2025 was an epic year for W6 SOTA, 39 more summits were activated than in 2024. Below we’ll review some cool stats for W6 and a few other things that happened in the W6 association during 2025.
2025 Activations & Chasing
Although SOTA is not a contest, all involved agree that the points scheme and fun awards we have adds to the fun of chasing and activating. I’m sure there have been studies on how “gamification” influences participation and there’s no doubt it’s played a role in SOTA. Although we may not agree about how some summits get more points than others, it never stops us from hiking, activating, chasing, working on completes and summit-to-summit points. All of this combined with the love of hiking and getting outdoors makes SOTA the best!
An Epic Number of Activations & Chasing
W6 members posted some huge numbers in 2025 (based on logs uploaded by 1/5/2026). In 2025, W6 had 273 activators who completed 4,055 activations earning 18,114 total points. We had 342 W6 chasers who worked 38,622 activators, scooping up 177,568 points.
In 2025, we witnessed the creation of twelve new W6 Mountain Goats, bringing the total to 48. In addition, Carol KE6SRN became YL SOTA GOAT #19 from within North America, joining Lorene W6LOR, YL Goat #10 as the first W6 YL Goat among those currently registered in W6.
New Goats in 2025:
Mark KD7DTS
Tom KE6SRO
Todd KH2TJ
Carol KE6SRN
Rex KE6MT (Goat summit while doing a first activation!)
Gabe AJ6X
Ara N6ARA
Wayne W6DT
Ted W6TED
William N6MTB
Martin AJ6CL
Johanannes KI6M
Multi-Goats in 2025
In addition, a few W6 operators crossed the line into multi-goat territory.
Chris N1CLC - 4X
Keith KE6TH - 2X
Adam K6ARK - 2X
Michael N6MKW - 2X
Ben AG6N - 2X
Tim K6TW - 2X
Congratulations to all!
New “Shack Sloths” created in 2025
7 W6 operators surpassed 1,000 chaser points to achieve “Shack Sloth”
Ben N3BEN
Randy KE6X
Jim K6JS
Martin AJ6CL
MIKE K6MII
Carol KE6SRN
Tom KE6SRO
Thanks to all the new Sloths and other chasers. Without you, we wouldn’t have so many Mountain Goats!!!
Top Three Activators in 2025!
#1 - Carol Bruegge, KE6SRN activated 141 summits for 942 points for the year.
Carol likes to activate with her husband, and prefers operating CW on the HF bands. She joined the Quansheng 2m/CW craze at Tanglewood earlier this year, preparing her for the 2026 ARRL 2m Weak Signal challenge. Carol spent the year activating in W6, W1, W5N, W7A, W8O, W9 and earned her Mountain Goat award in September. Carol and Tom enjoyed getting to know many more in the SOTA community, through the campouts and other gatherings. When operating with Franzi WE7CAT in Flagstaff she had a fun challenge. When Franzi reached a chaser from the PNW she would say "I got another one of my people" and when Carol got a chaser from W6 she would say "got another one of our people". So thank you W6 for being "our people"!!!
#2 - Tom Bruegge, KE6SRO activated 142 summits for 934 points!
Tom activates with his wife Carol and likes to use an HT with an Arrow Yagi along with operating SSB on HF. Tom had his first CW exchange with Mike K6STR in July, and has had 116 since; a goal for 2026 is to continue to improve this skill. Tom spent the year activating in W6, W1, W5N, W7A, W8O, W9 and earned his Mountain Goat in October -- just in time for his birthday.
#3 - Chris Claborne, N1CLC, activating 161 summits for 747 points for the year.
Chris mainly uses his KX2 and KX3 radios with a random wire he built from a K6ARK kit. In 2025, Chris activated in W6, W7A, W5N and W7O associations. He is also the #2 W6 SOTA activator over all years with 4580 points to date. Chris assumed the role of W6 Association Manager this past summer. His first big task was to overhaul the W6 SOTA web page (now W6SOTA.org).
Top Unique summit operators for 2025 are:
#1 - Tom, KE6SRO with 141 for the year.
