Today, 11th May, 2014, I enjoyed once again the pleasure of activating another new unique, the mount Idokorri (1071m) at IN92jr.
After a 60Km drive from home and a few tens of meters after passing the very small village of Napal, I parked the car at the side of a dirt road by the mountain base and started the hike in the company of my dog Lucho, as usual.
This dog will end up learning the morse code one of these days, hi, hi!
The hike was easy as it went all time along the not too steep path used by 4x4 vehicles of (I guess) wild dove hunters, as I found several of the stands they use to prepare in the forest for stalking and shooting the wild doves when they fly above them.
It was very cloudy but it didn’t seem to start raining despite some pretty dark clouds above the summit. The temperature was pretty good and just a soft breeze was blowing.
I made it to the summit at 7:33 utc, just 12 minutes before the announced operation start time. It took me 23 minutes to install the GP antenna with the 8 wire radials on ground, take some pictures and make the first QSO on 2m with my friend Jorge - EA2LU at 07:59 utc.
I made 5 QSOs on 2m-FM, being one of them a S2S with another 1st time activated new unique: EA2/NV-055 by Juan Carlos - EA2EEB.
Then I QSYed to 30m and had a great run of 29 QSOs in 22 minutes.
Following I QSYed to 20m and 12 more QSOs were logged in 14 minutes.
A quick change to 12m allowed me to log 6 more QSOs in 6 minutes, 4 of which were EA2 friends in Pamplona.
Then I made a quick return to 2m looking for other local chasers or S2S but just one more friend from Pamplona came back to my call.
So I decided to try 40m but after several CQ SOTA calls just one single QSO was loggeed. Disappointed with my poor results on 40m, I decided to get back to 30m and stay running there until batteries run out.
This last run on 30m let me log 11 more QSOs in 11 minutes.
At this point, the batteries went dead so I packed everything for descent.
Before descent, I walked along the extense summit taking some very nice pictures of the very impressive view of the Pyrinees mountains and the “Foz de Arbaiun”, which is the way we call to this amazing cannion made by the Salazar river.
Thanks a lot to the good mates spotting me, as well as all chasers for your calls and QSOs. I had a great fun.
I’ll look forward to copying you again soon from another summit.
Best 73 de Guru - EA2IF
In reply to EA2IF:
Hi Guru!!
It has been a pleasure to make contact with you, as always. I’ve heard you very low and probably the QSO has been made ​​possible thanks to your superb skill as great CW operator.
Thanks Guru!!
Best 73!!
Javier - EA2GM
In reply to EA2IF:
Hi Guru!
We (you know, Marcial EA2BDS and me) fail to catch you for just a few minutes from Ubieta EA2/BI-040. As the weather was bad (windy/fog/rain) we decided to activate the summit just on VHF (about 10 minutes after you left it to HF).
Being wet and cold, we did S2S with Juan Carlos EA2EEB with signals near 0 (just “near”, dont take it literally… could be 5/0.3 or so)
Then waited for Antonio EC2AG who was hiking to EA1/CT-101, but finally we started the descent before being able to make S2S with him.
But later the weather turned a bit better, and as we were near another summit, Garbea EA2/BI-030, and to calm our unsatisfied sota fever, finally decided to try this one. Luckily, the sun has been with us (among some clouds, but without rain) and we could spend some hours there.
Despite poor propagation, we made enough QSOs to let us rest peacefuly for another week…
We’ll keep on trying! 
See you next SOTA!
73 de Mikel EA2CW
In reply to EA2GM:
Thank you my friend Javier. It was a pleasure for me too to work you.
I only managed to copy your extremely weak signal when the pile-up had faded away.
Thanks for your compliments, but it’s not that much,
HPE CUAGN SN.
Best 73 de Guru - EA2IF
In reply to EA2CW:
Dear Mikel,
I’m so sorry to read about not having had the chance to make a S2S QSO with you for just 10 minutes on 2m-FM.
My batteries don’t last long so I always try to avoid too much TX on 2m FM with 5w in order to have power for a good HF activation on CW.
After 65 QSOs, when my batteries had totally run out for TX and my FT-817 was only able to switch on and remain ON for RX, I looked to SOTAWATCH and saw that Antonio (EC2AG) had just been spotted on 20m SSB, but I QSYed to the QRG and I didn’t copy him at all.
Well, we’ll have to wait for another future chance. I hope not for too long…
Take care and best 73 de Guru - EA2IF