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W7A/SC-013 (NW Dome)

NW Dome is the first SOTA summit of the Mustang Mountains, south of Rt 82 near Elgin/Sonoita AZ. There is one other summit just north called "Bruce Mountain" but it does not have enough prominence to be considered for SOTA, although i would like to climb it one day for fun.

In this area there are 3 SOTA summits, W7A/SC-013 NW Dome, W7A/SC-009 Mustang Mountain and W7A/SC-005 Mustang Mountains HP. SC-009 looks to be pretty difficult, so that will have to be planned out very well if I do it and SC-005 looks to be straight forward, save for a lot of scrub on the way up. I wanted to do this summit today as well, but seeing that scrub turned me off to a second climb through stuff like that.

I am still experimenting with the KX1 and random wire antennas. I switched over from a 25' to an 85' and got better results. The unfortunate thing is that there is nothing tall enough to hold the wire vertical, so I am NVIS on all bands. As expected 20M had the best results, 30M had nothing and 40M had 2 contacts, but no locals like I usually get with my buddistick. As I stated in another entry, the KX1 is mainly going to be used for more extreme hikes where carrying a lot of weight is not going to be an option. I will continue to experiment with antennas and hopefully find one that accommodates the local HAMS, but until then, this is going to have to do for those hikes.

This summit is also located just south of the Border Patrol check point on Rt 90 and there is illegal activity in the area. I did get "buzzed" by a BP Cessna, which is not uncommon, I simply stand still and wave and they move along. Much of the illegal activity in the area has ceased, although there is plenty of evidence that it was common some time ago. I found cloths, bags, bottles, food cans etc at the summit, but most were old. The newer ones were likely from other hikers as this seems to be a fairly popular area.

Next week, life and weather permitting, I plan to try for a few summits, but I will be happy doing just one.

W7A/SC-013 with Bruce Mountain to the left.
W7A/SC-013 with Bruce Mountain to the left.
W7A/SC-013
W7A/SC-013
Bruce Mountain.
Sonoita AZ Grasslands.
Sonoita AZ Grasslands.
Sonoita AZ Grasslands.
Looking South.
Looking NE.
Range Tank.
Goldfish.

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