22.1.2020, day 1
First activation was Los Helechos, LA-012. Very easy to climb, about 30 minutes on a good path.
Made 32 QSOs in 40 minutes including 4 S2S. Conditions were good to Europe.
Next I chose Montana Tinamala. LA-020. Quite a different climb, very steep.
Weather was warm, in the morning it was even a bit chilly.
Amazing condx to W/VE, made even contacts to CA, NM and AZ.
46 QSOs in 60 minutes. No S2S.
23.1.2020, day 2
Heading to the north of the island. First activation is Teneza, LA-018.
Easy to climb in about 30 minutes. Also on this summit I am the only visitor this day.
Again good signals from Europe. 46 QSOs in 60 minutes including 2 S2S.
Made my first SSB contacts, new calls in the log…
For the way back I chose a different route to the west, steeper but still ok.
Summit #2 is Montana Tinache, LA-016. I had to drive only about 10 minutes from the last summit. Again a rather easy climb on the ridge of the volcano, took me about 30 minutes to the summit.
As the day before, conditions were worse to Europe but good to NA. Again a call from California in the log. Total 63 QSOs, only 1 S2S.
My RIG seems to work well. I am using a Xiegu G90, 15-20W and a wire vertical on a 7m fiber glass pole. Power comes from a 6600mAh LiFePo4 accumulator.
I will be QRV from more summits during the next 4 days. Thank you for calling me!
Hi Chris
Sorry we did not meet today. Conditions were worse than the days before and it was more difficult to set up my antenna today. I will post the pictures on QRZ.com.
Anyway, nice S2S QSO yesterday!
vy 73, Chris
Hi John, yes I was amazed to hear you from the west coast! My tiny station works Beside you on 22/01 I had also QSOs with AZ and NM.
Hope to hear you again, seems around 15Z there is a good chance.
vy 73, Chris
Hi Tom, I was on LA-014 today and LA-019 is sure on my list as it is right on my front door… I will post the summit pictures on QRZ.com.
For me, this is the perfect place, nice climate and amazing landscape with some interesting SOTA hills. Highly recommend it.
Hope to hear you during my last three days.
vy 73, Chris
Hi Chris,
for two und three calls I’ve heard you on my summit today. But only 41, much weaker than yesterday.
Later I saw you cw spot, but my skills are not good enough for calling you. I hope, my friend Wolf, DK1HW had more luck.
Happy Sota
73 Chris
Hi Chris,
Glad to read that you are using a Xiegu G90 for your EA8 activations.
I think it would be interesting for all of us to know how is it performing…specially when talking about mA. consumptions in RX/TX, sensitivity, etc.
For me, is the very first time I read about someone using it for SOTA activations.
Thanks in advance for your info!!!
73 Mo EA4MZ
Dear Mo
I made more than 500 QSOs on this trip and the G90 performed very well.
With my 6600mAh battery (LiFePo4) I was able to do 2 activations in a row of each around 1 hour (85% CW, 15% SSB, about 2x 45 QSOs).
I can not tell you the exact power consumption.
Sensitivity: good performance, even S1 and S2 signals were easy readable. The preamp works well and helped me a lot.
On the negative side: High weight, small display size, no built in CW memory.
Summary: For a reasonable price you get a well built radio with 20W and antenna tuner. I recommend it if you don`t mind the weight.
There are more hams who use it for SOTA, I remember a SV and a CT op using it.
Hope this helps.
vy 73 Chris HB9CYV
Hi Chris,
Thank you very much for your helpful information!
Regarding the lack of CW memories, IMHO is only a matter of building a small K12/K16 keyer, about a matches case size including battery, and you have a 4 memories keyer and almost all the “bells and whistles” of a good keyer.
About weight, yes…is not a KX2…but at less than half price, including ATU, hand microphone, etc.
Beside you on 22/01 I had also QSOs with AZ and NM.