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QTH

We live in Northern California. Our home is located on a ten acre parcel that has a few large Valley Oak trees. Elevation is about 1000 feet which makes it a good location for VHF/UHF amateur radio, and our location on a small ridge affords a nice view of the Sierra Nevada mountains to the East. Though our view to the West is obscured, radio communication into the San Francisco bay area is routine. For HF operation, the oak trees are located in ideal locations to support a dipole antenna centered on a gable at the back of the house.

This is a view toward the East with the Sierra Nevada mountains in the background.

There is also a spring in the property. In the summer, the spring often goes dry which can be a prelude to distress on our well. We ran extremely low on water in 2021, and well pump burned up needing replacement. Once the spring dries up, we reset all of the outside watering to minimums. There is no water table here; the underground water in this area runs in rock crevices and voids; finding water is very much "hit-or-miss". Our well is 350 feet deep; in contrast, our neighbor's well which is about 300 feet away from ours, is 800 feet deep.