Writing

Today we planted a fence node at Patrick Tower, a High Sierra Communications site east of USA Parkway in Storey County. This was an initial site visit: get from zero to one, learn what the location can do, and improve from there. With Dave Metts' generous support, we have another live foothold on the industrial corridor between Reno and the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center. That stretch is filling in fast with logistics, manufacturing, and data center construction. A mesh backbone node here extends coverage toward the Truckee Meadows and the I-80 corridor communities that already depend on Patrick Tower for public safety radio.

Virginia Peak now carries a MeshEnvy backbone node at the High Sierra Communications facility on the Pah Rah crest. That single placement matters more than most. From one of the highest summits around Reno, we can start tying the Truckee Meadows to the desert basins, playa country, and ridgelines that surround it.

Tim and I hiked Flowery Peak on May 22 to stake a repeater on the crest above Virginia City. The node is on the air now. It fills in the east side of town and works alongside our repeaters on Davidson Peak and Ophir Hill to give the Comstock corridor close to full mesh coverage.

On the same day Tim and I hit Ophir Hill, we also placed a node on Davidson Peak. The summit sits on the Virginia Range crest above historic Virginia City at about 7,850 feet. From up there you look down into the Comstock bowl and out across Washoe Valley. We drove Tim's side-by-side carefully over the trail, did range checking, and found a spot that could actually serve the town below.

There is a specific kind of awe that hits you when you reach the top of Ophir Hill. The summit sits in the Virginia Range above historic Virginia City in Storey County, at about 7,782 feet above sea level. From there the whole basin feels within reach, ridgelines in every direction and the Comstock country laid out below.

Spanish Benchmark is a Washoe County high point northeast of Reno, near Spanish Springs. The summit sits at about 6,165 feet above sea level with roughly a thousand feet of prominence, which makes it a strong perch for looking out over the Spanish Springs Valley and the Truckee Meadows rim. We highlighted this location when we announced we were working with the BLM Carson Field Office; here is a short field diary from early visits to the site.