Weds 17th November: Montana de la Atalaya

Worth 4 SOTA points and an easy walk, but with a steep incline

This is a brief account of my SOTA activation of this summit, with a few tips that may help aspiring activators!

 

I again found finding the access road a bit tricky as you have to either come straight off the TF5 Motorway (from the Santa Cruz direction, difficult to hunt for a minor turning with fast cars behind you!) or you can cross the slip road (lanes and rights of way a little confusing!).  I think the slip road from the motorway is actually 2-way at this point.  The road you need is just below McDonalds, called Camino el Pulpito.

 

I drove up the hill until I reached a horse riding stables.  There is plenty of space to park.

 Walking up the hill beyond the stables then takes you to the summit.  The climb is quite short but steep in parts, over fairly loose ground, so walking boots recommended.  I actually missed the summit and kept on walking towards a hill with 2 or 3 commercial radio masts on the top!  I realised my mistake and retraced my steps.  The actual summit is wooded, but a large open area is available just below the summit to set up.

 

This is a nice spot for activation , just off the footpath.  I only saw one jogger in the hour or so I was there.  I managed  8 SSB QSOs on 20 metres.

 

 With time on my hands now and a warm gentle breeze making the location very pleasant, I decided to have a play with PSK on 14,070 kHz.  I use a Samsung tablet running PSK and a Wolfilink interface into the Data port of the FT817D.  I have tried activating summits before just using PSK and failed, and it can be difficult to get the audio levels right in the field (The Wolfilink requires maximum volume to activate the PTT control and you have to keep over riding the high volume warning on the tablet!).  I managed one PSK QSO. 

 

I then switched to 40m SSB and self spotted, but had no luck with contacts, so decided to call it a day.

 

Next activation (the next day) the 10 point TF-007 Cruz de Gala.