SOTA: 5B/CY-002 (Madari) Encore

For my last SOTA activation while living in Cyprus, I decided to go back to the first peak I activated, but approach it differently. The first time, I took the foot trail to the west of the peak, this time I took the road to the east of the peak. Both got the job done, and it’s really a matter of taste as to which one is best.

The gravel road towards the peak leads up from the parking lot and ends at a fenced commercial site (Cyta) with a large antenna. There is no good place to park at the top since it’s essentially single lane at that point, so I would not bring a car up the road – it is not too far to walk from the parking lot.

On the first activation, I took the dotted path to the left. This time, I went up the white road to the right of the peak. The road ends at the entry gate to the commercial facility.

To get to the peak, it is necessary to walk around the facility’s fence and there is some room to do so, but not a lot. If you don’t like heights, skirting the edge of the hill along the fence is probably not for you. On the other hand, what are you doing on a mountain top if this is the case?

Ground level view of the commercial facility. The entry gate is to the right of the building.

The perimeter around the site, again the entry gate is at top left. The narrow section would be to the right of the fence. The photo is taken from the bottom of the hill leading upwards to the activation site.

The view along the edge between the top of the road and the activation site. It is shadowed because this was taken after the activation, when the sun was low in the late afternoon sky.

Once around to the other side of the fence, the hill continues upwards. Near the peak is a smaller fenced area sporting various warning signs. The fence surrounds some sort of optical equipment, which seems to be pointing west, but looks articulated, so perhaps it changes directions. There are some heavy cables that run up the hill from the communications stations to this installation, probably power. I stayed away from both.

I set up my Buddipole tripod just a bit down the hill from that device such that my antenna was above the crest of the hill. On the previous activation, I was on the other side of the hill, working on the sloping side of the mountain and I did not manage to get the antenna up that high.

The parking area is between the activation site shown here and the building atop the neighboring peak seen in the background.

One concern that I had was that I was activating right next to a radio tower which included microwave antennas. Looking at the antenna from the SOTA activation point, I was not in the path of any of these dishes, so I don’t think I was illuminated by microwave RF. I can’t say that I had radio interference beyond the usual background on Cyprus peaks.

There were some convenient bushes around to hold my equipoise wire, so I worked some bands using a vertical configuration with single radial a bit over a meter off the ground. I had a late start and propagation not great, so I was happy with 18 QSOs.

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