Today we activated a peak close to our hotel on Costa Adeje, TF-016 Guaza. It was another early start and we had intentions of getting up to the top well before sunrise, but our chosen parking location near a local garage turned out to be quite busy despite the time of day, so we looked around for somewhere more discreet and found a nice spot just down the road. Unfortunately this meant walking back up the unlit, busy road without a verge, so we were very glad when we found what looked like an alternative path to the summit.
Ascent
In hindsight we should have just taken the road and stuck with plan A, but after yesterday’s easy jaunt up TF-014 we were feeling confident and headed out into the scrub with our torches. It soon became apparent that this was the kind of ‘path’ where you need occasional use of both hands, and, ideally, daylight. The climb took us just under an hour and was a bit sketchy in places, so definitely not one to recommend. (it’s the south-westerly path in the embedded map below, following Tableros de Guaza)
The other disadvantage of not sticking to our original route (nor consulting a contour map) is that our ad-hoc ascent took us to the wrong summit, though getting to the right one was merely a matter of following a short dirt road. By now it was just light enough to see without the use of torches, and as the moon went down behind us the sun rose behind Guaza proper.
Summit
There’s a veritable forest of commercial antennas up on Guaza and I was concerned at the possibility of QRM, though on the plus side there should also be a fairly decent access road to follow down. In the end we had no difficulty with man-made noise, though the 40m band was a tad quiet. Put that down to conditions.
The six metre Tactical Mini was deployed with some bungees to a dead cactus, and I strung up my 40m EFHW a little distance from the commercial installation and the obvious tracks leading through it. In the time we were up there we only saw a couple of walkers, but the summit’s proximity to town probably makes it quite busy at times.
Contacts
The contacts came flooding in after a bit of self-spotting (good phone signal up near those masts!) and in 1h 21m I worked 26 stations all over Europe. Conditions didn’t seem to be as good as they were yesterday though we heard one Japanese station in QSO with somebody else. ZL and VK were also out there apparently but not heard by me. Speaking of which, I still think I need to improve my EFHW’s reception somehow because even on 10w I’m being heard far better than I’m able to receive. Tried twiddling with the filters a bit but without a set of headphones it was ultimately not helpful.
| Time | Callsign | Band | Mode | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 08:20 | OK2PDT | 14MHz | SSB | s55 r55 |
| 08:22 | SA4BLM | 14MHz | SSB | s53 r33 |
| 08:23 | EA5JN | 14MHz | SSB | s55 r55 |
| 08:24 | EA3EVL | 14MHz | SSB | s55 r55 |
| 08:25 | DH5PR | 14MHz | SSB | s53 r55 |
| 08:27 | IK4CBO | 14MHz | SSB | s43 r53 |
| 08:27 | EA1MJ | 14MHz | SSB | s57 r59 |
| 08:28 | DL5OAH | 14MHz | SSB | s51 r41 |
| 08:30 | M3ZLA | 14MHz | SSB | s59 r57 |
| 08:31 | EA4GOK | 14MHz | SSB | s59 r59 |
| 08:32 | HB9DHA | 14MHz | SSB | s57 r52 |
| 08:33 | EA5EM | 14MHz | SSB | s57 r59 |
| 08:35 | EA4FGB | 14MHz | SSB | s55 r55 |
| 08:37 | EA8DGC | 14MHz | SSB | s59 r59 |
| 08:37 | EA4GJP | 14MHz | SSB | s55 r55 |
| 08:38 | SQ9JYK | 14MHz | SSB | s55 r55 |
| 08:39 | EA3ARP | 14MHz | SSB | s54 r55 |
| 09:09 | EA7GV | 18MHz | SSB | s59 r54 |
| 09:10 | SQ9CWO | 18MHz | SSB | s43 r44 |
| 09:11 | ON4FI | 18MHz | SSB | s43 r33 |
| 09:13 | SM5LNE | 18MHz | SSB | s43 r52 |
| 09:15 | OK1KT | 18MHz | SSB | s43 r55 |
| 09:18 | S57ILF | 18MHz | SSB | s51 r42 |
| 09:19 | DD7UW | 18MHz | SSB | s41 r33 |
| 09:39 | G0CDX | 14MHz | SSB | s53 r31 |
| 09:41 | DG4SKN | 14MHz | SSB | s41 r43 |
Descent
By the time I’d packed everything up it was getting quite warm, and with the arduous ascent behind us we forgot all about taking the long access road down, and instead went to look for the route which we should have taken on the way up. Thankfully it was quite easy to find and yes, would have made for a much easier ascent. It’s the north-south path in the embedded map below, and I strongly recommend it over the other way.
Summary
A great morning of SOTA despite difficulty in getting up the hill. The lesson here is to have a reliable route in place and stick to it, especially when carrying too much equipment in the dark. I looked back at the activity recorded by my Garmin fitness tracker and in terms of exercise load the ascent was roughly on par with a brisk 5 km run. Good to know.
