Mallorca 2023 Day 4

On day 4, we first played the tourist, visiting Torre de Canyamel and Castell de Capdepera.

Then, looking at the POTA map, I found a nearby park that had not been activated.

POTA EA-1247 Cova de can Bordils Natura 2000

There is not much to see, because the "park" is actually an underground cave, but the area above is protected in the Natura 2000 program.
So there is a small problem : where is the park ?

I found a pdf document on the website of the Baleares protection agency (link). It lists all the cave areas, and on page 15 of that document , I found this map:

(source: Govern de les Illes Balears)

So I chose an operating spot within the dotted area (see arrow above), parking position was 39.556571, 3.350129. It can be seen in Google Streetview.

A few metres away, there was a nice bench, and I could tie my carbon pole to a bicycle rack, conveniently placed far enough to stretch the antenna.

This was a late afternoon activation, and the sun was scorching, so I was lucky to have taken my little umbrella with me!

I made 21 QSO's in 40 minutes, and this included 4 DX (3 W, 1 VE) which was a great result.

All was done in CW on 40/20/17m.

Continue reading ... go to DAY 6 

or

Go back to overview HERE

Mallorca 2023 Day 2

The day we arrived was not so good, a big storm came up just after we stepped in our rental car.
We even had to wait a while to drive away, the rainfall was enormous. I had planned to activate an easy summit, but instead we drove to a shopping centre. There we saw that the storm had already done some damage. 

The second day was a little better, the sun was shining and it felt warm enough, so we wanted to go to the beach at Cala Mesquida (see top picture), but it was forbiddden to go into the water, the undercurrent was too dangerous. We stayed at the beach for a couple of hours, admiring the summit of Jaumell in the distance.

Since there was no swimming allowed, we left the beach at midday, and visited the Far de Capdepera, and the nearby ruins of Sa Torre Esbucada (one parking spot for both: 39.715846, 3.475428) 

SOTA EA6/MA-065, Puig de sa Cova Negra - 233m, 1 Point

Then it was time for my first SOTA activation.

I had activated this summit before, see my previous report for parking information etc.

I hadn't risked putting my KX3 backpack in the car while being at the beach, so I only took the QCX Mini and light endfed, and my carbon pole.

Setting up was quite easy, but being late afternoon already, the sun had heated up the place.

Under the umbrella (see picture below) is the YL, quietly reading a book.

I had a spot still a little lower, under that tree, but also needed an umbrella to protect my equipment ... and the operator ;-) (picture taken from YL's position)

The QCX Mini 17m/20m, clothespeg paddle, and Blinky SWR meter to check SWR (removed for actual operation). Old school paper & pen logging.

Of the 17 QSO's on that activation, only 3 were on 17m, 13 on 20m, so it's nice that the QCX can work on two bands, as long as you use a tuned antenna for each band.

At the end I took my FT1D handheld and climbed to the vertice, and had one 2m FM QSO with Rafa EA6AAU, who lives in Llucmajor, distance from the sumit 54 km.

No S2S QSO's this time, but I had three ON's in the log (thanks ON7MD, ON4VT and ON5GL).

In the evening we went for a walk along the promenade in Sa Coma, and had a nice "moonlight" dinner there.

Continue reading this story, go to ... DAY  4 

or

Go back to the overview HERE

ON7DQ Mallorca Trip 2023

 

This is the report on our trip to Mallorca (EA6/MA) from August 27 to September 12, 2023

I have been on Mallorca Island on my own in 2017, when I activated 17 summits in 15 days.
See my previous report here.

This time, I was travelling with my YL, so I would have to reduce the number of activations you would think ?

Well ehm, no … not much.

In summary, we spent 17 days on Mallorca, and on 9 of those days, I activated 8  SOTA summits, 5 POTA parks, and 3 DVGE “vertices”, so 16 activations in total. Not so bad eh?

