Rocky activations in Pyrénées

[F4LEK]

Two days in the Pyrenees: Soum des Salettes F/PO-025 and Pic de la Géla F/PO-269

Soum des Salettes F/PO-025

I spent two days exploring the mountains around Piau Engaly. The first day took me to Soum des Salettes, with incredible views over the Cirque de Troumouse and towards Gavarnie. The weather was excellent and the activation went very smoothly. I was particularly pleased with my new lightweight vertical setup, using a 5 m whip with a single elevated horizontal radial. The antenna performed remarkably well and I received some very good signal reports throughout the activation. I prefer it over the normal GP and the multiple radials (details at the end).

Pic de la Munia F/PO-010

I then spent a very comfortable night in the van at Piau Engaly before heading out again the following morning.

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For the second day, I climbed Pic de la Géla via the Hourquette de Chermentas. This time, I had the mountain almost entirely to myself, apart from a shepherd and his flock.

Shepperd going down with sheep, in the center Soum des Salettes F/PO-025 and on the right Pic de Campbieil F/PO-006

The conditions on the summit ridge were quite something. The wind was absolutely brutal, strong enough that I had to crawl at times to avoid being knocked off balance. Setting up the antenna on the summit was simply not realistic, so I moved down a little and installed it against the cliff, trying to get as much shelter from the wind as possible.

The activation was therefore very short, with only about five minutes on air. Signal reports were understandably poor, given the compromised antenna position and the terrible conditions. Still, getting a few contacts in those circumstances was enough to count the summit activated.

And the reward for the struggle was the view. The Muraille de Barroude looked absolutely spectacular from the ridge.

Muraille de Barroude

Gavarnie and the famous Brèche de Roland on the right

Thank you, SOTA, for giving me the motivation to break out of my lazy routine and get back into the mountains.

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Here are some details of the 3D printed base for the 5 m whip. It contains a coil with a rotary switch to select the appropriate tap, along with a 100 pF capacitor that can be switched in or out. A basic CL tuner.

Combined with a linked horizontal radial, the setup tunes across all bands from 40m and up, and is much less sensitive to ground conditions compared to normal GP.

[GM4LLD]

Some rather splendid views in those photos.

[MM0VPM]

@F4LEK

And the reward for the struggle was the view. The Muraille de Barroude looked absolutely spectacular from the ridge.

a fantastic reward! Beautiful - huge thanks for sharing with us. Another line on the “places I’d like to go to” list…

Alan

[G8CPZ]

Hi Remy,

First of all, I’m very envious of your exploration of the Pyrénées and doing SOTA activations there.

Your choice of an HF vertical makes perfect sense where the rocky summit excludes large ‘footprint’ long-wire antennas and especially given the high winds. Your horizontal radial would have gone some way to compensate for the poor soil conductivity of those rocky summits. The vertical’s low-angle take-off will have got you some good dx.

I don’t use my (Chameleon MPAS Lite) vertical very often but it is well suited for those kind of summits or in very high winds, and performs well on 10MHz and above.

[F4LEK]

@G8CPZ

Your choice of an HF vertical makes perfect sense where the rocky summit excludes large ‘footprint’ long-wire antennas and especially given the high winds

I feel like with enough radials, say 8, you can make a decent ground plane. However, I sometimes find deployment difficult when the feed point is at ground level. On very uneven terrain, having some radials higher than the feed point is hard to avoid, and that can lead to strong RF returns despite having a good choke.

With the elevated radial, none of that seems to happen. The audio is always super clean.

[G8CPZ]

@F4LEK

I feel like with enough radials, say 8, you can make a decent ground plane

When I first got the MPAS Lite I used a single 16m-long counterpoise wire. After reading that “more short ones are better than fewer long ones”, I changed it to 2 x 8m CP wires, and finally to 4 x 4m wires (in a star shape). I can’t honestly say I have detected an improvement, what with so many confounding factors.

Apparently, a wire length of 0.1λ to 0.125λ for the lowest-frequency band (30m, in my case) is best (so 4m is fine). I know that I could probably improve the ground plane by doubling the number of wires, but it already takes me almost as long to lay out those wires on the uneven ground (unwinding them from a single plastic winder) as it does to erect the vertical itself.

And while I getting and giving good reports (using my KX2 with internal ATU) I’m not motivated to spend more time on summit in adverse weather putting up and taking down the antenna.

[F4LEK]

Try the elevated one ? It takes no time to put up. I just use my hiking pole or any protruding rock around for the job.

The setup is quite directive, and you might want to use two, at 180°, if you want it omnidirectional.