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 

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Go back to the overview HERE