ON7DQ Gran Canaria 2025

Trip to Gran Canaria ... with a little bit of SOTA & POTA

In 2018, I went to Gran Canaria on my own, see my report about that trip here.
I stayed three weeks back then, and acitvated 9 summits.

This year I went with the YXL, which meant that I had to plan a few more "tourist" activities, and a little less SOTA or POTA.

So here follows the rather short report of my ham activities during the trip.

We stayed in three different AirBnb's : 3 nights in Tufia (close tot the airport) - 4 nights in Las Burillas (near Puerto de Mogan) and 4 nights in El Tablero (near Maspalomas).

We had a Toyota Yaris rental car for the whole stay, driving 722 km in 12 days.

Ham equipment was :
KX3 + 4S2P Li-Ion pack + automatic voltage reducer.
For phone : headset with microphone + spare K6ARK style mini microphone.
For CW : Palm Pico paddle 'green' edition + homebrew spare paddle.
5m carbon pole + homemade spike, antenna 9.15m non resonant wire with 9:1 UNUN, 4m CP.
VHF handheld Yaesu FT1D.
LoRa APRS tracker.
Spare rig : QCX Mini 15m, also useable on 17m and 20m, with a lightweight 3-band Fuchs-antenna.

°°°

POTA ES-1682 Tufia Protected Area

On two different days, I set up my station near our apartment in Tufia. The whole village is in the POTA area, so that was easy. Made 12 QSO's in total to get a valid activation.

°°°

Day 2 - May 19
POTA : ES-1647 Bandama Nature Monument

We took the walk around the Caldera de Bandama (the name of this crater is actually derived from the Flemish name "Vandamme", see Wikipedia). It's only 3.5 km, but has a lot of ups and downs, and the track is mostly fine loose gravel, so it's quite strenuous in hot weather. Take enough water!

After the walk I set up my station, but I couldn't stay too long, we had planned some other visits that day. So I ended up with only 3 QSO's in the log, not enough for a valid activation.
But one of the stations was Carel, PA0CMU, who was also activating POTA with a QCX rig, wonderful !
Unfortunately, the nearby Pico de Bandama is not a SOTA summit.

°°°

Day 3 - May 20

SOTA : EA8/GC-026, Montaña de Arucas - 407m, 1 point

This is an easy drive-up summit. Finding the road to the summit is a bit tricky, Arucas is a maze of narrow streets, some are quite steep as well. Best to study the city map before you go there. On the summit is a large parking lot, it was almost deserted when we arrived. Parking position : 28.124993, -15.522448

A big change since the last time I was there : they have constructed a series of benches with a canopy, just perfect to set up your gear and have a nice operating seat with some shade. Also plenty of railings to fix your antenna.

We went down to the lower level parking lot and met some of these interesting animals ...

I had 14 QSO's in the log, including one DX if I don't count Europe as DX, hi.

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Day 6 - May 23
SOTA : EA8/GC-011, Montaña de Tauro - 1219m, 8 points
POTA : ES-1664 Macizo de Tauro Natura 2000 & ES-1702 Macizo de Tauro II Natura 2000

In my report of 2018, there is nice picture of the lake near the parking spot for this summit, the "Embalse del Salto del Perro". The parking spot is at position 27.904954, -15.686222

So this year, I wanted to show this lovely view to my xyl ... but oh boy, what a disappointment !
This is what we found ... you will have to zoom in on the picture to find the lake.

We had some delay because the road GC-605 has been closed for quite a while for repair works after a heavy rockfall. We had to take a long detour via Arguineguin, then North over the GC-505.

We arrived at the parking spot at 09:15 local time, and started walking.

For the first part we had some shade, but then the track became more and more exposed to the sun, and it was getting hot that day ...
We were almost at the summit when my xyl decided to give up, and wanted to wait in a shaded place. So I had to hurry to the summit, which took another 15 minutes, and made it a quick activation.

The view from the summit is your reward after a long and hot climb. 

I found a spot under some trees to operate.

I was lucky to have a few pile-ups on 20m and 17m, and made 30 QSO's in 30 minutes.
This included 3 S2S and 3 DX (outside Europe), so I was a happy camper!

After picking up the xyl, we went back to our AirBnb where the swimming pool was a welcome refreshment :-)

Day 10 - May 27 Pico de las Nieves
SOTA : EA8/GC-001, Pico de Las Nieves - 1956m, 10 points
POTA : ES-1676 Riscos de Tirajana Nature Monument

After a quick stop at Roque Nublo and Cruz de Tejeda, we went to the drive up summit Pico de las Nieves, the highest point on Gran Canaria. Parking position is at 27.962072, -15.571965

We arrived at lunchtime, so after lunch I could set up my station, while the xyl went for a walk and some photo shooting. On the picture below you can see Roque Nublo in the distance.

I had a nice spot in the shade, and used my backpack as an 'operating desk'.

This last activation resulted in 24 QSO's in the log with 1 S2S.

That's all for this trip. Not so much ham activity ... but I had another trip coming up : my yearly road trip to Friedrichshafen, this year again a solo trip, so lots of summits ahead ! Report about that one will appear elsewhere on this blog ...

73,

Luc ON7DQ