINTO & CUYAMACA REPORTS

The air was very clear (but windy and cold)

for the mirror flashes between San Jacinto

Peak and Cuyamaca Peak on 10/3/98. Since we weren't

setting a distance record, there was plenty

of time to train curious members of the general

public in the fine art of sending and receiving

"O-Band" (optical) signals, and it was also a great

opportunity to promote ham radio.

Notes from San Jacinto (from W6VR):

"One lad, about 12 years old, couldn't

wait to tell his friends about his 60 mile

optical 'QSO'.... Big news of the day was

that one of the Rangers dropped and lost his

800 MHz HT the night before, so we helped in

the search party (but the unit was not

found).... The wind was cold, strong and

relentless. Time to toss ski goggles into

the backpack.... Winter is arriving.

Ye new repeater atop the tram is 145.200 MHz

(- offset, 162.2 PL). Locals says it's an open

machine linked to other machine/s. The CW IDer

says K6JM/R. The machine was full quieting but

I couldn't raise anyone...."

Notes from Cuyamaca Peak (from KF6DXX):

"The wind wasn't really noticeable until

the last 1/4 mile or so. By the time I started

back down the clouds were really streaming past

just at antenna height above the summit and the

effect was like viewing an IMAX movie. Really

should have taken my camcorder....

The young couple who sent your group mirror signals

were really enthusiastic about the experience....

(They) thanked me repeatedly and had great grins as

they left. That made my day!

Technical Notes & Stuff:

(1) The optical path was pretty much north-south.

While the southbound mirror signals could sometimes

be seen with the unaided eye, the northbound

signals could only be seen with a small monocular.

(Many flashes were exchanged over a two hour

period with several observers on each end, and

the same size (3" X 5") mirrors were used for

these tests.) The discrepancy is probably due

to sun angle. The South Group had to reflect

sunlight coming from behind, so not much mirror

area was facing north.

(2) W6VR reports that his Kenwood TH-22AT handi-

talkie is definitely being desensed by strong out-

of-band signals when the radio is used on mountains

and ridge lines. It's time to experiment with a

bandpass filter. Desense is a serious problem that

limits a receiver's ability to hear weak signals,

and that degrades mountaintop communications.

(3) The hams in the groups were:

W6VR on San Jacinto Peak;

KF6DXX, KF6BFI and KJ6NA on Cuyamaca Peak;

KE6ZLY in spirit (and by radio).