Motivation
Most summits I activate in EA2/NV association are placed in the northern part of Navarra, being my hometown Pamplona in the very center of this region.
There are a few summits in the south and I rarely visit them, but this time I took the chance to activate a new one for me when returning home from a trip.
Mt. Jenaritz highlighted with the arrow.
Activation date: Feb 24th 2020.
Driving directions
The nearest village at the base of this mountain is Miranda de Arga.
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Drive from Tafalla by road NA-6140
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Once you cross the Arga river drive southwest and reach the end of the village, parking next a small hermitage at 332 m a.s.l.
Climb
Right after the parking a dirt road goes up passing through a green field. That is an easy and smooth walk just going up next a big antenna at right hand from the summit.
There you turn left and head the summit by a short path. The geodetic vertex is in the summit, at 554 m a.s.l.
- Trail is 3 kilometer long (one way).
- Height gain is + 222 m gain.
Activation
- Equipment: TRX Mountain Topper MTR-3B. EFHW antenna and carbon pole 5 m long.
I used 3 light Li-Ion 18650 batteries rated at 2600 mAh.
I installed the aerial inverted vee and sat behind some bushes to protect from the midday sun.
I started on 20m CW where I was soon chased by some NA DX stations. I thought it was a bit early and wasn’t expecting to get them at 12:16 utc.
Afterwards I ran 7 and 10 MHz and just before going QRT I gave 14 MHz a second run where, to my delight, I was again chased by some more NA chasers at around 13:30 utc. All in all 56 qso, not bad for a short activation on a weekday!
It is especially rewarding to get such DX when running the tiny MTR rig.
These are the 9 US stations worked: K4DY (NC), AB4PP (NC), N9EN (TN), KC3MX (VA), KB9ILT (NC), KG3W (PA), N4EX (NC), K3TCU (PA) and NE4TN (TN); thanks a lot for your calls and to all other chasers.
I also logged some S2S, the Swiss army on air! Thanks Bruno HB9CBR/P, Ulrich HB9CGA/P, Juerg HB9BIN/P, and Hansruedi HB9AGO/P.
Missing in the map a couple qso with Geert PA7ZEE and Erich HB9FIH who called me from EA8 Canary Islands.
This is a view of Miranda de Arga when going back after the activation:
Bright spring colors on fields and trees.
Viticulture tip of the day
Around Miranda and in many areas in the south of Navarra, you find large vineyard, like this:
The sign indicates the grape variety. It is curious to see how this small and dead looking plant soon will produce grapes and later the delightful wine.
We are close to La Rioja region, an important area for wine production, and there are many winery and vineyards between the two regions.
73 de Ignacio EA2BD