My first visit to G/SP-004 for some time and I was greeted with some fine WX. As usual, I bungeed the antenna to finger post, connected up the rig to the 22Ah Lithium battery and thats when the wheel fell off.
Turned on the 857 only to find a blank display with just a few pixels scattered about. It was imposible to see what frequncey, mode or band I was on. Clearly, the rig had got a lot wetter on Fridays activation of GW/NW-076 than I had first though.
After 5 minutes I realised this was not going to be a quick fix and so sent a spot to say activation abandoned. As I was packing away, I fished about in the rucksack for the little tool kit I carry and decided to dismantle the head unit on the summit. After about 50 minutes of faffing about drying out the head, I found an improvement in the display and was just about able to make out enough information to proceeed with the activation. A self spot on the 20m band brought in some interest from EU as well as a call from Rob G0HRT… Nice to work you Rob! My worry was that it may have been too late to work any VK chasers, however, plenty called in with the best signals I’ve heard for some time. Thanks for the calls VK! Nice to get an s2s with Justin VKI2CU, for the first ever activation of VK2/RI-044 Goombargana Hill.
Great to work newly licensed Ken M6KWE on the 2m band, after he plucked up the courage to call me for his first ever Amateur Radio contact. Also M0ZOE Zofia, for her first call after being QRT for 5 years, good to see you back Zofia!
180 calls worked today…
I’m more than happy to settle for 13 VK’s after losing an hour this morning,
Thanks also to EU not forgetting HB as well as JA and W.
Finally, I’ve just given the FT- 857’s head unit, a 90 second burst in the microwave oven, just to make sure it’s fully dried out, so there should be no such problems on my next activation 
73 Mike
2E0YYY
