Hi,
I am going to Alcudia on holiday tomorrow(Saturday) and as soon as we booked it I looked at the possibility of a SOTA activation. low and behold theres a small summit EA6/MA-066 within an hours walk from my hotel, i couldnt have done it better if i had actually aimed to do that
Last weekend i thought i’d dust off some gear and test a new HF antenna out i had bought a year or so ago. Its a 40-10m EFHW from wire antennas. Got it up in the garden got my rig all setup turned it on, it then turned off again and back on. I took a look at the power supply and its not keeping voltage steady! so that was broken, it is probably 20 years old. So i thought i’d get my LIFEPO4 battery out. only to find one of its cells is reading 2.62V. I cant try and fix it with the balance charger as that connects to the broken power supply!
So i’m just taking my 2m Handheld, and the telescopic antenna if i can find that! I’ll try to activate the summit on 2m only. I see at least 1 person has activated it before with 2m only so there is hope.
I might try to activate it on Sunday, which i have an alert for but don’t know the time. otherwise it will be sometime before Friday.
Anyone in the area of 2m kep an ear out in case you hear a call
Hi @M0VED. I am away in Gran Canaria at the moment. I really don’t know what it will be like in Alcudia, but you may struggle on 2m.
I would defo recommend HF gear and conditions are great right now on at least one HF band . You could probably get away without a pole by throwing an end fed over a bush, tree, cairn or whatever there is - it has worked for me in the past ! I took a Carbon 6 mast with me from Sotabeams.
Have fun and enjoy the summit !
Tim - G5OLD
Enjoy Majorca. I haven’t activated MA-066 so can’t comment, but if you can get up the nearby MA-060 you’ll likely get on OK with 2m. There are a number of local chasers/activators, such as @EA6KB@EA6LU@EA6APL@EC6PG who might be in a position to chase or provide S2S contacts.
I’ve activated a number of EA6 summits on 2m, just using my Quansheng handie and standard antenna. As well as calling CQ on 145.500, I also stumbled across 2m activity on 145.425 and odd-split frequencies too (like 145.515), so it’s worth tuning around and seeing who else is on-air.
From the higher summits, you should be able to contact the Spanish mainland using just a handie - my best 2m contact was an EA3 station in Tarragona from the top of EA6/MA-010.
I hope you have good weather and success with your activations
73, Simon
What handhed are you taking? There’s a couple of transmitting towers on the nearby lower summit which might cause some interference or blocking depending on the radio:
