Mt . Artxueta EA2/NV-032 by EA2IF/P on 29/05/2020

[EA2IF]

This is the location of this summit 41 Km to the Noth-West of Pamplona:
>Esta es la ubicación de esta cima a 41Km hacia el Noroeste de Pamplona:

And this is how it looked like while I was driving there:
>Y así se veía mientras conducía allí:

The weather was like summer, blue sky and 29.5ºC down in the valley.
The temperature lowered as I ascended.
During the ascent, I enjoyed viewing this huge rocky piece of cheese:
>El tiempo era como de verano, cielo azul y 29,5ºC abajo en el valle.
La temperatura bajó según ascendí.
Durante el ascenso, disfruté viendo este enorme trozo de queso rocoso.

As well as the always impressive view of the 6 points SOTA Beriain EA2/NV-015 and its very looong ridge:
>Así como la siempre impresionante vista de la SOTA de 6 puntos Beriain EA2/NV-015 y su laaarga cresta.

It was impossible for me to get the whole range in one shot, so this picture is a composition I made with 2 pics. It’s not perfect but it gives very well the idea.
>Me era imposible coger toda la cresta en una sola foto, así que esta foto es una composición que he hecho con 2 fotos. No es perfecta, pero da muy bien la idea.

Once in the summit, I setup with my 10m long endfed wire as a sloper to a 9:1 unun and the usual 6m long counterpoise wire just thrown downhill.
>Una vez en la cima, instalé con mi cable de 10m de largo alimentado en el extremo como una sloper hasta el unun 9:1 y el habitual cable de contraantena de 6m de largo tirado monte abajo.

The rigs were my FT-817ND at 5W and my MFJ-941B antenna tunner.
As I knew there were good opennings on the higher bands lately, I came with the clear idea of giving 10 and 6m a try today.
>Los equipos fueron my FT-817ND a 5W y mi acoplador de antenas MFJ-941B.
Como sabía que había buenas aperturas en las bandas altas últimamente, hoy vine con la clara idea de probar 10 y 6m.

During the operation, I sat on the rock just down to the left of the trypod and I had great views like these:
>Durante la operación, me senté en la roca justo debajo a la izquierda del trípode y tuve magníficas vista como estas:

The highest peak, towards the left of the following pic, is the 6 points SOTA Intzako Dorrea EA2/NV-018.
>El pico más alto, hacia la izquierda de la foto siguiente, es la SOTA de 6 puntos Intzako Dorrea EA2/NV-018.

The activation went like this:

• 10m CW: 21 QSOs in 20 minutes.

• 10m SSB: 21 QSOs in 21 minutes.

• 6m CW: 16 QSOs in 29 minutes.

• 20m CW: 18 QSOs in 31 minutes, 3 of wich were DX, 2 with the USA and 1 with the Russian distant region of the Urals.

>La activación fue así:

• 10m CW: 21 QSOs en 20 minutos.

• 10m SSB: 21 QSOs en 21 minutos.

• 6m CW: 16 QSOs en 29 minutos.

• 20m CW: 18 QSOs en 31 minutos, 3 de los cuales fueron DX, 2 con los EE.UU. y 1 con la lejana región rusa de los Urales.

This is the full log with 76 QSOs, 2 DX USA and 1 DX UA9:
>Este es el log completo con 76QSOs, 2 DX USA y 1 DX UA9:

You can see all these QSOs on the map:
>Pueden ver todos estos QSOs en el mapa:

It was great making contacts on 10 and 6m with so good signals in most of the cases. Most distant QSO on 6m was 2076Km with Hans @SM6CVX in Karlsborg.
Bear in mind that my antenna was just an endfed 10m long wire.
>Fue genial hacer contactos en 10 y 6m con tan buenas señales en la mayoría de los casos.
El más distante QSO en 6m fue 2076Km con Hans SM6CVX en Karlsborg.
Tengan en cuenta que mi antena fue solo un cable de 10m de largo alimentado en el extremo.

It was also great being chased by 2 stations from the USA and also Vlad @RX9WT. Excuse me, Vlad, because I called you Marat by mistake during our QSO. Sorry…
>Fue también genial ser cazado por 2 estaciones desde los EE.UU. y también por Vlad RX9WT. Discúlpame, Vlad, porque te llamé Marat por error durante nuestro QSO. Perdón…

After dismantling, pack up and before leaving the summit, I took a few more pictures of the beautiful landscape:
>Después de desmontar, empacar y antes de dejar la cima, tomé unas pocas fotos más del precioso paisaje:

Thanks dear chasers for your calls and QSOs.
I’ll be looking forward to copying you all again soon from a summit.
>Gracias estimados cazadores por sus llamadas y QSOs.
Estaré esperando volver a copiarles a todos ustedes pronto desde una cima.

73,

Guru

[IW2OBX]

Hi Guru!
Memorable propagation in ten and six meters !!
Enviable logbook!!
Congratulation for activation!!
73

[N2ESE]

Hi Guru!
What beautiful pictures,Glad your Healthy and doing SOTA!
I like the fact you post your Log and I see you got NH,MA in
USA,but if you just bent your antenna a bit I could have gotten
you. I tried 28 and 14 Mhz. but could not hear you! WOW you sat on that rock for 2 hours hope it was a soft one ! Hi Hi, I did not see " Lucho " You have to take him with you so you can
find your way home!
By the way I saw your call on RBN the other day on 18 Mhz.
but could not hear you band was poor that day for DX here.
Take care my friend and I will look for you again on one of
those beautiful summits in Spain,
73 Gary, N2ESE

[RX9WT]

Such a large number of QSOs is a sign of mastery. Great job, Guru!
I was in the country, and used a field kit of equipment. Fortunately, the noise level was low.
But the EA2IF signal was very weak. I heard him with great difficulty. I was glad to hear my callsign, RST 539 and 73. And of course, I did not hear that I was Marat, because of the deep QSB) In general, I forgot the name of the operator EA2IF from excitement. So I have to apologize in this situation
73
Vlad
Guru and who was this time from Siberia?

