Mt. Eltxumendi EA2/NV-132 by EA2IF/P on 25/09/2021

After the last successfull lowly demanding hikes, I wanted to to go a step forward and try a slightly more demanding hike, so I chose this summit for today with a very nice warm temperature and some clouds in the sky with no rain forecasted.

The ascent involved 345m of elevation gain according to my CASIO watch altimeter and took me 49 minutes.
imagen

As soon as I got to the summit and the following selfie was taken,

together with some pics of the summit and the views:

I setup with my brand new 10m long telescopic pole, which I got from Armin @DL6GCA during his recent visit to Pamplona. The antenna used was my usual 14m long endfed wire as a sloper to my 9:1 unun from which a 5m long counterpoise wire was extended on the grass following the same direction of the sloper wire.
I forgot taking a picture of my setup, but it was very windy and the new 10m long telescopic pole had an interesting bending test today.

The activation went like this:

  • 2m FM: 2 S2S QSOs with Alain EA2/F5ODQ/P and Ignacio EA2BD/P before setting up my HF antenna. Both were together activating Mt. Erreniega EA2/NV-092. We had been all together the evening before enjoying beer and tapas in Pamplona and this S2S was more or less scheduled although I thought they were going to be in a different summit.

  • 30m CW: 18 QSOs, 6 of which S2S, in 17 minutes.

  • 40m SSB: 50 QSOs in 27 minutes. It was a really fast operation!

  • 20m CW: 16 QSOs, 1 of which S2S, in 28 minutes.

  • 20m SSB: 1 S2S

  • 15m CW: CQ but no responses.

  • 30m CW: 1 S2S

  • 40m CW: 1 S2S

All in all 89 QSOs, 12 of which S2S after about 2.5 hours QRV.
You can see it on the map:

During the activation a group of a man, 2 women and about 6 or 7 little girls arrived to the summit. Some of them approached to ask me what I was doing as well as to offer me something to eat, but I told them no thanks to the food offer and promissed that I would explain them in a few minutes what I was doing, but not at that very moment.
They patiently waited and when I finished my 20m CW run, I went where they were, about 20m away of me, to explain them about my ham radio hobby and the SOTA programme in particular. They seemed to be very interested and the even came to see my rigs and listen the morse code made by the FT-817ND and the Palm paddle. The little girls said they could hear the wind but it actually was the 20m band noise.

After packing up, I ate my ham and cheese sandwich, took a few pictures of the views from the summit and descended.
Let me share with you some of the pictures I took before descent:


Mt. Ezcaba EA2/NV-119 on the left and the city of Pamplona at its foot.

Views to the North:

Thanks dear chasers for your calls and QSOs.
I’ll be looking forward to copying you all again soon from a SOTA.
73,

Guru

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I can’t begin to understand how you do that. :slight_smile: My brain would melt.

But I’m hoping to try again with CW tomorrow morning. Practice must help - I hope!

But many thanks for the report and photos Guru.

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Those were SSB QSOs, John.

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Sorry, I mis-read it, but still fast work!

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Many thanks for your words, John.

Indeed, there are various instances of 3 QSOs in 1 single minute and even a few of 4 QSOs in a minute. Sometimes I had difficulties to write callsigns down on the log at that speed.
But it’s a lot of fun!

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Hi Guru, great activation report and photos. Glad you are feeling better for more demanding hikes. Great selfie too, you look great. :smiley:

Take care and stay safe.

Cheers, Geoff vk3sq

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Hi Guru
I’m really happy to see that you are fit enough again to do these altitude metres.

And I’m glad you’re having fun with the new pole.

It’s a pity that I wasn’t active yesterday and that we had no contact.

Best regards - Armin

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Super Guru for this S2S between summits around Pamplona.
A very good memory of this evening spent 2 days ago in a bar in the center of Pamplona with Ignacio and his wife around a table with tapas and a beer.

See you soon in Bayonne … or Pamplona for activation together

73’ my friend

Alain

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Alain thank very much for S2S… Ec2ag

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Thanks Guru for the cw contact. Nice piccies. Please don’t overdo things , stay well and happy.
Best 73

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Thank you for calling, Allen. Your signal was excellent. It was a pleasure for me to QSO with you, although you seemed to have problems to copy me because I had to come back several times to you. Was my signal too low, you had some local QRM or both?
Don’t worry, I won’t overdo, but I’m planning a new activation for today, so I hope to copy you again.
73,

Guru

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Hi Guru Your signal was perfect mate it was another station transmitting at the same time you were which made it a bit difficult, but thanks for your patience anyways.
73

Allen

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Thanks for sharing Guru.Great activity and landscapes.73

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Hi dear Guru,
I am glad you are recovering your shape and could do this nice activation.

Thanks for the S2S on VHF. I was together with Alain F5ODQ who succesfully activated EA2/NV-092. We were waiting for your and were glad that we made the S2S.

Alain concentrated on HF:

He activated on 20 & 40m SSB. We put two antennas to compare a bit performance of a compact multiband EFHW (coil loaded for 7 MHz) and a 2-band Dipole. As expected performance of the dipole in 40m was better, although it is easier to put up the EFHW.

Wishing to have a new qso with you soon, 73 de Ignacio

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image

Congrats!

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Hi Guru,
Many tnx S2S:

Also many tnx for today’s one

and special thanks to Tom @HB9CLT for giving my support :muscle:

73, Jarek

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That’s quite amazing Guru. Well done indeed. I am really pleased that you are doing so well. I usually use Naismith’s rule and over reasonable ground I estimate my ascent times at 4km per hour plus 1 minute for every 10m of height gained. For the 2.6km distance I would therefore have allowed 74 minutes. It looks like I need to get in training. :grinning:

Many thanks for another excellent report and some excellent photographs.

73, Gerald

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