All Asian CW Contest

This weekend I could not make any activation and so, I spent a couple of hours at friday night at the All Asian CW Contest, which is a superb chance of working rare asiatic countries. Unfortunately, the propagation was not at its best, and I could only work some unusual stations from Laos, Vietnam, Singapoore and China PR. 

Most active calls were from Assiatic Russia and some of the southern new republics. Not enough to reach a good result, being with just the G5RV and 100 watts. Signals were only a bit stronger on the 20m band, so finally I decided to apply as SO 20M LOW.

2015 SOTA Eguna at Atxabal

Last sunday June 15th we the EA2 SOTA'ers celebrated the II EA2 SOTA Eguna (day) at mount Atxabal EA2/VI-040. There, 24 activators from the EA2 territories met for a joint activation using the special callsign EG2UNA followed later by a lunch at the near Oroko Andra Mari Sanctuary. A day full of SOTA activity, meeting old and new friends.

All the information at sotaeguna2015.blogspot.com

June 6 & 7, pre EA2 SOTA Eguna frenetic activity

Last weekend was the previous one to the 2015 EA2 SOTA Day (Eguna in basque language) and EA2 activators had programmed as many activations as possible following this year novelty, the 2015 EA2 SOTA Eguna Award. This is a new activity, chasers oriented, and they must work at least one third of the activated EA2 summits, plus the special call EG2UNA which will be on the air next suday 2015-06-06 from Atxabal EA2/VI-040. There, most of the EA2 activators will meet for a joint activation, and later enjoy a lunch (basque-style) at the near restaurant of Sanctuary of  Oro.

ED2A at CQ WPX CW 2015

This weekend I left SOTA activity for working the CQ WPX CW contest, after 25 years without taking part on it. I used a G5RV Junior dipole (SW-NE oriented) covering from 7 to 28 Mhz and 100w at home. It is not a contest station, really, but enough to have some fun taking part in the "voragine" of a contest.

16 & 17 may 2015 operating AO150ITU

2015.05.10 EA2/VI-036 Somo y EA2/VI-047 Sta Ageda

Despues de casi un mes sin activar, el pasado domingo 10 de mayo Marcial EA2BDS, Oier y yo nos pusimos en camino para activar un par de cumbres en Araba. 

Easter holidays at Navarra: Artxueta, San Zolo & Monjardin

This past Easter holidays we -my son Oier and me- made a new trip around EA2/NV. The goal was to reach some new summits of this beautiful territory were Basque range and Pyreenes meet.

2015.03.18 Unbe EA2/BI-076

Tomorrow thursday we celebrate St. Joseph day (Father's day as well) and we'll have 4 days free. But unfortunately, some showers are forecasted for these next four days. 

So although thurdays are not the best days for making SOTA in the afternoon, I called Marcial to propose him a short activation of the near and almost drive in summit of Unbe Mendi EA2/BI-076.

Equipo básico / SOTA / Basic equipment

Esta es una somera descripcion de mi equipo básico para SOTA, por si a alguien le puede servir a la hora de planificar sus activaciones:
This is a brief description of my basic SOTA equipment, in case that it could be useful for somebody while planning activations

EA2/SS-045 Anporreta and EA2/SS-061 Kortaburu (new)

Last friday Marcial had to go to Arrasate (Gipuzkoa) and we decided to make some SOTA. As Marcial would had the morning busy, meanwhile I would activate Anporreta EA2/SS-045 and later, on the afternoon would make the new Kortaburu, also close to Arrasate.

Belabia and San Formerio,2 new basque summits yesterday

Yesterday 1/3/2015 a window of good weather was expected between 11 and 16 UTC and thus, we -Marcial EA2BDS, my 10 y.o. son Oier and me- were ready for a new activation. Our goals were activating a new referenced summit, Belabia EA2/VI-062.  If there were not rain, we're planning to activate Jaunden EA2/VI-042 too, but Cruz EB2EBX pointed us that this last could be problematic, as there was a lot o snow and small place for placing the poles. So, finally we chose to make only the first.

Larrea y Peregana, doble activacion de 2 nuevas cumbres

Aunque hoy el dia amenazaba lluvioso, tenemos un monton de nuevas cumbres por estrenar, y hay que aprovechar aunque las condiciones no sean las mas adecuadas.

Antonio EC2AG habia ya anunciado hace dias su intencion de activar hoy Larrea EA2/BI-072, y muy cerca al sur teniamos otra cumbre, ya en Araba: Peregana EA2/VI--065. Marcial EA2BDS y yo quedamos el sabado para hoy domingo 22/2/2015 a las 08:00h, aun sabiendo que el pronostico del tiempo no era muy favorable.

EA1/CT-049 Cañoneros

Today I had the choice of making a short activation and, having done this weekend two EA2 summits (usually to gain fewer points than in neighbour associations) I drove to Cantabria to try to activate Cañoneros, 1200m and 6+3 points.

2015-02-15 Short trip to Navarra and new Basajaun level reached

My son Oier has some days free because of carnival holidays, so we've planned a trip to Navarra, (about 2 1/2 hours by car) to pay a visit to my sisters sons, as we use to do as often as we can. 

At the same time, my intention was to activate one or more summits on EA2/NV. I needed them to reach the next level of the Euskal Herriko Mendiak award, (Basque Country Mountains) consisting on activating 5 summits on 4 basque territories. This would give me the Haize (wind) level.

Is this really SOTA?

I beg your pardon for this post, but I'm starting to think that I, or maybe some other people, have not understood quite well which is the spirit subjacent below SOTA.

Unbe mendi, a new one for ending the job

After some months of work of a lot of people (thank you all: Csaba, Jim, Alain, Fredo, André, Diego, Jon, Jimmy and Andy) we have finally ended the EA2 summits catalog update. Today (yesterday night) the new references were active at SOTAwatch, and we could not imagine a better way to celebrate it than make one of the new.

The new summits catalog of EA2 running!

Finally, this weekend will end the EA2 SOTA summits catalog update. Just the sotawatch database is pending, while sotadata now reflects the changes yet. It has been a lot of work of many people of the SOTA community and followers. 

This very sunday we expect to activate a new one, the easiest one, indeed. There is a large amount of snow on the mountains these last days, so we chose something easy as starting. EA2/BI-076, Unbe Mendi, near to the Cantabric shore, and not too high to be affected seriously by the present bad weather.