Motivation
Summer has started with good weather and Jorge EA2LU proposed visiting the remote summit of Mt. Latxaga, 1207 m a.s.l. in the very Northeast in Navarra that had only been activated once in VHF.
Activation date: 30 Jun 2020
Driving direction
Nearest village is Orbara.
-
Exit Pamplona towards France / Zubiri (road nr. N-135)
-
After Zubiri, continue towards France / Burguete (road nr. N-135)
-
After Espinal, take deviation right towards Garralda (road nr. NA-140)
-
Pass Garralda and continue towards Aribe (road nr. NA-140)
-
Once in Aribe, take deviation left towards Orbara (road NA-2030)
Driving time from Pamplona: 1 hour 15 minutes (60 kilometer).
Climb
Once in Orbara you have to take a narrow asphalt road in good condition that leaves the village towards left hand side (Southwest) and drive up for 5,4 kilometer until reaching some small farm houses at 1100 m a.s.l.
There you can park and take a deviation left indicated by this sign (towards Txutxurieta):
The big mountain right behind the sign and a bit covered in clouds is Mt. Ori EA2/NV-003.
- Total distance to the summit from Orbara is 7,1 km
- Height gain is 460 m from Orbara, and 108 m from the parking if you take the road up.
The path is wide at the beginning and later gets inside the forest:
The summit is inside a dense bleech forest and marked with a mountain mailbox with a remembrance plaque for a dead mountaineer who helped painting the trail blazing (characteristic red and white paint on trees) in the GR.
The walk was nice but it is a pity the very summit had no views in any direction.
Activation
We walked around and found a clear area that allowed deploying the antenna. Jorge set there using a random wire of 17 meters inverted vee plus 4 radial wires on ground. His KX2 did the job tuning all bands with ease.
I moved further away and found with difficulty a clear tiny area as well so that my shorter wire of 11,5 meters could be installed inverted L, mating with my ZM-2 tuner.
Jorge ran on 5, 7, 10 and 14 MHz mostly CW, and a single qso in SSB for a last S2S. He logged a total of 54 qso. His S2S were F5HTR/P, F6HBI/P, F/HB9DBM/P, OK/DL2DXA/P, EA2/F5PLR/P, HB9CBR/P, SM0OEK/P, DJ3AX/P and OE5REO/P.
After installing my aerial I tried to start my activation on 14 MHz SSB but to put things complicated I had an intermittent phone coverage and I couldn’t self spot. I asked Jorge some support by the handheld (we use to carry our VHF handhelds and coordinate this way in the distance the band changes or agree on the end of operation), and he managed from his place to put a spot for me, thanks! I ran then on 14 MHz first but I just logged a single station: SA4BLM. Perhaps all these green trees around had an adverse effect on my signal.
I moved down to 7 MHz where I logged a few more. Having the feeling of a reduced RF radiation I decided to spend some time looking for S2S contacts, both SSB and CW.
In the end my log was closed with 14 qso, being 9 of them S2S: thanks Gerald F6HBI/P, René F/HB9CRY/P, Didier EA2/F5PLR/P, Anita HB9HBU/P together with Jean-Pierre HB9HBV/P, Bruno HB9CBR/P, Jan OK1DPU/P who struggled to get my signals, Hans HB9CKV/P and Martin OE5REO/P.
I was glad to meet on air with Didier F5PLR whose activation today in EA2/NV was the first one in my association. I must visit this summit in the border with France in the future to get the complete!
Well, we know that weekdays use to be quieter and a reduced log is achieved, but anyway the weather was very good and we enjoyed the visit to a new area.
We put back again our protective masks and returned to Pamplona safe and sound.
73 de Ignacio