77th Mt. San Cristóbal EA2/NV-119 by EA2IF/P on 23/02/2020

With a glorious spring weather today I decided to activate this summit for the 77th time since I started SOTA. Many, many times I’ve hiked this mountain through a demanding steep track with an elevation gain of 450m in 35 minutes, but today I drove up to the top by car, as I don’t feel yet strong enough after my operation of last January 21st.
>Con un glorioso tiempo primaveral hoy, decidí activar esta cima por LXXVII vez desde que empecé en SOTA. Muchas, muchas veces he subido esta montaña a través de un sendero exigente con una diferencia de altitud de 450m en 35 minutos, pero hoy conduje hasta la cima en coche, pues no me siento todavía suficientemente fuerte después de mi operación del pasado 21 de enero.

As soon as I parked, I hiked the final few meters up to the very summit, took some pictures of the views and set up making an inverted L with the help of my 2 fishing rods, 7m long each.
>Tan pronto como aparqué, ascendí a pie los pocos últimos metros hasta la misma cima, tomé algunas fotos de las vistas e instalé haciendo una L invertida con la ayuda de mis 2 cañas de pescar de 7m de largo cada una.

Great blue sky with several SOTAs visible in the distance towards the SouthWest and the entrance to the former military Fort and Prision of San Cristóbal in the foreground.
>Gran cielo azul con muchas SOTAs visibles en la distancia hacia el SudOeste y la entrada al antiguo Fuerte militar y Prisión de San Cristóbal en primer plano.


Other SOTAs towards the South in the distance, with the plateau where the city of Pamplona is placed. With such beautiful spring weather, several cars and many people were at the summit.
>Otras SOTAs hacia el Sur en la distancia, con la llanura donde la ciudad de Pamplona está ubicada. Con semejante precioso tiempo primaveral, muchos coches y mucha gente estaban en la cima.

Some more SOTAs towards the South in the distance with the city of Pamplona down on the plateau.
>Algunas más SOTAs hacia el Sur en la distancia con la ciudad de Pamplona abajo en la llanura.


My car got parked by the base of the antennas in order to get some shade. Those are the SOTAs towards the East.
>Mi coche quedó aparcado junto a la base de las antenas para tener algo de sombra. Esas son las SOTAs hacia en Este.

There you can see some other SOTAs towards the North.
>Ahí pueden ver algunas otras SOTAs hacia el Norte.

And finally, you can see my setup with 21.5m of wire as an inverted L (red line) and the elevated 6m long counterpoise wire (white line). With so many people moving around the summit today, I just wanted to have the antenna wires well out of reach to anybody.
>Y finalmente, pueden ver mi instalación con 21.5m de cable coo una L invertida (línea roja) y el cable elevado de contraantena de 6m de largo (línea blanca). Con tanta gente moviéndose por alrededor de la cima hoy, sólo quería tener los cables de la antena bien fuera del alcance para todo el mundo.

The activation went as follows:

  • 20m CW: 17 QSOs in 21 minutes, 2 of which were DX with the USA.
  • 40m CW: 15 QSOs in 18 minutes, 1 of which was a S2S with Juan EA1AER/P activating EA1/LE-133.
  • 30m CW: 12 QSOs in 19 minutes.
  • 20m CW: 10 QSOs in 27 minutes, one of which was a S2S with Mark NK8Q activating W3/PW-012. This S2S definitely made my day!
  • 40m CW: 18 QSOs in 27 minutes.
  • 20m CW: 8 QSOs in 29 minutes. I copied very weak the call from KG3W, I sent him signal report several times but he never came back to me, so NIL…
  • 60m CW: 2 QSOs in 3 minutes. For some reason, I couldn’t tune today’s setup on 60m and 17m, so these 2 QSOs on 60m were made with the SWR indicator of my FT-817 displaying 3 bulbs, so I didn’t feel very comfortable and didn’t call CQ for long.

>La activación fue como sigue:

  • 20m CW: 17 QSOs en 21 minutos, 2 de los cuales fueron DX con los EE.UU.
  • 40m CW: 15 QSOs en 18 minutos, 1 de los cuales fue un SaS con Juan EA1AER/P activando EA1/LE-133.
  • 30m CW: 12 QSOs en 19 minutos.
  • 20m CW: 10 QSOs en 27 minutos, uno de los cuales fue un SaS con Mark NK8Q activando W3/PW-012. Sin duda, este SaS redondeó mi día!
  • 40m CW: 18 QSOs en 27 minutos.
  • 20m CW: 8 QSOs en 29 minutos. Copié muy débil la llamada de KG3W, le envié reporte de señal varias veces, pero él nunca volvió, así que NIL (Not In Log)…
  • 60m CW: 2 QSOs en 3 minutos. Por alguna razón, no pude sintonizar la instalación de hoy en 60m y 17m, así que estos 2 QSOs en 60m fueron hechos con el indicador de ROE de mi FT-817 mostrando 3 sectores, así que no me sentí muy cómodo y no llamé CQ por mucho tiempo.

This is the full log with 82 QSOs:
>Este es el log completo con 82 QSOs:





You can see it on the map:
>Pueden verlo en el mapa:

It was very, very nice to be back activating again and I’ll be looking forward to doing it soon again. Thanks dear chasers for your calls and QSOs.
>Fue muy, muy agradable volver a activar de nuevo y estaré esperando hacerlo pronto de nuevo. Gracias estimados cazadores por sus llamadas y QSOs.

73,

Guru

8 Likes

Hi Guru,
It’s a pleasure to read your activation report.
This afternoon I was activating I/LO-439, I saw your spot in 20 and 40 cw but I didn’t hear you.
Good condition also in North Italy to North America, but I wasn’t able to transatlatic s2s.
I hope to contact you next time.
73

1 Like

Hi Roberto,
Thanks for your message. Propagation conditions were not easy today. I also saw you on SOTAwatch and searched for you on the frequency without success.
I also searched for some Northamerican activators spotted on SOTAwatch, but some were not copied and other to whom I could copy, he never copied my calls. Only Mark (NK8Q) copied me after a number of calls I made.
Well, it was a fun activation.
I hope to S2S with you next time.
73,

Guru

1 Like

Been there…

Your photos bring back good memories, Guru. I activated there with the help of Ignacio EA2BD, I nearly lost my hat into the “moat”.

Looks like a beautiful day. Good medicine!

73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2UH

1 Like

Hello Guru.

If you have activated that summit 77 times … I propose a name change … from San Cristobal to Guru SOTA…with the same reference…:rofl::rofl:

I’m glad you came back to the mountain

73 de EA4R Alfonso

1 Like

Hi Alf,
Believe it or not, a name change is more than advisable in this SOTA because the name of this mountain is and has always been Mt. Ezkaba, while San Cristóbal is just the name of the military Fort built at its top between 1878 and 1919 and almost never used it as such because the start of the military aviation made it obsolete. For this reason, it was used as a prision between 1934 and 1945.
Shame we couldn’t make QSO but I’m sure we’ll make it very soon from some other summits.
73,

Guru

Many thanks for QSO Guru. It is great that you are activating again!
73 de geert ea8/pa7zee

1 Like

Hi Guru, I’m glad ear you from a summit again. Thanks for the contact in 20m. After 77 operations, I hope this reference is in the logs of all chasers :-))
73

Thank you, José, for your call and QSO.

I’m sure there are still a good number of chasers needing to chase this reference. But it’s true this one must have been chased by many, many, many.
73,

Guru