Join hams from all over the country to hike, activate, and chase on summits in and around Tahoe NF near Truckee, CA. This is one of the most beautiful areas of California.
We have info on 30+ SOTA summits documented so far, ranging from Drive-ups, to Trail Hikes, a few Bushwhacks, and longer hikes if that’s your jam. You’re not constrained to W6 either, just over the border are a few W7N summits as well.
Save the DATE
September 17 -19 2027
Block your calendars, in 2027 from 9/17 through 9/19 2027. If you want to come early and stay later, just book your campsite accordingly. I know I’ll be arriving early to catch a few extra summits.
This area is a highly desirable place to fish and hike and boat. Therefore, we’ve scheduled more than a week after Labor day to hopefully reduce competition for a site. Book your site 6 months before your arrival date! (see below).
Primary Camp Location
East Meadow Campground
East Meadow campground has 46 spaces, some larger than others located at lat/lon 39.50121, -120.53329.
You can make reservations 6 months in advance at Recreation.gov reservation page. Please don't reserve Site #11.
Please try to fill the first loop containing site 11 first so as to hopefully co-locate our group as much as possible.
The site is paved all the way in and each site has paved parking, camp table and space for a small trailer and room for a tent in the woods. Some sites can hold a longer trailer and there are two group camp sites.
The site is paved all the way in and each site has paved parking, camp table and space for a small trailer and room for a tent in the woods. Some sites can hold a longer trailer and there are two group camp sites.
If no sites are available, subscribe to the mailing list for this event and send a message to see if anyone can share a site.
I had no AT&T cell service in the campground and while driving around this area. There will be a few of us there that have Starlink that will be willing to share.
Overflow Location
Pass Creek Campground
Pass Creek Campground is located right next to East Meadow on the lake. I’ve stayed here and it’s just as nice, but not as many spaces. There is a RV loop right in the same area, but I don’t know how you reserve a space there. Reservations can be made for a space here 6 months in advance at recreation..gov reservation page.
Both sites have bathrooms but the area was without water due to a water main break this year. I hear that it’s repaired, and, if there is plenty of snow over the winter, the springs will fill the storage tanks. We’ll keep an eye on this and let you know.
A Note On Camp Site Booking Windows
Individual sites at these campgrounds operate on a 6-month rolling basis: If you plan to arrive on 9/16/2027, you should reserve your site on March 16th at 9PM hours Pacific. Book all dates that you will be there. If you aren't sure, book a few days earlier, and you can adjust it later.
Please Let Us Know You Are Coming!!!
Please fill out the [signup form] and let us know when you are coming, to the campout and where you will be at. This will help us with logistics.
Hospitality in Truckee
There are several hotel options in Truckee as noted by Expedia. If you want to save a few bucks, another option is the Best Western just inside of Nevada. You’ll cut the bill by about half but trade some distance. It’s a good option if you want a place to stay on the way in.
AirBnB & VRBO
There are AirBnB and VRBO rentals in the area. You could do that and share with others.
SOTA Peaks
There are a lot of summits in the area. We will be sharing a spreadsheet that will give you a summary of summits in the area with key info about where it is, points, if it is a hike or drive-up, hike distance, gain, and more. But wait, there's a better option.
For a more in-depth we are assembling Trip Reports on the W6sota.org website under Trip Reports and tagged summits that are in reach of the camp with “2027 SOTAFest” in the area. You can go there now and see what we have, Jeff (KC6X) and Randy (KE6X) will be adding more trip reports over the coming months. Not all routes to summits are obvious, so this local knowledge is helpful. You can go to the [Trip Reports] page now and enter “2027” in the search bar to get a taste of what we have so far (11 so far).
To the right is a file containing over 200 summit waypoints.
You can download this file and import into your favorite Mapping system.
In addition, if you are a CalTOPO users, Jeff KC6X provided his map of the are with lots of good waypoints, tracks and more [HERE].
Comm Plan
2m (VHF) Simplex Frequencies
2m FM frequencies are popular among operators using handheld transceivers.
146.580 FM - Main simplex freq we will use
146.550 FM Alternate VHF frequency
144.200 SSB 2m SSB Calling Frequency
144.100 CW Quansheng for the win
MeshCore
Given the explosion and fun of using MeshCore, we’ll try to have a repeater or two on summits to bounce some signals off of:
Frequency: 910.525MHz
Bandwidth: 62.5kHz
Coding rate: 5
Spreading factor: 7 Default Path Hash Size: 3
Create a Channel: #sotafest
(create this hash-tag channel and post to that channel).
2m Repeaters:
Although I didn’t test these heavily, I heard activity on Peavine the most when driving around this area.. There is plenty of traffic there so if you need help, that might be the best bet.
Cell Service
AT&T was spotty but worked most of the time when on a summit. Let me know how Verizon service is. RBN hole for the win though.
Weather Forecast
<< Coming Soon >>
Medical
If you go to the campout, you understand that you can get injured or die while doing this activity.
Be careful while hiking. Tell people where you are going, bring lots of water, download off-line maps.
See The Ham Ninja’s Safety Tips for helpful tips on safety.
Good news is that there is a lot of ski activity and other vacation stuff going on so Truckee can probably take care of you. If you can get headed down the 89 to Truckee, you’ll start picking up cell service soon enough to get google directions to the local hospital.
Tahoe Forest Hospital (approx 1 hr from camp)
10121 Pine Avenue
Truckee, CA 96161
(530) 587-6011
If you have to call for help, make sure you can communicate your location
(Safety Tip #6).
One more thing...
We will have a whiteboard at basecamp for messages, trail and road reports, and other notices.
We will update the site as we get more info.
Questions???
You can send your questions to 2027W6SOTAFest mailing list and someone on the planning team will get back to you.
