You can't really call it summer, this year, in Aosta Valley. Yesterday morning, at 8am, there were no more than 14 degrees Celsius. Today, temperature was better, but most of all it didn't rain. So, packed my rig and went up the mountains for the first ever /P operations as IX1CKN. Final choice of the destination fell on Pila (1860 meters above the sea, loc. JN35pr), because it can be reached in no more than fifteen minutes from Aosta, thanks to a cable transportation system. Once there, a short walk on the mountain side allowed to reach a quiet plateau, providing all the space needed to install the PRC-320 in the configuration including its 2.4 meters whip and the counterpoise.
Having only USB available on that transceiver, I skipped 7 megs, and went on 14. The band was quite alive, with interesting signals. Placed different calls, and got various answers. There is a secret, when you're working /P, that I don't mind to reveal here: each QSO you'll score is a present, so be happy when you're heard, and make as of nothing when the opposite happens. Final log of the afternoon saw four contacts: UK, Spain, France, and also an Austrian OM activating an Island off Sardinia coast. Reports were good, as you can see in the table below.

Nothing transcendental, considering the properties of HF, but with a whip less than 3 meters tall (on a band where physical lenght would require at least the double), and no more than 25/30 watts going out the transmitter, the 1000 kilometers to EA3DTD become a result. Furthermore, I'm not someone so into awards and special activations, but G3ZEF was the Culham Radio & Electronics Club station, situated in the Culham Science Centre, and F4GFE/P was activating the "Réserve naturelle du Marais d'Yves" (in the 17th French Department), for the Flora & Fauna award. A pleasant afternoon en plein air, with some answers to my calls. I particularly enjoyed the sharp attitude of the OMs who reported me as 5/5. In standard operating conditions, I know some hams that would be highly disappointed by getting such a report, but when you're /P, it means you're understandable. That's all what ham radio is about: contacting another station with no more power than what's needed to make it possible. And then, when you've a breathaking Valley at your feet, nothing can really be source of complain.
However, probably because I come from the SWL school, highlight of the afternoon has been something I heard, not the fact to make my first /P contacts. Further than 14 MHz, I gave a try to other bands. No openings on 10 meters, silence all around in 15 meters, but… 17 was crowded with US stations waking up and making their first morning calls. I did try to give back. It wasn't probably impossible (with the PRC I made it to 9M2 with its 30 watts, and the Outback HF-1899 mobile antenna), but a bit too early for propagation to lift EU signals to US. AA4V, in particular, was booming from the Isle of Palms (South Carolina), and it turned out a pleasure taping him, to keep a great memory of the first /P day as an ham.
 

73,
Chris