Thanks to the efforts of Guru EA2IF and Ignacio EA2BD I was able to activate more summits in Spain together with Juan EA1AER. Juan met me on the 21st of September, a Saturday in Léon, a very beautiful, historic city. Then he came back on 23rd Sept to take me for a trip out into some beautiful country north east of Leon.

The summits we went to were EA1/LE-197 and EA1/LE-165. These are north east of Leon requiring about two hours drive to reach the first.

The first required a good climb to reach the summit. From where the car was parked I actually doubted that it was possible to reach the activation zone. It looked steep and narrow. However I thought Juan had activated this in the past and assumed this was a well known summit. The climb started out as a mild stroll up a forest path then up some steps formed with wooden risers. I climbed up the lower sections quite easily, having just walked for almost 500 km in the previous 3 weeks.

Then it became a steep climb up earth and rock steps with a chain on the left for assistance. This was slower!

At the top the view was breathtaking. I could see the road but not the car as it was obscured by trees. It all looked a long way down. My photos probably don’t show it well enough.

The first few photos are mine. Then I have added some of Juan’s photos.

Some photos from Juan’s website are copied here too.

After erecting the end fed 20m wire it was tuned for best output power on the 817 and I called CQ on 20m Cw. Contacts flowed quickly. Then Juan made more contacts.

Finally we packed up and ate some lunch. Just as we were preparing to start the descent I received a message from Ignacio EA2BD asking if we were still on the air. I had to say no, as everything had been packed away. Disappointing as I would have liked to give him a new summit unique.

Juan remarked that I would be the first activator of the summit. I then realised that my earlier assumption was incorrect. It had not been activated before and it was the first time Juan had been there.

Juan then showed me some more of the sights in the valleys of this area.

We then went to another summit but the contacts made from this one didn’t qualify for SOTA.

This activation is also described on Juan’s blog at: https://ea1aer.blogspot.com/2019/09/con-vk1da-en-pica-de-ten.html which is written in Spanish (use Chrome browser for an approximate translation).

Here is a photo of most of the group of Leon hams who met us on the second summit, partly to meet me and partly to visit the club’s repeater site.