Pleasant walk and a final climb up steps to the Shack in the Sky!
I was hoping to park very close to the summit as shown on Open Topo maps (blue P below) and just walk up the steps, but put too much faith in Google Maps, searching for "Monte Novo San Giovanni" and ending up at a skiing hotel. I drove beyond the hotel, along a track for several km to get as close as possible, and parked at point X below:
I walked the route marked with arrows, starting with a gentle contour path. The mountain came into view and it looked very high and a little daunting:
After a gentle incline I arrived at a gate leading to some steps ascending the mountain side:
After a short climb up the stone steps, I emerged at the summit towards a mountaiun hut (the shack in the sky!). Again the wind was strong, but with many fence posts to attach my pole on the sunny side (15:00 Z) I felt that the wind would not be a problem.
However, while the pole stayed up, the gusty wind kept blowing the antenna centre up and off the pole! I decided to move the pole to the other side of the shack, out of the wind, the side I had approached the shack from (shaded) and only partially extended the pole, attaching the dipole to opposite fence posts.
I then set up a nice operating position on the outside seats in the sun. If the weather was too bad I could have operated inside the shack as it was not locked.
I had 7 QSOs on 20m, SSB, including 1 S2S, 6 on 40m including 1 S2S and 2 on 15m, including 1 S2S. All 3 S2S QSOs were with Julian, IN3JIP/ISO who was also operating on Sardinia and we had arranged to liaise on S2S QSOs. He was on IS0/IS-045
That was my final of 10 activations on Sardinia, I wish I had had more time, but thoroughly recommended for activators as the island has many straightforward 8 and 10 point summits.
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