EA2/ZG-009 Valdemadera
26/12/2014
We have had foggy and windy weather the previous days but Friday was our lucky day again - with brilliant winter weather - sunny, 10C and slight wind.
I met Jose EA2KV, one of my friends from my home town Zaragoza and a very experienced CW operator and competitive contester, although completely new to SOTA. I chose the close by summit of Valdemera - a 50km drive from town and a yet to be activated summit. We set off at 7.30z and after a brief stop for a coffee and a tapa of Spanish omelette we made it to the top by 8.50z.
Operating
We set a G WHIP resonant end fed for 20m as a sloping wire aiming at central Europe and the FT-857D and Jose got started on 20m CW with the keyer at 29wpm!. Within 25min he had already a large number of stations in the log and he passed me the mic to have a go on SSB. With the power, favourable conditions and unique summit the pile was huge. We alternated to keep the flow going at a good rate and help each other with the logging. After the 20m pile was worked we QSYed to 15m to log a few more QSOs.
100+ QSOs within a couple of hours. It was time to go as I had to meet my mates and families for the seasonal lunch party.
Some views from the top towards the South and North-East.
Many thanks to all the chasers. We very much enjoyed our outing in Valdemadera.
It was brilliant to do a combined activation with Jose, I shall wait and see if the SOTA bug got to him!
73 Angel EA/M0HDF/P