Tom is so excited to see that he beat his XYL on one of these SOTA categories, as Carol was always ahead in points. Of the ~140 summits they did in 2025, they hiked all but 2 together. Early in the year Carol was relying on 2m/FM and HF/CW; Tom, not knowing CW, was using 2m/FM and HF/FT8. In mid-summer FT8 (using the KX2, an Android phone, and FT8CN) stopped working. Suddenly Tom was falling behind in points on peaks where FM did not come through. On these occasions he failed to get the needed QSOs, while Carol achieved points via CW. His SOTA summary still shows that he activated these peaks -- having made a minimum of 1 QSO for an activation but without getting 4 to earn points. Thus for these hikes they both "activated" a summit whereas only Carol got points!!! By the fall, and after a crash course in CW, Tom was again keeping pace with Carol on points --- now joining her in using CW when necessary. As September approached Tom was behind 24 points, and Carol was ready to turn Goat. Carol hiked with Tom to Tollhouse Benchmark, but didn't activate to allow Tom to catch up on points. And on Tom's Goat/ Birthday hike to Onyx Peak Carol had a conflict, but Tom made the day special by inviting their son Brian, KG6BCF, to accompany him. Brian has been licensed since the age of 8, but inactive since a young adult. Tom's Goat day was thus Brian's first SOTA points day. There you have it -- the long story of why Tom has activated more summits in 2025, whereas Carol earned more points.
#2 - Carol, KE6SRN with 139 for the year.
Tom and Carol’s favorite peaks include Mountain Biking to Vetter Mountain, and those where they joined PCT thru hikers in the Spring (Williamson, Islip, and Liebre). Throop is also very nice. Although Throop is the one we heard a bear roar, and Jon commented during the QSO "which tasty morsel did he get?"
#3 - Lorene, W6LOR with 132 uniques for the year
When Lorene was asked what her favorite summit is, she said “The one I just did”. Lorene’s top three are White Mountain Peak”, Mt. Anna Mills, and Trail Peak. Lorene carries a Yaesu FT-60 or VX-6R or a Quansheng HT and likes to use a KX2 for HF. Lorene and Mike chase with either a K3 or an IC-718 from home when they aren’t on a mountain.
2025 Top Three Chasers for 2025
#1 - Peter, WB6POT, with 28,720
When Peter is not on a summit, he does all of his HF chasing from his 2nd home location of Colfax, CA. He mostly operates it remotely from his primary residence in San Jose.
Peter’s Chasing setup is a Flex 8600 which he mainly runs barefoot, although he does have an amp for chasing DX if necessary. Peter has several yagi antennas on towers plus two dipole antennas for the various bands.
Peter says that the best part of chasing is when he gets to meet all the activators in person at the various SOTA campouts he’s attended. He’s also been able to activate summits with many of the people he has met chasing, while traveling.
#2 - Jon, NT6E with 22,135 points for the year.
Jon is a chaser who seems to always be on the air to return a CQ SOTA call, to relay communications between summit operators when they can't seem to otherwise connect, or even to give radio advice and activation tips. Jon is a successful chaser due to his great home station location in Torrance, and dedication to this task. On Friday September 5, 2025, the SoCal SOTA community thanked Jon for his support of their activations. On this date two brothers, Huston KK6WT and Ralph KK6MT, picked Jon up from his house and drove him to Table Mountain, where he made his third career SOTA activation. A dozen SOTA friends met him there to celebrate with their friend and thank him for his years as a chaser. We look forward to more QSOs with Jon in the years ahead.
Jon uses a Yaesu FTDX-10 to load up a OCFD 40m, as well as a Cushcraft R9 Vertical on the roof for chasing. Given his location near a power substation, and KNX AM broadcast towers, he uses a Morgan AM broadcast high pass filter and a JPS noise canceller. Jon said that SOTA chasing allows him to use his radio every day, but the best part is all the friends he’s made. It gives Jon comfort and assurance that his SOTA peeps are well and active when he sees their spot.
For 2026, Jon said he’s looking forward to hearing all the activators out there, plus new ones getting into the hobby. He’s also excited about the 2m challenge this year, and his score reflects that.
#3 - Elliott, K6EL with 12,405 points for the year.
Elliot is a 50+ year amateur radio operator, having worked all countries and heavily into SOTA since 2013. Elliot organized the SOTA luncheon during Pacificon 2025, as he has for many past years. Elliott operates SSB or CW and is always looking for a summit-to-summit.
Top Summit To Summit Operators for 2025
“I love racing to a peak if I know somebody else is on a peak that I might be able to get on 2m. I’m always impressed how well 2m FM works from one summit to another when it seems there’s so much dirt in the way.”
#1 - Elliott, K6EL, with 10,990 points for the year.
#2 - Lorene, W6LOR, with 2,376 points for the year.
#3 - Chris, N1CLC with 2,221 points for the year.
