I had arranged with a colleague to hike up Grignetta after work. To avoid spending too much time on the SOTA activation, and to avoid boring my colleague. I packed only my Kenwood TH-F7 handheld and a Diamond SRH-770 antenna, unscrewed and stored inside a piece of electrical conduit to protect it. At the last minute, my colleague had a prior commitment and could no longer join me. Rather than going back home to pick up my HF gear, I decided to try an FM-only activation.
After arriving at Piani dei Resinelli, I parked near Rifugio Soldanella and started the ascent. I still hadn’t decided which trail to take: the Cermenati, which is more direct and scenic but features rocky sections with lots of loose stones and gravel, or the Senigallia, which is less direct but equally scenic, with fewer unstable rocks and with some chain-assisted rock passages. In the end, I chose the more direct route. My last Grignetta activation dates back to 2022, hard to believe.
During the ascent I overtook two girls who were talking non-stop, and before long I was once again enjoying the silence around me. Given the sunny weather, I expected to meet many more people, but even at the summit there were only a few.
I managed to maintain a steady pace on the way up; the cycling training I do during the week is clearly still paying off.
I spotted on cluster and started calling on 145.425 MHz FM. Since I wasn’t sure how much charge was left in the now aging batteries, I reduced the output power to 50 mW. My first QSO was with @IK2LEY Fabio, followed by IW2HTH Antonio, both at a QRB of about 50 km from Milano e Bergamo. With two QSOs in the log, I increased the power to 5 watts and logged @I1WKN Beppe, from Turin at a QRB of 170 km, working him on both the VHF and UHF bands. Finally, I logged IZ1DNQ , Fabrizio, also from Turin but slightly farther north than Beppe, at a QRB of approximately 170 km as well.
I received everyone at 59, and everyone copied me without any problems. On UHF, Beppe gave me a 52 report, while I gave him 55.
I continued calling for a few more minutes without success, so I went QRT at 18:00 UTC and started my descent. I reached the car while there was still daylight.
Thanks, guys, for your valuable support!
CUAGN
73
IW2OBX