SOTA EA2/BI-051 Ganeroitz, and 3K chaser points

good day for hiking

Today, early in the morning,  Marcial EA2BDS and me were ready to make another brief activation on Mt Ganeroitz 561 m), and 16 km from Bilbao. We both were busy after noon, so we met at 06:30 EA beside my home to begin the short trip. After arrival, 1,5 km approach (30 min) was necessary to reach the summit.

Santa Cruz EA2/VI-051 a small jewel

Hi everybody!

the "horse" beside the road once all dismounted

Today severe storms (yellow danger level) with all sort of rays, thunders, hail, etc were announced. Just like yesterday. What a weekend! Actually, yesterday the storms distribution was inequal, and while at Bilbao just some rain drops falled, just 30 km away golf balls sized hail were suffered!. I didn't want to take the risk.

A new S2S with VK5CZ and Mountain Hunter Platinum achieved!

Today "Big gun" activation: 25watts and full size dipole!

Yesterday Ian VK5CZ announced that today wednesday 18/6/14 he was going to activate Mt Jay South, VK5/NE-047 around 06:30 UTC. I needed one more summit on VK5 to try to complete the association to reach the platinum level of the Mountain Hunter SOTA award. To get it, you must work 20 or more associations (two summits on each one) and in 3 continents at least. I already had EU, AF, just 1 S2S QSO with NA, and 2 S2S QSO with VK, but in different associations. My goal was to get it using summit to summit QSOs only.

EA2/BI-055 Mad morning! S2S with VK/PB2T/p

The setup: FT-857 and linked dipole on 9 m. fishing rod

Today, friday 2014-06-13, I would activate EA2/BI-055 Ganguren, near Bilbao, trying to make a summit to summit QSO with Hans who was as VK/PB2T/P at VK4/SE-112 Beerburrum. Yesterday night I set the FT-857 -for having a bit more power than with the FT-817- the linked dipole and the 8.2Ah LiFePo4, ready to give its juice.

SOTA Trip to EA1: 7-8/6/2014 First VK-EA S2S QSO.

This weekend I wanted to do some SOTA on the near regions EA1/BU and EA1/CT, as there are some summits that, given their height, are more valuable than ours. It's not easy to find 6 points summits on the EA2 association (although you go to the Pirinees or longer trips). However, the EA1 regions of Burgos and Cantabria have several 6 or more points summits closer to Bilbao.

So, after some preparation, I decided to activate the following summits. None of them has TV or GSM repeaters, so the RF noise is usually low:

• EA1/CT-049 (Cañoneros)
• EA1/BU-016 (Picon Blanco)
• EA1/BU-050 (Otero Mayor)   

SOTA & Dinosaurs EA1/LR-039 and EA1/SO-010

This weekend, as we hadn't any plans for sure, I decided to make a short "raid" around our vecinity regions of La Rioja (EA1/LR) and Soria (EA1/SO) new for me.

To make it more interesting for my son Oier, we organized at the same time a visit to the exposition of "ichnites" -dinosaur footprints- quite abundant at La Rioja (which is already famous around the world because of its wines).