EA5 Activations

Old Reflector
1

19-06-2014 EA5/CS-018
We arrived last night to EA5 land - Castellon having driven 800km
I decided to go for an activation in the morning with the mountain bike (29er Trek X-caliber,… nice ride if you are into bikes). It was 1.30am local time by the time my brother in law finished giving me directions on google maps…

EA5/CS-018 Penya is rarely activated summit (I was the 2nd activation). It is about 12km and 500m up from the village. It was a nice ride up, except the point where I got the wrong turn and ended up going up the wrong track, 30min later a 100m+ elevation i decided to go back to find the right track as i did not want to hike 2-3km up a narrow trail with the bike on my shoulder.

It was fairly hot, about 27-28C and the sun was hammering down just past mid day.
I worked about 13 stations on 20m and moved to 40m, after a few calls with no response, i turned the dial and worked EF6 - URE´s special callsign for Felipe VI King of Spain proclamation.
Before leaving I changed the switch on the multiband EFHW to 30m and worked ON4FI.

As usual - HB1B + mountain tuner and multiband efhw and 7m pole.

The most fun was riding down to the village on an old 1st class mountain pass local road. I could not help either but get a siesta after lunch as I was pretty knackered after the ride

Thanks to all the Chasers again for a great day.

Vy 73s de Angel M0HDF / EA2ECG

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In reply to M0HDF:
That’s sounds like a brilliant biking adventure Angel - sorry I was not in the shack to listen out for you.

Have a good holiday - it sounds fantastic down there!

Phil G4OBK

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In reply to G4OBK:
Hi Phil, it was a lot of fun, although everything hurts now (have not ridden the bike for a while).
There are a few other summits around I hope to crack in the next few days. I will look out for your call.
Cheers & 73s
Angel M0HDF

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In reply to M0HDF:

Hi Angel,
what a pity having missed the opportunity to work you there this time.
Do you plan more activation in the next days? Hope to catch you then.

Happy stay in Castellon, and apply enough sun cream!
VY 73
Ignacio EA2BD

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In reply to EA2BD:
Hi Ignacio,
I have another couple of summits on the radar around here EA5/CS-001 Penyagolosa & EA5/CS-017 Bartolo.
Penyagolosa is the highest point in the province and it is situated inland close to the Maestrazgo. Bartolo overlooks Benicasim and the Mediterranean sea. Nice spots. We will likely activate one of them tomorrow morning.

Hopefully we will catch you on the air.

Vy 73s. Angel M0HDF / EA2ECG

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In reply to M0HDF:

Hi Angel,

I regret not having seen this post before, I hope you will spend a good stay in Castellon.

Here we have about good cycling tops to access, especially north of the province.

Live just 6km from the summit Penya, I could join you, walking hi

Greetings and good stay in Castellon

Vy 73s - Alex EB5AL

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Hola Alex, thanks for the note. I will let you know if we go for another activation nearby if not now when we come back in a few months, it will be nice to meet you. I know the area relatively well too, we have family around.

We activated Bartolo last Saturday, starting at the Col de la Mola.
The summit is about 2.5Km and 200m up from there. We followed the route via the masset and returned along the ridge. The views of the Mediterranean sea are fantastic from up there.
WX: Sunny, 29C.
Gear: I used the usual gear but this time I went for a new homebrew 44´doublet, fed with an open wire parallel line (28´) and a KI6J backpacker 4:1 Guanella balun, tuned with the elecraft T1.
The doublet broadside was oriented towards the N-E so we could work EU stations.
I used a 7m sota pole to support the centre of the doublet and two pine trees to elevate the ends which ended up about 3.5m of the ground.
The antenna worked pretty well in the 3 bands used (40,30,20m), with very good reports.
We worked 35 stations in about 55min on the air.
Prefixes worked: CT, EA2, EU, DL, OM, DF, I, EA1, PA, HB9, OK, G, OE, EA4, GW, EA5, F.

Yesterday, we went to Espada EA5/CS-014 in the early evening.
WX: summer T-storms, party cloudy, 20C
it is a beautiful area and slightly cooler than up the province.
It is about steep 450m ascent and 2.7km from the Collado in the west side, that took us 58min.
It was blue sky clear when we started, but as we approached the summit we started to hear the thunders again in the distance and clouds starting to close in.
We went for a very very quick activation, 5-6 QSO. As soon as I powered up my HB1B, I heard the storm static crashes - up to S9 and very continuous. It was a tough activation and was hard work to pull the callsigns out of the noise.

I used my homebrew 44’ doublet and T1 again. The summit was friendly to this type of layout.

Thanks to all the Chasers and I was sorry we could not stay longer, but the storm was closing in quickly. We went down fast very quickly (in 28min!!)

I have downloaded the app for the lightning detector, it will be handy in future activations.

Vy 73s de Eva M0HJV & Angel M0HDF / EA2ECG

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In reply to M0HDF:

Hi Angel,

Bartolo has the fantastic views, especially on clear days. You can see even Columbretes islands at 40km ±.
There are lots of ways to access, from Coll is a good one, and a slightly harder from Les Santes, but much more beautiful. There’s the R4 of Castellon.

I’m glad your up to the Espada too, is an emblematic summit of the province like its surrounding villages, eat very well :slight_smile:
You tx from the trenches?, is a good refuge from the strong wind.

Castellon is very prone to storms in the interior of the province. A good utility is Rainalarm to see how the storm evolves.
But the best, for safety, is to lower the summit quickly.

A place that I recommend is the north, Tinença Benifassa, there are 2 very easy summits enabled cycling and walking another. His landscapes I liked a lot.

I hope you will enjoy these lands.

regards

Vy 73s - Alex EB5AL

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Thanks Alex.

Some pics about our recent activations around here.
http://m0hdf.blogspot.com.es/2014/06/ea5-castellon-activations.html

Vy 73s Angel M0HDF / EA2ECG

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In reply to M0HDF:

Hi Angel,
thanks for the story, pictures and the activation.

I tried to catch you yesterday but in the end, after severe storm noise here I could work EA5/M0HJV in 10 MHZ.
I’m happy to have chased Eva in this short activation! Thanks for your efforts and have a nice week there!

73 Ignacio EA2BD

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In reply to M0HDF:
Hi, Angel!
Good trip & report, I hope you’ve enjoyed the activations!
Was funny to read my callsign on your notebook (2nd pict)
73 de Mikel EA2CW

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Thanks guys.

High res pics from the Canon S95, all credit to Eva who normally takes care of the photo business.
Perhaps a pic with the logbook becomes a new feature of our posts in the future.
It was good to work you Mikel on Sat as I follow your blog and I recognised your callsign “CW”…
I missed Guru by an hour or so, I saw his spot on 30m as we left the car, but by the time we were up he was already gone.

Ignacio, it was very stormy on Tuesday, it took a few attempts before we pulled your call out of the noise.

We are heading to Arties in EA3 Pyrenees this afternoon, depending on the WX, we might go for one tomorrow, the forecast is not great though.

Catch you on the air on the next one, hopefully.

Vy 73s de Angel M0HDF / EA2ECG