Of course, to be honest, this involves a bit of cheating: some SOTA summits count for POTA and DVGE at the same time ;-)

In chronological order, these are all the activations. Click on the DAY to read my detailed report, click on the NAME to visit the summit/park/vertice* info page)

Day 2 :    EA6/MA-065 Puig de sa Cova Negra

Day4 :     EA-1247 Cova de can Bordils Natura 2000

Day 6 :    EA6/MA-035 Puig de Sant Salvador

                EA6/MA-056 Puig de Bonany

Day 9 :    EA-1899 Pla de Vilafranca Natura 2000

Day10 :   EA6/MA-077 Talaia d'Albercutx

Day 11 :   EA6/MA-040 Talaia d'Alcúdia

                 EA-1195 La Victòria Natura 2000

                 VGIB-006 – REG Atalaya de Alcudia       

Day 13 :   EA6/MA-032 Santuari de Cura

                 EA-1295 Randa Natura 2000

                 VGIB-010 – Randa

Day 15 :   EA6/SD-001 Na Popia   

                 EA-0204 Sa Dragonera Nature Park   

Day 16 :   EA6/MA-060 (Santa Magdalena)

                 VGIB-093 – REG Santa Magdalena

NOTE : for the DVGE vertices, click the link above, then on my activation page, click on the pdf symbol (below the map), to visit the official info from the IGN (in Spanish).

More info about the DVGE program can be found on the website of the Radioclub Henares

Equipment

My SOTA equipment was still more or less the same as what I used in 2017, only I took a lighter carbon pole and home made stake. Also my antenna has changed from a link dipole to a random endfed.

Here is the list :

Rigs :

KX3 with a 5€ PC-headset and homemade PTT box for phone, and for CW the Palm Pico paddle + a homebrew magnetic “click-on” paddle (which I used most of the time).

QCX Mini 17m/20m, with “clothespeg” paddle, and a light linked EFHW for use on 17m or 20m + 49:1 UNUN

FT1D for VHF and APRS (not used very often)

Batteries :

Home made Li-Ion battery pack 4S2P, 16.8V when fully charged. I used this one with an automatic voltage reducer so that the KX3 could always be used at 15W (12W on the higher bands).

Backup : powerbank  with 4 x 18650 cells, and an empty battery holder to put those cells in series when I removed them from the powerbank (never needed to use it).

Antennas :

Endfed wire, length 9.15m + counterpoise 4m, and 9:1 UNUN (for quick setup or reduced space summits), and an extension of abt. 13m, to get to a longer 22.3m (only used where I had enough space).

Coax : 5m RG-58 (backup : a 50 cm RG-58 jumper cable , never needed)

CARBON fishing pole 6m, 3 top sections removed (too brittle), so effective length only 4.5m.
+ ground spike made of a piece of L-shape aluminium, same length as the pole, 42 cm, so all fits nicely inside my backpack, and the weight is half that of the 6m pole + spike I normally use. 

Fixing the pole to the spike is done with two rubber cable binders from old Dell laptop adapters.

Results 

In total, I made 350 SOTA QSO's, an average of 44 per summit. I had a peak of 85 QSO’s on EA6/MA-060 Santa Magdalena.
Two activations were only for POTA, where I made another 35 QSO's.

Also nice … 32 Summit-to-Summit (S2S) contacts, an average of 4 per summit. This secures my first place in the S2S ranking for Belgium with 5743 points. Of course, that position will only last until Peter ON4UP will catch up ... 

This trip, I collected only 17 SOTA activator points, but that does not matter much, I had a lot of fun being out on the summits.

 

Continue reading this story, go to ... DAY 2

Cute Comb Cootie

 My "Cute Comb Cootie" for WES

As a member of the SKCC (Straight Key Century Club), I try to participate each month in their Weekend Sprint activity (WES).
In August, bonus points can be won if you make QSO's with a new homebrew key that you have built especially for this weekend.

This year I took a pocket sized plastic comb and made a sideswiper (a.k.a. Cootie Key) with it. 

My key is very simple to make.
All I needed was some pieces of bare printed circuit board, a bit of self-adhesive copper tape, and two relay contacts, it took me about 45 minutes to make. No heavy base, I just clamped the board under my transceiver stand with a piece of wood and an eraser.

I only had time for a few hours operating on Sunday, so I had only 12 QSO’s in the WES,  but the Comb Cootie worked very well.

I did put the teeth upward, so I can still comb my hair with it (at least , that is the little hair that I have left).

AND … I even found a way to comb my hair and generate some sensible Morse Code

AT THE SAME TIME !

See this short video I made … and have a laugh ;-)