On Sunday, October 12, 2025, Tim Goodrich K6TW did a double activation from W6/CT-010 Mount Islip and W6/CT-005 Throop Peak. He wrote: “It was a beautiful day to be out yesterday- around 60 degrees and sunny and the predicted 15-20mph winds didn't materialize, so it was a calm day. I don't know if it was the excitement of the double goat activation or perhaps getting a late start (11:30am!), but I set a quick pace. Ended up covering the 13 miles and 3,250 ft of gain in only 4 hours moving time, or just over 5 hours including the activation time. Thanks all, I appreciate it and appreciate all the chasers as well!” This put him at 2005 SOTA points, giving him the 2x Mountain Goat status.
Tim earned his first SOTA activation points on 17-Sep-2011 from W6/CT-037 Cahuenga Peak. He has operated on FM, SSB, and CW during and since this first SOTA outing. Just a few weeks later, on 08-Oct-2011, he became the first to activate W6/CT-019, San Gabriel Peak, which has now been activated 226 times!!! He has over 25 first activations to his credit and became Mountain Goat for the first time on 24-Jun-2017. This makes him the 5th to have earned this title from the W6 association.
Tim’s interest in radio started with a set of walkie-talkies that had an orange Morse Code button with the printed code on the face of them in the mid-80s. By the early 90’s, he used paper route money to purchase a CB radio, using it while sitting in the family station wagon on summer afternoons in New York as a young teenager. Tim earned his amateur radio license in 1997 and a year later, he enlisted in the Air Force, choosing a job as communications, navigation, and cryptological technician on the E-3 AWACS. Coincidentally, and unbeknownst to Tim at the time, his late grandfather’s job in the Army Air Corps in World War 2 was as a radio mechanic on B-24s. It is interesting that Tim chose the same job.
Shortly after his time in the military, Tim came back to amateur radio and earned his General and Extra class licenses in 2008 and 2011, respectively. He enjoys hiking and ski touring challenging peaks.
What is your favorite summit?
Locally, Mount Baden-Powell. I like being surrounded by the large trees and it’s my favorite local back-country ski. In the Sierra, Sky Haven. It took me four or five attempts to activate it and that is still the lone activation for that peak.
Any memorable experiences?
Going up Virginia Pass Crag for a first activation while on a multi-day John Muir Trail section hike, only to get ONE contact. I learned the hard way that you need to alert with “S-” instead of “S+”. [Editor note: the S parameter allows you to extend the time window an RBN will pick you up.]. Another one was coming down from the first activation of Winter Alta in Sequoia National Park. I came across a hiker with a severely sprained ankle who couldn’t walk. I was able to radio another ham in Fresno, who promptly called search and rescue and got help to the hiker much faster than otherwise would have been possible.
And while I was going through some old photos, how about this for memories. Brian N0BCB and I doing the first and still only activation of “The Volcano” aka “Don’t Do It Peak” near Mount Waterman. Thought we were smart by taking a different “easier” way out. Look at the elevation graph attached. 500’/mile trail is average, 1,000’mile is steep. We climbed out 2,400’ in a mile (between mile 3.25 and 4.25 on the graph), much of it sandy scree! What a slog that was!
