So I lingered at home until I had a clearer picture of the roads situation.
I finally left home by about noon and headed to an easy one pointer where there would not be much snow on the access road and the temperatures would not be too low.
The temperature during my activation was around 2º C with the cold wind from the North being the biggest problem.
Once at the summit, I attached my telescopic fishing rod like this:
From its top end, I had a sloper 14m long wire to a 9:1 unun with a counterpoise wire, all connected to my MFJ-941B antenna tunner and my FT-817ND rig in a “shack” like this:
30m CW: 32 QSOs, 2 of which were S2S, after about 1h QRV. I started on 10.118 but had to QSY when some station started on 10.117 working in split and several stations were calling him on my frequency, creating much QRM to me and my chasers. Then I selfspotted on 10.116 after having listened for a few minutes and having found it clear. But after my selfspot got published, when I was going to start calling CQ, a station started transmitting QRS his response to someone he was in QSO with and I wasn’t copying. So I tried to find a new clear frequency and I finally settled and selfspotted on 10.115, where I could continue making some more QSOs.
20m CW: 22 QSOs, 1 of which was S2S and 6 were DX with the USA, after about 45 minutes QRV.
20m SSB: 1 QSO only with Lars @SA4BLM after about 10 minutes QRV and CQing.
40m SSB: 10 QSOs after about 15 minutes QRV.
All in all, 65 QSOs, 3 S2S and 6 DX USA, after about 2,5 hours on air at about 2,5º C in the wind. My feet got really cold, so it was the right time to call it a day.
Thanks dear chasers for your calls and QSOs. Despite the cold weather, it was really nice sending 73 and wishing a happy new year to you all.
I’ll be looking forward to copying you all again soon from a summit.
Thank you, very much, Jarek, for being my 1st S2S of the year!
Your signal was coming up and down with the QSB to almost disappearing and I guess my signals were about the same at your side. You had good ears and picked up my S2S pretty quickly.
73 & HNY,
Hi Allen,
Yes, we do receive snow in vast areas of Spain during winter time. The most widely known image of Spain is that of the warm and sunny beaches in the Mediterranean coast, the Balearic and the Canary Islands, but inland Spain, either the mainland at the Iberian peninsula or the mentionned isles are very mountaineous areas, with summits as high as the 3715m a.s.l. of Mt. Teide (EA8/TF-001) in the Canary Isle of Tenerife, the 3479m a.s.l. of Mt. Mulhacén (EA7/GR-001) in the Southern Spanish province of Granada and the 3403m a.s.l. of Mt. Aneto (EA2/HU-001) in the Pyrenees. Vast areas of mainland Spain are higher than 1000m a.s.l.
So, in addition to so many beautiful beaches and vacation resorts along hundreds of Km of coast in Spain, the several beautiful mountains we have, with or without snow are another good reason to come and enjoy our great country
My first ever visit to EA8, from a Highland village notorious for its snowfall and snowgates, I was horrified to find the snow gates closed on the approach to Teide!! Snowdrifts by the restaurant up there were on a par with those at home
Yes, Mike, it was a very nice surprise for me to hear your callsign calling me for a change.
My sloper was aiming to North-America.
I hope to QSO with you again soon.
73 & HNY,
