Mt. Txanburu EA2/NV-071 by EA2IF/P on 13/02/2022

[EA2IF]

The weather forecast was for some rain coming here today, but despite the clouds in the sky, it didn’t look like it was going to rain soon, so I decided to go SOTA and grab 4 more points + 3 winter bonus points.
This summit used to be a drive-up because there is a big Wind Power Generators park and the service road goes up to the wide summit, but a locked barrier was present during my last year activation and again today, so I parked the car by the barrier, as I did the last time, and hiked about 20-25 minutes along the boring WPG service dirt road.

I repated the tests performed yesterday with different antenna setups and my new mAT-10.

The mAT-10 didn’t cause any of yesterday’s freezing to the FT-817ND today although not always performed the automatic tunning itself correctly after 1 push of the multifunction key and a second push was necessary.
In spite of these minor failures, my mAT-10 worked very well with the OCF 10+3.1m and also with the OCF 7+2.1m.

Yesterday’s summit has a huge RF field from the many, many commercial antennas in a very big tower and I fear some of the problems I found yesterday with the mAT-10 might be linked to that strong RF field.

Today’s summit had QRM from the WPG but no RF issues and the mAT-10 didn’t have those problems it had yesterday, i.e. the FT-817 freeze and also, after a tunning process had been successfully done, the red LED of SWR too high remained ON during RX but switched OFF and switched the green LED of SWR 1.0-1.5 ON when on TX. I guess now that was linked to the intense RF field at yesterday’s summit.

My activation was hard because I had a permanent S8 QRM from the WPG, so I had to struggle to receive many of the chasers.
I worked 40m CW first with my OCF sloper 7+2.1m. Then I changed to an OCF sloper 10+3.1m with which I worked 30m CW and 20m SSB.
I didn’t work 20m CW today because propagation conditions were poor for DX yesterday, so I guessed they would be pretty much the same today, and also because the QRM from the Wind Power Generators was huge and I knew I would be totally unable to copy any weak signals from NA.

All in all 69 QSOs, 4 of which were S2S. No DX today, but it was again great to work 20m SSB and chat with you hearing your voices. And I’m now at only 49 points to MG.
This is the activation map:

I didn’t take any pictures of today’s setup, only this one of the WPG and a couple of selfies:

Right after having started descent:

Once back at the car:

Thanks dear chasers for your calls and QSOs.
I’ll be looking forward to copying you all again soon from a SOTA.

73,

Guru

[M0NOM]

Dear Guru.

I posted on Tom’s ‘Wet Wet Wet’ thread, but happened to look at the SOTA spots and see your spot. No copy at home with S7 noise on 20m, you were on SSB at the time. Got my stuff together and headed out to operate 5 mins drive up the road with the Chameleon MPAS 2.0, IC-705, HLA-150 Amp and new ATU-100 antenna tuner from AliExpress at £50 delivered.

It was a great setup given the heavy rain - I was able to partially assemble the MPAS 2.0 in the car, with a quick deployment. From that point on I could operate from 40m to 10m with no need to leave the car, the ATU-100 doing a fine job tuning out the slight variation in SWR from the antenna. The rain and strong winds didn’t affect the MPAS2.0 in the slightest.

I could hear two Uruguay stations on 10m, not enough juice from my setup to get them in the log, but lots of interesting stations, I managed a 20m CW Park to Park QSO with a USA activator on 30 watts. Had fun for a couple of hours. Good to get out of the house, otherwise I’d have been back to work in the attic on Monday having not ventured out.

Hopefully the WX will favour the weekend soon rather than weekdays where it has been very pleasant!

Got a query from II3WRTC that I couldn’t possibly be operating /P with such as strong signal. It was a very nice compliment to be hitting him at 59+10 with 60w.

Regards from the Lake District, Mark.
p.s. QRM or not 69 QSOs is a happy number!

[EA2IF]

Thank you so much, dear Mark, for having tried to chase me. Shame that conditions were not cooperating for us two. I really struggled some times to pull some of the chasers out of the high noise I had today. I’m sure I missed some and I’m sorry for that, but I’m happy for having given this summit and its 4 points to a “happy number” of 69 chasers.

Congrats on your set up and its good performance! Also on your will and determination to brave the elements and operating /P outside.

We will surely have a new chance soon.

Have a nice week.

73,

Guru

[F5UKL]

Bonjour Guru
Désolé, je ne t’ai pas du tout entendu.
Une prochaine fois, j’espère.
Porte toi bien.
73
André f5ukl

[EA2IF]

Bonjour André,
Oui, c’est domage, mais je n’ai pas travaillé sur les 60m et 40m c’etait, donc, nôtre seule possibilité. Après, je suis allé sur les 30 et les 20m, où normalement nous n’avons pas des conditions propagation favorables.
Après tous mes essais, j’ai trouvé finalement que avec l’antenne OCF 10+3.1m et le unun 9:1, mon tuner automatique mAT-10 arrive à maitriser la SWR dans toutes les bandes dès 60 à 10m, donc ce sera à partir de maintenant mon setup et j’espère de pouvoir donner une chance aux 60m à chaque activation pour les chaseurs plus prôches comme toi et quelques autres.
J’espère que nous aurons une nouvelle chance pour QSO SOTA très bientôt.

73 QRO,

Guru

[SP9MA]

Hi Guru,

Many thanks for S2S but more thanks for your big patience
Conditions did not support but we did it.

Photo taken from my shelter:

73, Jarek (OK8MA)

[EA2IF]

Hi dear Jarek,
Thanks for the very nice picture.
Thank you also for your call and S2S QSO!
Our QSO was the result of our patience and hard work (on both sides), but what else could be more worthwhile than a S2S with a friend?
The satisfaction on the achievement is even greater when an amount of effort and dedication is required, isn’t it?
I’ll be looking forward to many more QSOs with you, dear Jarek.
73,

Guru