After struggling to only just qualify FL/VO-001 Le Grand Ballon last week I wasn’t expecting much better today when I tried F/AB-435 the Crêt de Châtillon but perhaps because it was later in the day things turned out better.
We are on a campervan tour in France and like Le Grand Ballon this summit has free parking just below it where we can spend the night. Free overnight parking is a Good Thing!
This is the view from further away. F/VB-435 is the summit with the ski lift.
Visibility wasn’t perfect but we did glimpse Mont Blanc.
This screenshot from the Peakfinder app does a good job of identifying the tops.
The summit towards the left with the big cliffs is the 2338m Le Tournette F/AB-286 which is “only” 8 points and has been activated just 3 times. It makes me feel almost guilty for the 10 points earned after a 15 minute walk to the top of Le Grand Ballon.
But back to today’s activation on the 4 point Crêt de Châtillon. The HF conditions were not good, the K index was up to 4 so I decided to make the best with 40m SSB and use a linked dipole instead of my usual end-fed with tuner.
There was quite a bit of crackling and fizzing but I found a free frequency (mid-week is good!) and after spotting (mobile signal good) called CQ.
S52ON and S57ILF came in very quickly and then it was about a QSO every minute with following contacts made.
PA5KM
DL5FU
OE6RCD
DJ5AV
F6FNA
ON7KM
EA2CKX
Reports were very mixed with a 33 and 42 but also 57, 58 and 59.
Very many thanks to all the chasers. If I sounded a bit deaf it was because I was using the speaker instead of headphones so a young couple who were interested in what I was doing could hear what was going on.
F/VB-435 isn’t the tallest summit in this region but it’s easy to access and a farm beside the parking area sells local cheese, some of which we will sample tonight. 