In the always good company of my friend JAP, I activated this new unique located about 40Km North of PampIona, very close to the EA-F border.
This map shows the GPS track we followed and the elevation profile:
We parked and started the hike from the Artesiaga col.
The hike started quite steep:
And so it continued:
Until we had gained certain level where we got some views like this:
The hike became really pleasant after having finished the steep first section:
At this point, the target of the day became visible:
And we kept enjoying the views:
The final hike to the summit was quite steep again but we made it. I got first and Jap arrived a few minutes later after about 1h30 ascent.
While I was setting up, JAP started preparing something different for this SOTA. You keep reading and you’ll find out what it was:
There is a very convenient fence across this summit, so I took advantage of it:
There was no wind at all and looking at the fishing rod, I guess I applied a bit too much tension to the sloper antenna wire.
7m long telescopic fishing rod, 14m long endfed wire as a sloper to a 9:1 unun and 5m of counterpoise wire elevated over the fence.
I started the activation on 10m SSB, where I unexpectedly found Bill G4WSB/P and Armin DL6GCA/P both of them from SOTA and this let me log the 2 first S2S QSOs of the day.
I had not signal on my phone so I was unable to selfspot and that’s why I mainly worked CW being spotted by RBNHole.
After the 2 first S2S QSOs on 10m SSB, my operation went like this:
10m CW, 12m CW, 15m CW, 20m CW, 30m CW, 40m SSB, 40m CW and finally QRT after 2 hours on the air for a total of 58 QSOs, 10 of which S2S.
You can see it on the map:
After the activation, it was time to cook something to eat:
My friend JAP brought a kitchen and cooking stuff and we also brought eggs, chistorra, bread and red wine.
This was my sandwich (open) while waiting for the second fried egg still being cooked in the above picture.
The weather was so nice today that we would have easily stay there all the afternoon-evening. But there was still over an hour to descend and then 40Km drive to Pamplona, so we called it a day, packed up and descended through a different track.
Some views from the summit before leaving:
We got a nice shade during descent through the forest:
It’s been a great day out in the mountains and on the air too.
Thanks dear chasers for your calls and QSOs. I’ll be looking forward to copying you all again soon from a summit.
73,
Guru
