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We set off on our second family holiday to Tenerife Island on
Tuesday 6th September 2016. The first sight upon landing
at Tenerfie Sur airport was that of our first target SOTA summit
- Rojar EA8/TF-019. It is a small hill, a former volcano,
rising up in between the airport and the ocean.
The first couple of days was spent relaxing by the pool in the
superb Panoramica Heights Hotel, eating out at fine restaurants,
and seeking out karaoke bars for late night entertainment!
On Thursday 8th September, Jimmy and I set our alarms for an
agreed 5am start, the intention being to get Rojar EA8/TF-019
activated, and be back at the apartments for mid-morning.
Things did not go to plan!
We first stopped at a petrol station close to Los Cristianos as
it had a substantial cafe for breakfast. We enjoyed
delicious - and huge - bocadillos, filled with ham, cheese,
bacon and salad - and served with chips! The
larger-than-expected breakfast meant we were a little later
arriving at the car park than expected, but still well before
dawn under the night sky. The car park sat immediately
beside the coast road that ran between the Tenerife Sur airport
and the coast. Between the car park and the ocean rose the
miniature mountain we were about to climb.
The first hints of a daybreak arrived with the silhouette of the
mountain appearing black against a deep blue background.
The path was easy to follow, even in darkness, being flanked by
large white stones. By the time we were nearly at the
beach and turning right to head up the ridge path to the summit,
there was daylight aplenty. With the daylight came a
slowly rising sun ahead of us, and with that came some warmth.
We reached the summit still early morning and took some time to
work out where to set up. The summit itself was a small
area flanked by near vertical cliffs plunging into the ocean
below, so we headed a few metres back down the path. Here
the ridge was a little broader, which allowed me to get a bit of
feeling back into my legs! The ground however, was rock
hard, so getting pegs in to guy a mast was not trivial. We
had to poke around for softer areas under bushes or just place
large rocks over the ends of the guy strings.
Jimmy insisted on trying first on 2m FM, but this did not
produce any QSOs. Meanwhile, I was operating on 20m CW and
qualifying the summit comfortably. Jimmy took over on the
HF set-up to try on work on 20m SSB. This proved tough
also. After 90 minutes of calling, Jimmy got his first
contact. 90 minutes after that, he got his second.
So that's two QSOs in 3 hours of calling on 20m SSB. Three
and a half hours if you include his unsuccessful calling on VHF
as well! Another hour and a quarter went by. The
batteries ran out. They were replaced with a spare set.
Finally, just before 1pm, and after 4.5 hours on the summit,
Jimmy made a successful third contact.
Before this, we had heard many calling in, mainly from the UK,
but clearly none could read Jimmy when he went back to them.
Anyway, this third QSO was the all-important one, as it meant we
could pack most things away. Jimmy was going to get his
fourth QSO - with his dad on 2m FM. We agreed the landmark
I needed to reach before calling Jimmy to ensure I was well
outside the "activation zone". This was a footpath
junction signpost, which in fact was a long way below the AZ, at
least 100m beneath the summit where Jimmy was still standing.
We made the contact using our handheld transceivers, the bonus
being I got a chaser point for the summit too!
I didn't bother waiting for Jimmy but cracked on with walking
back to the car. It was now very hot and I was down to
shirt sleeves after being in my fleece top for much of the
morning - either in the chill of pre-dawn, or in the stiff sea
breeze into the summit. I loaded my gear into the hire car
and waited for Jimmy to return.
Driving back to the apartments, we agreed that due to the
unexpected amount of time taken to complete this activation,
this would now count as our "full day out" that we are allowed,
and that we would just do one other early morning activation in
the holiday.
Back at the hotel, we found Marianne and Liam relaxing by (or
in) the lovely outdoor pool area. We eagerly grabbed our
towels and swimming gear and joined them, ordering some cool
beers from the pool bar as well. This was a very pleasant
way to cool down and relax after what was rather a challenge of
an activation (from a radio point of view; the walking was
easy). Fortunately, Guaza
EA8/TF-016 four days later would prove to be much more
straightforward.
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