Today I took an afternoon off from work, just to clmb a mountain
with my radios again. I really missed SOTA during the lockdown.
The WX forecast was not the best, as some storms could occur,
so I decided to go for a short hike not far from home.
The choice was Mount Megna I/lo-278 (also named Maniac 
from my dear
friend IW2OBX, that suggested me that summit): a 1000m high
mountain in the “Como Lake triangle”.
The climb was easy and short: about 260m and 45 minutes of climb.
Small puffy clouds were forming on the top of the surrouding mountains,
so I decided to keep an eye on them to prevent some bad surprises.
The first contact was on 2m FM with my Anytone878, which
behaves very well in analog despite the many bad reviews about it.
It was Fabio Ik2LEY, always there, always positive, always supporting
and inspiring us SOTA guys. Thank you Fabio!
Then I suddenly raised myHF antenna: I was there mostly for that!
Raised the antenna, connected the radials, connected the cable and the radio,
checked for the keys… oh no… not at all… it coud not be…
I forgot all of the three keys I decided to take on this summit!
Now what to do? I’m glad my reaction was quick: I remembered that
I read somewhere that the MH-31, the mic of my Yaesu ft817nd,
could be set in a menu as a CW paddle.
It took a few seconds to find the right menu (Yaesu users: you know
how many menus and submenus youhave to navigate to find what you need!).
So I started to call CQ (like a maniac! 
), first on 20m and then on 30m, and had 20 QSOs
in this awful way! I really want to apologize with all the wonderful OMs that
had the patience to uderstand my morse code.
Sadly, the two little buttons I had to push to send CW were not made
for that and a lot of mistakes were not avoidable 
.
Also, a very strong wind made me fix a couple of times the antenna,
because it was bended too much. A maniac in the wind! 
My last QSO was again on 2m FM with my dear friend Roberto IW2OBX,
I waited him to come out from his job and had a quick contact before
“running” down to avoid the rain.
I am very happy that I managed to activate a summit in this particular way:
when everything is gong wrong it is important to go on.
I am also very happy because the view was really amazing.
This top has a 360 degrees view on all the most beautiful mountains
of the surroundings.
See you on air!
73 de IU2IJW.
