Motivation
I went to a new summit near my holiday QTH in Burgos association. This one would be a complete for me as well. So far it had only been activated 2 times before.
Activation date: July 25th 2022
The hike
- Trail length (one way) : 4,3 km
- Elevation gain: 380 m
- Mountain elevation: 1004 m a.s.l.
- Walking time: 1h 10min
I approached the mountain from the near town of Pancorbo, a village located in the middle of a gorge.
The hike follows a clear and well marked path that ascends a long ravine called “Barbalantes”, with several signs on posts every now and then.
See the path on the map (blue dashed line). Notice the retired summit of Meriendillas EA1/BU-077 located further North.
And here the path in yellow dashed line:
See a picture on the way. This area here has some impressive rocks at the sides of the ravine.
A look back on the ravine:
The summit
When I got near the summit, from beneath a rock, a roe deer jumped out frighten by me. What a joy to see this nice animal so close in the nature.
There is a mountain mailbox in the activation zone. Notice Mt. Meriendillas in the background:
Nevertheless the highest point is bit further on, about 40m East, and is marked with a stick:
The activation
It is not easy to install the antenna at the true summit so I put my gear on a flat area mid way between the mailbox and the summit.
It was a bit windy and I sat by a big boxwood plant which served as a good selter, stopping the wind all the time.
My setup today was the KX3, 3 x 21700 LiIon cell, and an inverted vee EFHW antenna.
While setting my HF antenna I tried VHF. After some un responded CQ, I had a short qso with Jorge, EA2LU. To have him in the log I put the handheld horizontal, as he’s got a long horizontal yagi. He took a while to point at my position as his yagi has a sharp pattern. Distance of this qso: 110 km.
Then I started on HF, where I focused on 14-CW-SSB and 7-CW. I also chased some S2S in 10 MHz. I logged a total of 55 qso and got 15 S2S.
EA2DCA and EA2DNO got a complete with my S2S. I also logged another couple, EA4DON & EA4DOS activating in the Pyrenees in EA2/NV-004.
Special highlight was to lo log EB2GKK, the first activator of this summit, who called me on his MTR-5B rig. Thanks Iñaki!
Thanks also OM/OK1CHP, DL6FBK, EA2WX (running from his neverending EA2/BI-055 summit) , DL/OE6FEG, OE6VWG, G4TQE, HB9DIZ, DL1CR, UW8SM, OE/HB9BCK, HB9CBR, IK2LEY/IS0 and HB9EVF for S2S. What a nice collection today!
Thanks everybody for the qso, it’s nice to greet all friends in summer time from a different association than the usual one.
73 de Ignacio