On my way from Madrid to Pamplona, the highway passes by a very tempting drive-on 6 pointer summit. I activated it last December and I’ve done it again today.
From the following GPS point: Lat 41.106788 Long -2.444831, there is a very rough dirt road which I could pass without any problem with my car in December and again with the hired car I was driving today.
There are many wind power generators in the area so there are dirt roads and all I had to do was driving the right one up to the very top on the Mt. Ministra, park by the generators and walk about 70 meters to the trig point.
I installed the endfed antenna as you’ll see in this picture and sat on a rock in a slight shade under the small tree you’ll see near the trig point.
The temperature in Madrid was 33° C. Too high for me. But it was a nicer (25° C) in the summit.
However it felt warm enough in the sun and that’s why I looked for the little shade that tiny tree near the trig point was able to provide.
I got in touch through whatsapp with my close friends first and offered them the 1st contacts on 40m before raising any spot, but only Jorge EA2LU could make it. The others were busy away from the shack at that time. Shame…
So I QSYed to 20m CW and started the party. 24 QSOs in the log in 27 minutes, including a S2S with Jan OK2PDT/P from OK/VY-053. Thanks again, Jan, for a new S2S. The only DX of the day came this time on 20m CW and it was Bob AC1Z.
After CW I moved to SSB, still on 20m and I logged 11 QSOs in 14 minutes.
My butt was starting to tell me that he didn’t like the rock I was sitting on, but even though I decided to QSY to 17m CW once there were no more callers on 20m SSB.
17m CW produced 10 QSOs in 11 minutes and this included a new S2S QSO with Jan OK2PDT/P.
When 17m got quiet, I QSYed back to 40m and contacted my close friends through whatsapp again in case they wanted to try now. I only received the very weak with QSB call of Alfonso EA4CWN but he didn’t copy my reply at all, so NIL = Not In Log.
Well, I still had quite a long drive home, so I packed up and continued the journey.
Everything went fine on the road and I got home safe and sound with 6 more activator points in my bag and a good satisfaction feel after having given 6 chaser points to many.
I logged 46 QSOs in total. Thanks for your calls and QSOs.
See the full log:
Hi Eric,
Glad you liked the report.
I could barely feel them on the bands but they didn’t produce any bad QRM as to prevent me from copying any weak signals.
Nothing to do with what I’ve found in some other summits with other types of windmills or closer ones.
Cheers,
Many thanks for an excellent report and the contact on 20m CW. I am always surprised how you can drive to a summit like this one. In the UK we don’t usually have access to windfarm roads or forestry tracks without permission and while such routes offer a fairly easy means of access on foot, there is often a pay-off in terms of additional distance as they wind their way up the hills. I can think of quite a few hills that would be potential drive-on summits if access were permitted. Maybe I need a larger bunch of keys for the gates.
Hi Gerald,
Although there are some EA summits in private land, I think we are mainly lucky as a big majority of our mountains are still public.
On those with windfarms installed, we sometimes find a text sign asking to be cautious and informing that the windfarms are industrial facilities, but I haven’t found access restrictions so far.
I’m afraid the universal key Andy is proposing you would give our friend the perfect opportunity to press DEL key on all the activations loaded into the DataBase where such key had been used
This summt Ministra is a 6 pointer but the elevation difference from the start point near the highway to the very summit is nearly 250 meters only.
The center of Spain is on a pretty high plateau and Soria (EA1/SO) is the highest area in this plateau. The capital city, Madrid is 657m above sea level, and the highway I was driving yesterday was nearly 1100 m a.s.l. at the point in Soria (EA1/SO) where I left it to take the dirt road to the summit.
This summit would have been an easy one even if I had hiked it on foot.
The journeys from my QTH to Madrid have become much more interesting since I met the SOTA program, as this drive-on summit is the perfect chance for a stretching legs break
I need to look for some other and I’ll let you know if I find some.
Best 73,
That would be interesting Guru as I hope to drive down to the Algarve someday rather than waste time sitting in airport lounges. A few “natural breaks” en route would be a good idea.
Hi Gerald,
If you review my last December activation report of Mt. Ministra, you’ll find a very clear map highlighting the dirt road to take from the GPS spot to the summit.
Also Mt. San Cristobal EA2/NV-119 (2 points), very close to Pamplona and Mt. Erreniega EA2/NV-092 (4 points), near Pamplona are easy drive on summits, any of which may become a convenient natural break for you on your way to Algarve in case you’ll cross the channel by EuroStar into France and then drive all the way to the South.
Which way would you be driving from UK to Portugal? Will you come by Ferry to Santander or you will do the EuroStar train through the channel’?
