RWG in the Balearics

Every year Ryedale Walking Group ventures to warmer climes. Out of the 85 current paid up members 5 of us are licenced radio amateurs. Three of us came on this tour, G4OBK, G4OOE and G3TQQ. I try to influence the destinations where the walking group head to for the annual overseas tour and usually succeed. I usually favour destinations with SOTA in mind…This year (now that an EA6 P150 SOTA Association has been established) we chose Mallorca.

We arrived on Monday but the SOTA work only started yesterday when we activated four easy summits. MA-035, MA-032 and MA-056 - these three were almost “drive on”. MA-044 (our last of the day) we had to walk around 500m and climb only around 50m. HF band conditions were poor but we managed OK making contacts on 17m-20m-30m-40m in CW and SSB.

Today we activated MA-040 Talaia d’Alcudia, a unique summit. The 6.5 mile walk was completed by 12 members of our group and we were able to spend longer operating from the summit as the radio hams arrived before the 9 other members. Condx on HF were fantastic around Europe and we also worked K4MF on 17m band CW.

Tomorrow Dave and Nick will activate MA-057 in the morning whilst I am on duty for the walking group on
a walk to Cala Vicence (I will work them on 2m for a complete). In the afternoon the three of us will activate MA-046. I will activate MA-057 myself later on the tour and then Nick and Dave will secure a complete.

Here are a few pictures taken today

73 Phil G4OBK

Dave EA6/G3TQQ left and EA6/G4OOE/P right.on EA6/MA040 Talaia d’Alcudia today:

EA6-G4OBK/G4OOE/G3TQQ en-route to MA-040 Talaia d’Alcudia today.

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Great stuff, good job all of you. Now a question - did you make that sign for the photo shoot or was it there? :smile:
Cheers
Mike

Thanks for the contact today Phil. I was thrilled when you came back to me. Chasing from home is still new ground for me, there’s no S2S priority status!

I was running my FT817 at 5 watts to my SOTA inverted vee at about 5 metres.

K4MF had a superb signal with me, 599.

Very pleased to get another EA6 contact in my chaser log.

Good luck for tomorrow!

Vy 73,

Colin

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Hi Phil,
Super wx and pictures, well done, tnx for the 2 summits. In 9H next week, Hopefully 9H ma001 and 9H go 001 on 20m
David

Many thanks for your summits again on EA6
Thursday very hard to hear on 20m
Friday much better heard on 20m :slight_smile:
Be listening out for you this afternoon.
Keep those reports and photos a coming.
Hope you guys having a good time.

Karl

Thanks everybody for the QSOs yesterday. MA-057 and MA-046 were real toughies and I appreciated the speed and competent way all chasers operated yesterday, when I was short of time on MA-046. I only had time to operate 20m CW and SSB. We are two hours ahead of Z time here and I booked a restaurant for 12 members of our group for 1700z. I left the summit at 1510z and found the descent not as bad as I thought it would be.

Today we are visiting a Sunday market in Pollenca and having lunch at a tavern in the activation zone of the monastery on top of MA-052. We will then leave the grounds and set up two stations and operate on the usual bands. Tomorrow we plan to activate 3 SOTAs and if I have time I will also visit MA-057, the summit Dave and Pete went to yesterday. We hope to activate at least one more summit on either Tuesday or Wednesday. This is likely to be Fumat.

73 Phil G4OBK

We are planning 3 SOTA activations today. We had an overnight thunderstorm and it is now a little cooler. Conditions yesterday around lunchtime were better for us on 18 MHz than 14 MHz. I think between us on MA-052 we managed around 70 contacts.

73 de Phil

Morning Phil and rest of the crew :grinning:

Lovely to catch you on air, this morning condition’s not to bad on 20m.
Now await you gents on the next one, cuppa in one hand and the mike in the other.

karl

That was interesting.
Whilst trying to work EA6/MA-053 on 20mb got cut off due to power failure. Radio went dead PC, went dead etc.

It was the other half deep cleaning the kitchen and fused spur sockets or should I say soaking them well and got a nasty belt of it.
Thankfully the trip worked and lost me contact LOL.

Thankfully, she is OK and a little shock up now having a cuppa tea.

