This was one of the two summits we’d earmarked as potential drive-and-go activations while out and about, but with our days on the island dwindling away we decided to grab Puig des Recó before breakfast today. Still, a good hour from the hotel and half an hour’s climb made it a bit of a mission this morning.
Ascent
There’s parking for half a dozen cars at [39.71486, 3.38815] and from there you basically follow your nose straight up the hill, starting with the small gate above the parking lot. The trail isn’t too steep or narrow at first but several sections are made up of exposed rock, and that’s quite slippery on a cloudy morning. The general texture of the earth is also significantly more moist than other peaks we’ve been on.
Summit
Some handy railings here and there make an inverted V configuration possible but I wasn’t able to get a decent SWR on my EFHW Spooltenna until I switched it to a sloper configuration, which had the added bonus of gaining some AGL height across a steep downward slope. There’s a good amount of space to move around, plus a little hut used to watch out for forest fires – nobody was at home as we set up just before sunrise.
Contacts
Not only were the bands rubbish today, but it appeared to be a contest weekend, and I couldn’t make a contact on 20 or 40 until I put a spot out. Even then it was slow going at first, with Gheorghe YO6BLU in Romania kicking things off after almost an hour of calling.
Several European stations followed on 40m over the next half hour as the clouds rolled in and out again, covering the portable station with a layer of cool fog. It was nice to work the Canary Islands and Madeira, then out of the blue FY5KE rolled in from French Guiana! I have no idea what he was doing up at this hour, but I’m glad that our activity coincided with an obvious propagational sweet spot.
40m came alive with many Spanish stations abut an hour after sunrise and I was also pleased to work ON7ZM again in Belgium, for the third time this week. Thanks for chasing and helping me to activate another fantastic summit Jean Pierre! Also significant was a 2m S2S with Llorens EA6KB, whom I heard on the ID-52 while my IC-705 was calling CQ. Having just missed local heavyweight Llorens last time around it was great to finally get that contact and gain a mutual S2S – muchas gracias!
| Time | Callsign | Band | Mode |
|---|---|---|---|
| 05:32 | YO6BLU | 14MHz | SSB |
| 05:53 | IN3ADF | 7MHz | SSB |
| 05:54 | ON7ZM | 7MHz | SSB |
| 06:01 | F5NZO | 7MHz | SSB |
| 06:02 | EA7GTJ | 7MHz | SSB |
| 06:02 | G7UOU | 7MHz | SSB |
| 06:04 | FY5KE | 7MHz | SSB |
| 06:05 | EA8AP | 7MHz | SSB |
| 06:05 | EA7XJ | 7MHz | SSB |
| 06:08 | EA1FRY | 7MHz | SSB |
| 06:08 | IZ0ARL | 7MHz | SSB |
| 06:10 | EA4M | 7MHz | SSB |
| 06:14 | CT9/DL6RY | 7MHz | SSB |
| 06:17 | EA6KB | 144MHz | FM |
| 06:18 | EA4SE | 7MHz | SSB |
| 06:19 | EA2CKX | 7MHz | SSB |
| 06:20 | EA7CMO | 7MHz | SSB |
| 06:21 | EA1AHP | 7MHz | SSB |
| 06:21 | EA7UW | 7MHz | SSB |
| 06:22 | EA1FMM | 7MHz | SSB |
Descent
If anything the way down seemed more slippery than the way up, and we had a few clenching moments on the greasy rocks. Much of this is down to my lack of preparation / experience (still carrying my gear in a small armoured case rather than a backpack) and on this occasion I really missed my hiking poles. Still, it’s only 30 minutes or so each way, so hardly taxing.
Summary
Another relatively quick and easy activation. In hindsight we really could have left this one for another time or started later in the day, as the band conditions just weren’t there for DX.