SOTA activation: YO/EC-520 Seciu peak

This little guy is only 406m tall (1 point, no season bonus) and is one of the smallest I’ve ever activated, the only one below it being YO/MM-005. It is known thanks to the famous wine maker and touristic complex right on top of it “Casa Seciu”, usually reserved for the high-ranking members of the communist party before the 1989 revolution. Now it’s open for everyone and I had the chance to visit it about 3 years ago, take a tour of the wine cellars, taste their excuisite cooking and purchase a few unique bottles “for closer examination”.

All the mountain is a big vineyard and adhering to the SOTA rules I had to park the car and hike for the last part of the way up, having a chance to observe the surroundings better. This is a beautiful place in the autumn, but now seems a bit … deserted. Luckily, this still is the tallest peak in the area and it’s altitude can offer you sights of the surroundign area:

In distance, the snow-covered Bucegi mountains are tempting me for that last peak I never reached there, and for the season points:

On the top, one of winemaker’s old buildings is showing the national flag, probably left there from Dec. 1st – Romania’s national day:

I found the remains of an old tree by the side of the road, just above a vineyard: perfect place to install my “shack-on-the-go”:

The antenna I’m testing this time is called HF P-1, a portable antenna that can be tuned from 80m to 70cm. You guys need to wait a bit more on the details as I’ll do a separate write-up on it, this test wasn’t enough but for now I can say it works. The rest of the setup is my usual FT-817nd, LDG Z-817 tuner (disabled, as the antenna can be tuned to resonance perfectly) and a 12V/7Ah SLA battery. I also have a 13.2V/8.4Ah LiFePO battery with me wich is superior in every aspect (except price and the need of a special charger) but that will get used in the weekend (hopefully, depending on the weather).

I’ve spotted myself on the SOTA cluster a bit before 10:00 UTC and I had the pleasant suprise of getting a bunch of replies at the first call: it appears the antenna was working well (even from the low height) and there were enough chasers on the air at that time. I went trough them at a good speed, 22 contacts in 13 minutes, including one S2S contact with OE5AUL/P on OE/OO-365.

All in all, great SOTA experience, I was missing it after all this break. Can’t wait to do it again this weekend, this time on a more “serious” summit.

Have a Merry Christmas and may all your wishes come true !