The Black Peak Repeater

October 22, 2025

There's a repeater on Black Peak that serves Search & Rescue as well as local amateur radio operators. A few weeks ago, it began misbehaving, so Steve, Jeff, Dennis and I put together some tools and hiked up to see if we could repair or at least diagnose the problem.

View of Signal Peak. It was my first hike in the area since the Trout Fire, and although there's a bigger burn scar on Signal Peak, it's not as bad as I expected.

The Forest Service has done a tremendous amount of work on the CDT. Hundreds of blackened trunks have been severed, some more than 50" in diameter. Fortunately fire recovery is considered a priority, so the crews can continue working despite the shutdown.

Past the CDT junction, though, there is no trace of the trail to Black Peak. It is covered with sterile grass that was seeded to help with soil recovery.

But we made it to the summit, and while I set about clearing brush, the guys uncovered the repeater and found it sitting in several inches of water inside the barrel!

My handiwork.

Ixxx

There was nothing to do but haul it down the hill so it can undergo major surgery. Made it almost all the way down before we employed caveman technology and stuck a branch through it so we could walk single file on the narrow path.

We made it almost all the way down before we employed caveman technology and stuck a branch through it so we could walk single file on the narrow path.