Activation Report: CT/MN-018 (Piorneiro) and CT/MN-025 (Picotas)
With a busy week ahead of Easter, Rui (CT7ALW) and I decided to squeeze in a Friday activation of two summits on the fringes of the Gerês National Park. Piorneiro – CT/MN-018 The day began with a brisk 2 km hike. The trig point here sits atop a massive stack of boulders, requiring some scrambling and crawling to find a workable operating position directly beneath the structure. Deployment was a struggle; while attempting to tension the wire, we unfortunately snapped and lost a brand-new...
2m Aurora QSO with GM4YXI - most probably my QSO of the year!
Dear Reflector, I wanted to share a story about a very special QSO I made on Sunday. I spent the weekend at my parents’ place, and after going for a walk with my dad on Sunday afternoon, I decided to do an activation on my way back to where I live and work. I checked the propagation again in the parking lot and, because of the high K and A values, decided to take 2m equipment only. I packed the 6-element DK7ZB Yagi that I built, using parts kindly printed for me by Michael @OE5HKT, which he ha...
Activation of Serra do Cume CU/TE-003
de Andrey RZ3EM and Sergey M0MSV When we booked our tickets from Faial to São Miguel, since there were no direct flights, the only option was a flight with a layover on the island of Terceira. With a three-hour layover, we decided to activate the summit CU/TE-003 (Serra do Cume). Thanks to the support of amateur radio operators on São Miguel and Terceira, we had previously obtained the contact information for a reliable driver who met us with a name sign at 15:20 UTC at Terceira Airport (on...
Activity from Pico da Barrosa CU/SM-002 Sao Miguel, Azores
de Andrey RZ3EM and Sergey M0MSV The idea to visit CU/SM-002, Pico da Barrosa, came to us during a conversation with our friend Paulo CU2GI, who was a great help to us during the CR26RRC expedition. The day before, on Friday, March 13, 2026, we met with him at the ARA CU2ARA radio club along with amateur radio operators from the island of São Miguel to present the activities of the Russian Robinson Club to them. On Saturday, at 12:15 UTC, we met up with Paulo and, driving along the coast and c...
Asores SOTA Activation (CU/FA-001) by Sergey M0MSV & Andrey RZ3EM
After meeting at the airport on Faial Island and picking up our rental car, we immediately followed the route on Google Maps toward the top of the caldera; the road quickly veered into the countryside, climbing significantly in elevation. As we neared the end of the route, low clouds began to roll in more frequently, but they would break up, allowing us to enjoy the sunshine. The entire drive from the airport to the parking lot near the Caldera overlook took less than 30 minutes. Since all o...
More adventures in Snowdonia on the buses
After previously suggesting I’d never get the bus again to an activation I did it again this week - not once but twice 🤣 Snowdon GW/NW-001 19/03/2026 The weather had suddenly turned very sunny this week so a day off work was hastily arranged to take advantage. I wanted to walk up the PYG track as I hadn’t been that way for nearly 20 years, so planned to get the bus to Pen Y Pass and thought I may as well get the bus for most of the way to save money (and the planet, but more on that at t...
Second Summit - GM/SS-171
The activation attempt today started marvellously… between Sunday buses, me fat-fingering my alert time to be an hour early, and not planning my route well, it was nearly two hours after my original alert time before I was able to activate. But I got six QSOs, and particular thanks to @MM0UHR, @MM7MOX, and @MM0RTO who were listening in on the local repeater and tracking me on aprs.fi to be sure I got some contacts! I found a route on WalkHighlands which looked promising if a little steep in pla...
It Happened on Two Rock...
Status this morning before setting off in the car: Before even putting a finger to a keyboard, I’d half considered sending the SOTA MT a quick note to say that this wasn’t a hoax, I was actually going to make an activation attempt, my last teetering on 2 years ago, some time in 2024. I play in the hills reasonably often enough, but usually am up there for other things so an activation attempt isn’t really something I can factor in to a training run. Hence I spend a lot my time ei...
GM/SS-064: Tonto on Tinto
It had been a pretty big week for me - I’d passed my Full Licence exam on the Monday night, got a new callsign on Wednesday morning (as well as making a bit of a dog’s dinner of trying to get it changed on here… sorry!), and spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday cursing my full-time job as I looked out the window at all the sunshine that I was missing out on. I had places to be on Saturday lunchtime, so figured a good option would be to get out of Glasgow in the morning for a wee scoot up Tinto (...
I/LO-247 Mt Rai 21/03/2026 iw2obx
I have been inactive since november, this afternoon i climbed up to mt. Rai I/LO-247 starting from my qth by feet, a green activation. Up from Birone and down from Bevesco. I forgot some thinks: glovers, paper log, coax. I used a smartphone for a log but i realized that i haven’t vkportalog; I worked near antenna connecting directly bnc plug with trasformer to kx3. I tried a new antenna setup, a deltaloop for 20meter, with a toroidal trasformer. In 20mt cw I worked some EU stations ...
Summits on the Air