Weather this weekend has been great. Far from what I found last week when I tried activating a new summit for me: after driving to the park place and walking about 1 km, I decided to return as it was raining heavily.
Situation today was opposite, clear sky and sun shining reaching 30ºC. I decided to repeat my destination and to complete the postponed activation doing it this afternoon. Destination: Larrazpil EA2/NV-177, who was activated just once on VHF. Today I’ll open it to HF for the first time.
The path starts at the village of Madoz, located at about 780m a.s.l. The way soon passes through a beautiful beech forest. Beech are in bright green color as the leaves started growing in the last weeks. Lovely nature this spring…
After walking for about 2,5 km I reached a big and very well preserved megalithic tomb, dated about 2000 years B.C. It does worth the visit:
The views to the valley at this point are lovely but soon again you have to penetrate in the forest, because the highest point of the mountain is covered with high trees.
About one km further ahead I found the trig point where a mountain mailbox is placed; in most summits here in Spain it’s common to find such boxes, where mountaineers leave their names written inside to certify they reached the summit. Such papers are collected by mountain clubs.
I was surprised when I rode the name on top of the box as it is not correctly written: the box indicates “Iruyandiko” instead the expected “Larrazpìl”.
I checked the waypoint and I was ok. After returning home I saw an explanation about old names for this summit. Perhaps I’ll add a note in the Sota summits list to avoid and confusion for future visitors…
After installing my random wire vertical, my plan was to run on 28 / 21 MHz to enhance USA contacts, but I couldn’t do it.
First I had troubles with SWR. After dealing with it I decided to start on 21 MHz, but after spending a lot of time calling without much success I decided to go QSY. In the other hand my reports were poor.
Perhaps due I was surrounded by tons of tall and fresh trees absorbing RF?
Later I tried on 18 MHz with a better feeling and then I spent most time on 14 MHz, the trusty band… Anyhow, most chasers were also weak on my side this afternoon, but after devoting about 1h 45 min to the radio I signed off and dismantled.
Thanks all chasers for your calls. See you soon.
VY 73 de Ignacio