It would have been great to make 70 QSOs on Calderon Hondo this morning, my 70th birthday, but I only made 55 contacts before things dried up. The logs are in. The final QSO was a nice one though, Art HB9CEV/P on 12m CW, the final one of my four S2S contacts, pretty good for a Monday before the Winter Bonus points period starts… Lots of people came up the hill after me, I would not have climbed it if it weren’t for SOTA.
Volcanic craters seem to fascinate some folk, not me! Nasty dusty places. Nowhere to pitch my pole, ground too hard to drive in a tent peg, so I relied on a small cairn I built out of lava rock to support the mast, albeit at a poor angle. KX3 10 watts and a 20/15/10m link dipole made up specially for this holiday. As well as working Art on 12m I also worked Mike G0HIO, using the 15m dipole via the ATU. I plan to take a break tomorrow and go out on Wednesday and Thursday. This time we are on holiday it's not a SOTA Tour.
A few snaps, starting with the parking place. It took me 34 minutes to climb to the highest point, 1.9 km, 242m ascent. I don’t think that’s bad for a 70 years geezer who was diagnosed with heart failure and prostate cancer three years ago...
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