Speaker

October 28, 2025: Carol Bruegge KE6SRN and Tom Bruegge KE6SRO: SOTA advewntures on the way to Mountain Goat

PLEASE NOTE: Our usual meeting location at Kaiser Permanente is not available at present, so THIS MONTH’S MEETING WILL BE ZOOM ONLY. If you are a member of our Group at groups.io, look for an invitation email via that Group. Or you can contact aa6qi (at) arrl (dot) net for the Zoom link.

What is the SOTA (Summits-on-the-air) program and what does it take to earn their highest award — the Mountain Goat? This will be answered in our October 2025 presentation, when stories will be shared. Tom KE6SRO and Carol KE6SRN accomplished this milestone in record time, planning dedicated trips to locations with high value peaks in order to accumulate the required 1,000 points. They hiked the Antelope Valley Buttes in the heat of summer and the San Gabriel peaks in colder winter temperatures — as these had off-season bonus points. They travelled to New England and Flagstaff with calculated itineraries, sometimes hiking three summits per day. Some mistakes were made along the way, but they stayed safe, made friends, and had a lot of fun.

Tom and Carol were licensed in 1995, as a call from their regional church office. They were asked to organize an emergency communications group, train volunteers, and conduct regular net drills. This is still their assignment, but in retirement new aspects of amateur radio became an obsession. They each upgraded to Amateur Extra and became Volunteer Examiners for GLAARG (Greater Los Angeles Amateur Radio Group). Tom learned digital modes — and is interested in WinLink. Carol enjoyed learning Morse Code (CW), with Tom eventually getting on-board. Tom is currently the treasurer of SPARC (South Pasadena Amateur Radio Club), and Carol co-chaired the 2025 four-club field day event, along with Mark W6MES. And their biggest obsession of all is SOTA (Summits-On-The Air). They hiked 151 summits in the past year to earn the award of Mountain Goat.