After two failed attempts on more modest summits close to the house (first attempt, I forgot a cable, second, my wife was freezing to death, we had to leave the top before the 4 contacts…)
I’m very pleased to announce my first SOTA activation! F/PE-324 Pic du Cagire
I live at the foot of this mountain, and I’ve been up there dozens of times before, but today was my first time as a radio amateur and my first time with radio gear.
It was a bit clumsy and messy, but I guess it will come with practice. I found it very hard to deal with the pileup, and most of the chasers had such a weak signal that I couldn’t copy their callsign. Then I just picked the few that I could understand and ignored the others. I don’t really know what the good practice is in this case. I hope I haven’t been rude to anyone.
Overall, it was fun (and cold), and it gives me a new motivation to climb or reclimb my beloved Pyrenean summits.
Rémy, do your best to copy what you can. If you can’t hear them, you can’t work them.
If a pile up gets out of control, I just roll the dial a little and start again.
I was lucky that my first ever pileup came after 2 years of operating - when the bands to the EU magically opened around the equinox. I can only imagine my terror if I’d been faced with that chaos on day 1!
Maybe hours of calling CQ into silent bands was a good thing after all! The occasional pileup becomes a rare thrill, an adrenaline buzz thats still running even back at the bottom of the hill.
Well done for handling it on your first activation and qualifying the summit. Hope to talk with you on air one of those rare days when the ZL-EU conditions align.
Absolutely Breathtaking View Remy! And congratulations on your first successful activation, the pile ups get easier to deal with when you activate more often and you will get to know you normal chaser callsigns cause they will be there almost every time you call cq sota. Here is to many more and the hope to maybe get you in my log one day.
Congratulations on your first activation, Rémy, from what looked like a beautiful location. I hope it’s the first of many, and look forward to a S2S one day.
Oh what a lovely area to live in. Well done Rémy on your first successful qualification of a summit. It looks like you have many more summits to enjoy.
Félicitation pour cettte première activation. Ce n’est pas grave si tu n’as pas obtenu les points d’activation, tu as quand même validé ton premier sommet avec un contact.
J’espère que l’on aura l’occasion de se rencontrer et encore mieux d’activer un sommet ensemble.
N’hesite pas à me contacter si tu as des questions concernant le sota et le matériel…
Oui avec plaisir, j’ai vu qu’il y a avait beaucoup de sommets encore non activés dans la région, notamment dans le luchonnais … maintenant je n’ai qu’une envie c’est de monter mon antenne en haut du Perdiguère ou des Gourgs Blancs !!!
Ah !! la pour ces sommets il faut une petite forme physique !!! Je pense qu’Alain est plus préparé que moi !!! Mais pour un truc plus tranquille dans le Couserans je suis partant , je suis uniquement équipé CW. 73 Nico
, welcome to the fun and addiction.
