Mt. Mendizelaia EA2/NV-105 by EA2IF/P on 05/04/2015

Dear all,
I got up at 7h45 AM local (5h45 utc) and headed to the small village of Lezaun, at about 35Km NorthWest from my QTH. I had already been there before last year when I activated Mt. Malkasko, but today the target was a smaller one with an easy short and pleasant walk. It’s Mendizelaia of 982m a.s.l.
I parked in Lezaun and started walking with my dog Lucho together with a group of about 25 cows. They were untrustily looking at each other.
I took this nice picture at the very begining of our hike,

This other view shows the village of Lezaun being left down and behind.

We walked a not too steep concrete road until we found ourselves in front of a gate giving access to a public hunting area. I opened the gate, we crossed to the other side and I left it closed behind me.
From this point onwards, the path was not anymore of a concrete pavement but a wide, easy and comfortable to hike one, as you can see in this following picture.

At one point we left the track because the summit was more or less at sight/guess and we followed hiking on a rocky mountain until we got to the Summit, marked by a cairn made of some few big stones:

Once in the Summit, I took some pictures. There were some few patches of snow in that mountain that I walked along last year when I went to Mt. Malkasko:

I quickly installed my mobile ECO antenna with 2 elevated radials on a PVC tube with its bottom end fitted between the rocks:

As soon as I switched the rig ON, I heard a couple of VK stations calling to EA2CSC/P which was activating SOTA on 14.285, so I decided to selfspot and start on 20m SSB to try to be chased by some VKs.

After some Europeans, I got a call from VK5PAS with really good signal. This was the only VK I managed to work. The propagation conditions were a tad weird, but anyhow I managed to work the following:
20m SSB: 19 QSOs in 13 minutes, one of which was VK and other one was EA8. The rest Europeans.
20m CW: 6 QSOs in 6 minutes. All of them Europeans.
10m SSB: Nothing despite my several CQ calls.
15m CW: 2 QSOs with my friends Jorge EA2LU and Ignacio EA2BD.
Back to 20m SSB: 17 QSOs in 34 minutes, 2 of which were S2S and 2 other were with EA8.
2m FM: 3 QSOs with EA2 in 6 minutes.
I spent quite a long time trying to work S2S with EA2CSC but signals were very weak and by the time he copied and asked EA2, EA2 ?.. I replayed and my rig switched off due to not having enough voltage in my battery after nearly 90 minutes operation.
I switched it back ON and called him on 2.5 watts but he didn’t copy me.
When I had already switched off and I was about to start packing up, I saw Antonio EC2AG/P spotted on Sotawatch, so I decided to switch back ON the rig, go there and try with the only 2.5 watts I was able to put on air at that time. Antonio quickly copied me and we completed the S2S QSO.
That was all for me today. Quick pack up, and pleasant descent despite the temperature was only 7 deg. C and a bit windy.
Thanks to all chasers for your company and to the spotters for your help.
Best 73 de Guru

2 Likes

Guru, I heard someone saying you were after a s2s with me on g/wb-005, but you were just too far into the noise, unfortunately :frowning:
I did get a s2s with EA2CSC just prior to this, and his signal went from about a 22 to a 44 in about 2 minutes, so I hoped you may have done the same, but you disappeared altogether.
“Conditions were a tad weird…” I couldn’t have put it better myself! I tried with the GP antenna I knocked up yesterday, to find things VERY noisy, and having failed to get any contacts, I reverted to the link dipole, which seemed a little quieter, still not great though. In 45 minutes, I’d managed 2 QSOs on 20M, Matt, G8XYJ, about 12 miles away, and Viktor, HA5LV.
I think, it was VK5PAS who came on frequency, asking if it was in use, with probably the biggest signal I heard all morning! However, after his QSO, I tried to call but to no avail :frowning:
21MHz and 18MHz Produced nothing at all!, 7MHz provided the other 2 contacts (And a whole lot more!) Followed by a few more back on 14MHz.
28Mhz provided all of one contact, M0TVU, who was using 1W from his garden in the sunshine!

Corndon Hill from G/WB-005 in the early morning sunshine

s2s with GM8OEG/P, EA2CSC/P, G0POT/P and M0WML/P, thanks to all!

Thanks to everyone who took the time to contact me, and apologies to anyone that I missed.

Don

M0HCU

1 Like

Hi Don,
Thanks for the post. Yes I was calling you for S2S at aparently the same time as Gotzon EA2CSC. I couldn’t copy Gotzon in the pile-up but someone warned you about an EA2 calling you for S2S. I went ahead but also Gotzon did and you finally completed the QSO with him. When I realised of his presence I could barely copy him and I waited for the end of your QSO in the hope that I would be able to do it as well right after Gotzon, but the QSB was making your signals come and go and the other chasers started to call so I had to give up.
Yourself, Gotzon EA2CSC and Andy PA/HB9JOE/P are the 3 S2S QSOs I tried this morning but didn’t manage to catch.
I think it’s normal for Gotzon as he was within a 200 Km radius, so pretty much in skip, but it’s weird that you in the UK and Andy in PA were getting here with so weak signals and QSB which made signals vanish completely at times.
Conditions were definitely a tad weird.
I’m sure we’ll have some other chance for S2S.
Best 73 de Guru.