Check out the latest videos by the Ham Ninja

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Live in San Diego close to the top of a hill so I have the luxury of access to just about any repeater in the county.

I find that I enjoy SOTA operations more than playing with my 7300.  I use a FT-817ND for SOTA opperations, but there are days I wish I had more power given the conditions and people don't want to wait so I use a FT891 (see my full loadout here).   While doing SOTA, you'll find me scanning 146.520 and DMR SOTA (973) and I normally turn on my Inreach tracking so you can watch here for better arrival times.  At my QTH AO, you can find me on DMR San Diego Hangout (310014), or SoCal Talk Group (31066).

My first successful SOTA opp was off a small mountain by my house and I was able to conduct a QSO with a dude in Japan via SSB phone at 5 watts.  That was a kick.  I'm still struggling at this hobby, trying to figure out what antenna works the best.  At home, I'm happy to keep my max at 100 watts, but my end-fed antenna has me a tadd baffled.  I do like to keeping it stealth, so having it on a pole that I can extend up and then put away is awesome.