Motivation
This time I had two targets:
- Activate the Special event station EG2GURU/P, one of the EA2IF (SK) Guru Memorial (in the first year of his death anniversary), and
- To visit a new mountain and get a SOTA complete.
Activation date: 5-Mar-2023
The morning was foggy in Vitoria, but I went out with the hope that the day would be clean later on.
Driving directions
Destination to start the hike: village of Etura.
Leave Vitoria towards Pamplona by road N-104. Take deviation towards Maturana, by road A-3012. Take deviation right towards Gebara, by road A-3022. Just arriving in Gebara, take deviation right towards Agurain,still on A-3022. Exit towards Etura, on road A-4014.
Pass the village by the main street uphill and park at the end of the village, on a parking place with some big trash containers.
There you pass a cattle gate and start the climb.
The climb
You just follow a dirt road all the way up, as in the very summit there is a phone relay aerial.
The slope is not huge and therefore it is an easy trek (green dots show the trail):
- Trail length (one way): 2,7 km
- Elevation gain: 190 m
- Mountain elevation: 788 m
The day was good: blue sky and no clouds, but there was a low temperature when I started walking and there was dew on the plants.
At mid way, a couple of cows crossed my path, but they were friendly and kept their way.
I headed the last steep section and I finally view the relay tower on the summit. It took me 40 minutes from the start.
Next the aerial tower there is a geodetic vertex and a mountain mailbox. In the backgroud you can see the long range of Mt. Aumategi, EA2/SS-003 and its wind power farm, covered in snow.
The activation
I separated from the tower and installed a random wire aerial inverted L. The white mountains in the background are Mt. Aitxuri EA2/SS-001 and Mt. Aratz EA2/VI-003:
My setup today: Elecraft KX3 + 3 x 21700 LiIon batt + ZM-2 manual tuner + 9 m random wire and 4 x 4,2 m radials on ground.
I started activating at 9:30 on 20m SSB. Besides the regular EU chasers, a big number of EA stations made their way to my log, confirming a short skip range in 14 MHz these days.
Later I ran on 30m CW, 40m CW, 15m SSB, 17m SSB and ended on 20m CW.
Between band changes I spent some time to work S2S with pleasure, including a S2S with EB2GKK/P on VHF at sight from my summit, as he was on EA2/VI-003.
My log was closed 12:47 utc with 143 QSO, being 24 S2S.
It was a very pleasant activation and I was happy to give a tribute to Guru feeling a warm welcome by all chasers and S2S; thanks for it!
73 de Ignacio