Karl

WHAT A SHOCKING INCIDENT SORRY TO MISS YOU ON MA-053 WHICH TOOK TWO SEPERATE ASCENTS. THAT WAS WHY WE WERE LATE ON PARADE. SAT HERE NOW IN A VILLAGE CAFE EATING BAGUTTES. VY FB…

WE ARE HEADING FOR CALA RATJADA IN THE SE CORNER OF THE ISLAND. MA-065 IS THE EXTRA TARGET. WE HOPE TO VISIT MA-066 ON OUR WAY BACK TO PORT DE POLLENCA.
73 PHIL

SK ee as we say in CW

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The Capdepera VOR-DME array looks like an interesting construction on MA-065.
Hopefully you’ll take a couple of pictures and let us see it up close and personal.
I reckon it wouldn’t be much of a spot for a cheap 2m Chinese handheld. :smile:

Hope to catch you again.
Pete

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FB Pete, thanks for the QSO. Yes, we have pictures of the array. I will try to transfer them to my laptop tomorrow. I was operating on the trig, about 25m away from that array, no problems with interference on HF, a fine but short run of callers on CW. I could use 2m FM to talk to the other station QRV 100m away from me. Cala Ratjada looked to be a fine resort from the view at MA-035. A good base for a future SOTA operation perhaps…

We’ll do MA-066 on Wednesday - our last day, as we ran out of time. Thanks to Roy G4SSH for notifying chasers of the postponement.

Early 6.00am start then for me in the morning to activate MA-057 for a SOTA Complete. G3TQQ and G4OOE are having a lie in and a day off - hoping to work me from their beds in the hotel, less than 2 miles away from the summit on 2m for their SOTA Complete! I should be QRV by around 0600z ± on 10118 KHz after speaking to Nick and Dave on 2m FM. I will lead a walk later in the day and activate Fumat MA-048 on 2m FM. We will return on Wednesday for a full blown FT-817 HF operation. What a fine radio that is for what we do, great fun.

73 Phil

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Phil, are you running the FT817 barefoot?

Yes Colin we each have an FT-817 no amplifiers. Powering mine from a 3.3A 14v external laptop backup battery.

Good early bird activation this morning on MA-057 at the back of our hotel. 25 QSOs on 20m and 30m. The best being the first EA6 - VK S2S QSO I believe between me and Andrew VK1MBE.

Now I am off to lead a walk over Fumat MA-048. The 3 of us all plan to return there tomorrow morning for the usual HF style operation. After that we will go to MA-066. That will be our last activation. We fly back to Leeds on Thursday.
73 Phil EA6/G4OBK

PS Can’t load photos WiFi is U/S in hotel so this written on my phone.

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Well done Phil. Great job :grinning:
Cheers
Mike

Fantastic!

That makes our contact 2way QRP!

I think you’ve all done very well putting so many summits on so many bands and modes.

Massive thanks from me for my second EA6 chase.

73, Colin

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For Pete and anyone interested - a few pics from yesterday.

  1. Nick G4OOE and Dave G3TQQ eating baguettes in a village cafe at lunchtime, after a fraught activation getting to the top of MA-053… The teeth of an Alsatian dog avoided…just, by a matter of seconds! Now I know the correct route (a la DF3MC - thanks Martin!!).

  2. The array mentioned by Pete on MA-065.

  3. Sign on the gate of the ATC installation photographed above.

Activity for tomorrow slated on the alerts. Early start for Phil again. Our last day.

73 Phil G4OBK SK e e

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Thanks Phil.
It all looks far too nice and relaxed.

I see you can’t shelter under the the big “bird table” because of the fence and gates, complete with the stern warning message.
Obviously they only expect Spanish and Catalan speakers to hike up there!

Enjoy the rest of your trip, it’s turned cold again back here :frowning:
73
Pete

PS
Thanks for coming back in CW to my SSB call!
It made life much easier trying to hear you above my high noise level.

Phil, sorry to miss you today (29 April). I was on a summit but for some reason RRT on my phone didn’t show all the activity that was going on. My spots showed up but none others on 20m, selected 40m and those spots appeared. Strange and very unfortunate for me as I was hoping for the second S2S.

Great photos; seems like a terrific place for a SOTA holiday. Its has me thinking…

Many thanks for the S2S yesterday.

Regards Andrew VK1MBE