[SP9MA]

Hi Guru,

FB activation !
Tnx nice report & tnx QSO

73, Jarek

[EA2IF]

Hi Vlad,

@RX9WT

Such a large number of QSOs is a sign of mastery

Thank you. I think my experience on contesting and also working 2xQRP pays off.
I always try to maximize the number of QSOs during my time on air by trying to get at least one QSO per each of my QRZ? calls while there are chasers calling in the pileup and also by CQing a good number of times once the pileup has got quiet, as there’s often someone being catched in those later CQ calls. The secret is never being quiet for longer than the strictly necessary time to hear a chaser calling and always being CQing offering yourself with not too long CQ calls, so any potential chaser can hear your call and respond before the QSB makes your signal fade away. This is particularly important in these days of tough propagation conditions and deep QSB.

@RX9WT

I was in the country, and used a field kit of equipment

Were you running QRP? What antenna were you using?

@RX9WT

who was this time from Siberia?

According to SOTA Mapping Project, it was you.

Isn’t your QTH Locator OO62mg?
I’m not sure where the SMP gets the QTH Locator of each ham, but I guess it’s the info that each SOTA programme participant introduced when he/she first registered.
In case your QTH Locator is not that one, you’ll probably have to correct it.
Should that be the case, let me know, please.
Thank you.

73,

Guru

[EA2IF]

@N2ESE

if you just bent your antenna a bit I could have gotten
you

Hi Gary,
I’m afraid it wasn’t a question of bending my sloper endfed antenna. Actually, I was delighted with the 2 DX from NA because I have made none in some of my last activations and I’m also having big difficulties to copy with my base station most of the US activators spotted on SOTAwatch over the last few weeks. It looks like we are having a bad period of propagation conditions between EA2 and NorthAmerica. Well, I’m sure this won’t last forever and we will be able to hear and chase each other pretty soon again.

@N2ESE

WOW you sat on that rock for 2 hours hope it was a soft one !

I assure it wasn’t a soft one and I ended the activation with a certain pain at the bottom of my back due to a bad protrusion the rock I was laying against had. But don’t worry, I’m feeling perfect today and planning to make another SOTA tomorrow, although it will be in the morning and shorter in time because I’ll be with some family members.

@N2ESE

I did not see " Lucho " You have to take him with you so you can
find your way home!

You can’t see him but he was there with me. The truth is that he got me quite badly upset yesterday because he did AGAIN the rolling-on-cattle-shit stuff he likes doing and I hate so much.

@N2ESE

I saw your call on RBN the other day on 18 Mhz.

I spent the evening making ragchewing QSOs. I made QSOs on 10m, 12m, 15, 17m and 6m, all of them with my multiband inverted vee folded dipole by Barker & Williamson. It was a lot of fun and this gave me the clue to try 10m and 6m in my next SOTA activation.
This is the log:

Those on 6m were not ragchewing QSOs but quick ones exchanging just signal report, name and QTH Locator.
73,

Guru

[N1AW]

I was very pleased to be one of the transatlantic contacts for your activation; you have often been the longest contact when I activate.

73, Al N1AW

[RX9WT]

Guru, thanks for the answer!
I’m sorry, but my QTH locator data is not correct. How this error turned out I do not know. But it will be necessary to fix it faster.
My coordinates (home) are as follows:
Longitude : 55.96421 E (55° 57’ 51’’ E)
Latitude : 54.73359 N (54° 44’ 1’’ N)
QTH locator : LO74XR
Not Siberia, but just the South Urals)
As for the equipment, I used my “standard” SOTA - kit. 20 W transceiver and “winter” antenna as sloper. This is a 1/2 lambda dipole for 10 MHz, with a balanced line (150 Ohm. To work on the bands above 10 MHz, the built-in tuner and BALUN are used.
73!
Vlad

[OE5JFE]

As far as I know the QTH data is from different sources.

• Summit coordinates of course from the SOTA database.
• (Chaser) QTH as set in account coordinates SSO account - Watchout as not the usual order of Latitude and Longitude is used.
• and everything else is fetched from QRZ.com

73 Joe

[RX9WT]

Thank you, Joe!
Wrong data turned up on QRZ.COM. Corrected. Now I’m really at home. In Ufa.
73!
Vlad

[EA2IF]

@RX9WT

My coordinates (home) are as follows:
Longitude : 55.96421 E (55° 57’ 51’’ E)
Latitude : 54.73359 N (54° 44’ 1’’ N)
QTH locator : LO74XR

Hi Vlad,
After your post saying you had corrected the data on QRZ.com, I checked the SMP map you were still being displayed on the same wrong very distant Location. I have checked again this morning the SMP map and it’s still wrong, so I have manually modified the Lat/Long coordinates and QTH Locator to have your location correctly displayed on the map. My activation report has been updated accordingly.
Thanks for having posted your exact t/Long coordinates AND your QTH locator. For some reason, when manually updating the position of someone on the SMP, just the QTH Locator isn’t enough and the Lat/Long coordinates are ALSO requested.
@VK3ARR: could this be modified so the QTH Locator OR (not AND) the Lat/Long coordinates are only necessary to determine any station location?

73,

Guru

[RX9WT]

Hi Guru,
thank you for support.
73
Vlad