I along with my partner Marge will shortly be visiting CT for some SOTA fun. It would be great if we could meet up with some local SOTA friends either for socializing at a restaurant or even possibly a joint activation.
That would be in the timeframe of Monday Nov 27 to Wednesday Nov 29. We will be based in Lisbon, but are thinking about possible day trips to other towns.
More specifically, we arrive in CT7 on Monday Nov 20 and will spend a few days in Sintra, of course activating CT/ES-002. Then we will be in Madiera CT3 from Thursday Nov 23 to Sunday Nov 26. We then have Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday to explort Portugal.
Again, if any local hams have time and don’t live too far away, we’d be delighted to meet you!
73
Paul HB9DST
I’m passing along your message to our community and will let the regional managers know you’ll be around on those dates. I believe access to CT/ES-002 is somehow limited, but there’s a workaround, Phil G4OBK has the information on the summit page with a map and a track. Don’t hesitate to get in touch, if you need assitance and if you come up north, let me know.
My recent trip to Portugal was greatly enhanced by the assistance of local hams, who also found time to meet up with me. A big thanks go to Joao cT7ABE, the SOTA Region Manager) and his good activator friend Jose CT7AFI.
My first stop was Sintra and the famous Pena Palace, whose grounds include CT/ES-002 (Cruz Alta). Joao gave me a warning – one time he was refused entrance to the park at the main entrance because they saw a mast sticking out of his backpack. Luckily, my mini-mast just fits into my daypack, so there was no problem. The small mast also made it relatively easy to find a spot to deploy my end-fed without disturbing the many visitors.
The next day, Joao and Jose picked us up at our hotel in Sintra and took us to two nearby drive-up summits, CT/ES-007 (Senhora do Socorro) and CT/ES-005 (Monte do Alqueidão). After some quick activations, we drove to a neighborhood restaurant for a late lunch – and it was one of the most memorable meals of our trip. (An aside for XYLs: Jose is the third generation proprietor of a shop in Lisbon called “Paris in Lisbon”, a purveyor of high-end fabrics, textiles and home accessories. The shop has been there since 1888! They were even the supplier of the Portugese royal family.)
Left to right: Paul HB9DST, Jose CT7AFI and CT7ABE.
The next day saw us flying to CT3 Madiera. Because my companion Marge does not loke driving in tricky conditions, and because I am unable to drive, we decided that hiring a car/driver for a half day would cost the same as a rental car. He picked us up at 0930, and in less than an hour we were on CT3/MI-004 (Pico do Arieiro). I found a secluded spot to set up my antenna, but I did draw curious glances from other visitors. We got lucky with the weather – there was a layer of clouds over the lower elevations, but we were above the clouds in bright sunshine.
You were quite a decent signal from Madeira, Paul. You were varying between 339 and 559 but I wasn’t a big enough S2S signal to get over the many EU stations calling. Never mind… next time I’ll get you.
On 22 November I made s2s QSOs with all three of your team (CT7ABE, CT7AFI, CT7/HB9DST) on 30m, 17m and 20m one after the other. I was on a forest hill with low temperatures and light rain (November in Switzerland ).
Thanks for the s2s QSOs. Keep up the good work Paul with all your activations .
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