SUNDAY 8th May SV/IO-006 Iraklis

In May 2022 I activated the 4 SOTA summits on the island of Corfu.

I have written brief accounts of each, focusing on the logistics of getting to the summit and some notes on the radio operation in the hope that these may be useful for future SOTA activators.

The first, SV/IO-006 Iraklis is below and links to the other 3 follow:-

• SV/IO-005 Tsuka
• SV/IO-002 Pantokrator
• SV/IO-003 Psarudi
  

SUNDAY 8th May SV/IO-006 Iraklis

Steady climb on well worn track to an open summit with plenty of space for activation.

The village has a narrow thoroughfare and has sensibly made car passage one way, with traffic lights controlling the flow each way every 7.5 minutes, so be prepared to wait.  I parked just after the lights opposite the Anastasis cafe.

 

As is often the case, I had difficulty finding the start point of the trail, which is not signposted from the village.   A friendly local showed me - I would suggest taking the steps in the picture, opposite the cafe next to the blue post boxes.  He also advised to watch out for snakes, good advice!

 

 

I kept walking up and past the pink house (picture) and the track becomes is a well defined stony path all the way.   The track meets a road for a very short distance by a gate post then continues left to the summit.

 

The summit is nice and open with a convenient trig point, plenty of space to put up a pole.  I chose a place a few metres from the trig point in case walkers wanted to reach it, but no other walkers seen.  Lovely views all around.

I self spotted by text,  and started on 40m only managing 1 QSOs.  20m was more productive, with 13 QSOs including 2 summit to summits.  I decided to finish off on 2m.  By chance I chose 144.550 MHz which is the channel used for general chat on the island. I finished the activation with 2 FM chats with local hams who did not seem upset that I was speaking only in English!

Next activation: IO-005 Tsuka