Wednesday, July 6, 2022

MONDAY 9th May SV/IO-005 Tsuka

Summit surrounded by dense woodland with the track difficult to follow

With no signs or footpath markers the start of the trail is very difficult to find.  The photo below is approximately correct based on the map location.  I parked in a nearby layby.

The trail starts as a reasonably well defined rocky footpath but is difficult to follow.  I made the mistake of turning left at a critical junction and ended up up forcing my way through dense undergrowth to get to an activation point.  I was glad I had long trousers on!  GPS and the OpenTopo map would be the best combination: I was using a paper map and Google Maps on my phone which was difficult to join together!

 


I pushed my way through dense woodland, eventually finding a  small clearing near the summit. Google Maps told me I was close to the summit but there were steep rocks stopping me get getting right to the top.  If I had not taken the wrong turning I would be the other side of these rocks!  My altitude was 608m so within the activation zone (summit 621m).


 

With so many branches in the way getting my Sotapole up was impossible, so I strung the short length of my Bandhopper antenna between some suitable branches, just planning to use the shorter sections for 20m.  After a self spot I quickly worked through the mini pile up achieving 8 QSOs in 10 minutes.

Concerned to conserve my battery, and with an unclear route back through the undergrowth, I packed up and headed back downhill, picking up the previous incorrect path.

>Next activation: IO-002 Pantokrator

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