2025 Campouts & More
Sawtooth Canyon
Last January, around 12 SOTA fanatics met up at Sawtooth Canyon Campground near Lucerne Valley for a fun multi-day campout and SOTA extravaganza. There was lots of 2m action, mechanical issues, flat tires, and finding a Baofeng along the road (probably tossed out the window in frustration).
Big Bear SoCal SOTAFests
Lorene, W6LOR and Mike, K6STR organized the annual Big Bear SoCal SOTAFest. It was a ton of fun, with lots of activations in the surrounding mountains which gave up a lot of points, summit-to-summits and completes for some of the operators.
Participants always agree that the best part of these campouts is just getting together with like minded radio people, having a refreshment, and telling stories. It’s always fun to meet someone that you’ve only contacted via radio.
One of the biggest campouts in the country was the W7O campout at Diamond Lake near Crater Lake in 2025. Over 70 hams along with XYLs and some of their children joined the party. W6 was well represented, and it was a ton of fun. If you want more information on the 2026 plans, join the Google Group Jefferson State SOTA distribution.
Consider attending one of these events, or better yet, putting one together.
Community Hangouts
The SOTA community is part of what makes this hobby so fun. To that end, we always like getting together to celebrate achievement parties for new goats like ones held for KD7DTS, N6ARA, KE6SRO and KE6SRN, We also celebrated a milestone birthday for N6AN, with a day of S2S work followed by a gathering at a local pub. There were several other get togethers at various places in LA and a couple of “SOTA Symposium’s” in San Diego.
In 2025 W6 Built A New Website!
The W6 Association, covering all of California, has more members and more summits than any other association in the US. Our website was dated, became static, and was ready for a rebuild. Chris, N1CLC, put together a requirements document and then circulated that among anyone that he could find to get input.
The new site has the expected News and Events capabilities but one of the key technical features of the site that Chris felt would provide the most value is the “Trip Reports” page. Unlike sotl.as and other sources w6sota.org allows user to search for summits by “area” and sort on things like distance or type. The site does all of this and provides a modern look to display news and events for W6. As of 12/31/2025, total Trip Reports from multiple W6 members are now at 157 posts.
Speaking of Carol, Chris said that help from Carol, KE6SRN, was absolutely critical to the success of the new site. Carol provided active recommendations and feedback while the site was under construction, she performed QA, and is an excellent editor and reviewer. In addition, Carol has written 83 of the trip reports (so far). See the article “Why Create A Trip Report”. We’ve published content on getting started, CW skills, safety and more from multiple authors. If you would like to read more about site features, functionality, go HERE.
N1CLC Makes Safety Top Priority
Chris, N1CLC, wrote 11 safety tip articles over as many weeks and published to the SoCal, NorCal, and other lists. You can find all the safety tips HERE.
W6 Gets a New Association Manager
In June of 2025, Rex, KE6MT asked Chris, N1CLC, to take over as the W6 Association manager. He was happy to do so as it gives him a chance to give back to the community that has brought so much joy and has helped him over the past several years.
SoCal Zoom Sessions
Mike Molina (KN6EZE) the W6 Assistant Association Manager, has been leading the monthly zoom meetings, which is a great place to ask questions, and see some awesome presentations by some of our members and meet new people. Sign up to the SoCal SOTA mailing list if you want to be notified about the next zoom shack meetup.
Road Closures
Many trails and roads were closed seasonally or due to storms. Angeles Crest Hwy 2 was opened this past August after being closed at Islip Saddle for several years due to storm damage. This was short lived, as it is again closed due to our January 2026 storms. We are happy that San Gabriel area is again open, after being closed for much of 2025 due to the Eaton Canyon fire. This peak was not burned, but closed by the Forest Service to let the area recover. Trail and road closure information can be found on our new W6 website.
Looking Forward
2026 is going to be an awesome year. I know that there is at-least one campout planned with a possible second one in the planning stages. In addition we have the 2026 Challenge, working stations on 2m SSB or CW. Find out more about the challenge along with FAQs and other info by going to W6SOTA.org/2026challenge. It looks like several ops have jumped in with both boots, so get out there and have fun.
If you have ideas for an article, campout or other activity for 2026, contact us directly or via the contact form. Don’t forget to cheer for USA during the Winter Olympics and then the World Cup (maybe we can make it out of group stage 🙂 ). Stay safe everyone and we look forward to hearing you on the bands. N1CLC KE6SRN
