Once Again, Thanks VK

Activation Reports
1

The alarm went off at 0415 local time this morning and I can honestly say, I wasn’t exactly over the moon to hear it. Nevertheless, I threw the Rucksack, Kite and A-99 into the car and made the 50 minute journey to G/SP-004 Shining Tor. When I arrived at the parking spot, it was pitch black and even though this was my 90th activation of this summit, I had to use the head torch. The WX was dreek, just heavy with clag and after the 35 minute walk to the summit, I found myself pretty wet.

Carrying the kite to the summit was a complete waste of time as there wasn’t a breath of wind anywhere :frowning:

So the A99 it was. At about 0539z I was QRV. A look along the 20m band and at the SOTA spots, showed the German Activators were in amongst the VK’s. Now it’s just a matter of waiting for the band to open into G. A self spot brought my first call of the morning from Mark G0VOF, up in Blackburn at 0540 for our usual Saturday natter. The summit was qualified by a call from Tony VK3CAT at 0559z…Cheers Tony!

It’s always good to see one of VK’s most prolific chasers Matt VK2DAG enter the log. The 20m band was in pretty good shape and at 0614z VK1NAM called me for my first s2s of the day. He was the first of three Andrews. I would work s2s into VK this morning! Three Andrews, that must be some sort of a record :wink:

Sadly, the clag was making this a pretty wet activation, with water running off of everything. Nevertheless, I pressed on, working plenty of VK’'s, mixed with EU and s2s calls. Trevor G1JZY, from the Bolton Wireless Club called me at 0707 to say there was a ZL special event station ZM90DX on 14.190. I took a look down there and got through his pile-up with my first call for a very nice 11,550 mile contact… Thanks Trevor.

Great to get Greg VK8GM in the log again, with his fantastic signal. Sounded like you were on 2 Metres FM, Greg!

My 0720z call was something special. Alex VK2HAS working with his Clansman 320 called in. This guy loves Clansman rigs and we finished our very long QSO with him running just 2 watts into a half wave folded dipole with a 300 Ohm feeder…sheer magic! If you’re a VMARS member or military radio fan, well worth taking a look at his QRZ page,

My last call of the day was an s2s with Bob, VK5FO activating VK5/SE-013.

By now, I was so wet, I was past the point of caring and decided to pull the plug.

Big thanks to all the Chasers for taking the time to call in this morning.

18 VK’s logged 4 of them s2s and one ZL out of a total of 50 callers.

73 Mike
2E0YYY

4 Likes
2

Fantastic good job, Mike.
Congratulations!
Best 73 de Guru - EA2IF

3

Hi Mike - You were the strongest S2S that I had yesterday - glad to be able to make the contact.
Cheers,
Bob

4

G day Mike heard you quite well on both your activations this weekend . I was sat in my back yard with the doublet set up but I had the ft 857 on 20 watts when I called you, and run it at 10 watts for all the vk’s I chased. Could hear Ed but he could not hear me and worked Herbert quite easily he runs quite a lot of power though.
Great weekend of chasing for me being set up outside in the nice spring wx is almost as good as activating and gives me a chance to test my antennas ETC . The other piece of useless information is my 8400 LiFe went for several hours over both days on the same charge and was still reading 12.2 volts when I packed up the gear.
73 Mike
Ian vk5cz …

5

Hey what’s this - dreek or indeed dreich! Trying to anglicise another of our Scots words? It’s nae guid enuff I’ll hae ye know!!

Good report Mickey and well done with your on-going trans-equatorial endeavours. Nothing like a little bit of ‘night-shift’ operating. Catch you soon sometime - S2S?

73

Jack(;>J

6

Hi Mike

Another very good opening on 20m between VK-UK. For the best part of an hour your signal was 5-7. :smile: Besides yourself, I chased Carolyn G6WRW on G/CE-002. :smiley:
Mike G6TUH had a booming signal in VK1. I did call Bill G4WSB a few times, unfortunately I didn’t make the chase. :frowning:

73
Andrew, VK1NAM (one of four ‘Andrew’ SOTA activators in VK1)

7

Mike, did try to call you for a S2S from VK2/ST-023 but no luck. You did acknowledge me once as a VK1 calling but was unable to make it back on 5w and my 20 m dipole in thick forest. Signals pretty weak my end. There was QRM everywhere so no luck finding a spot myself. At least managed VK6NU for a S2S.

Catch you again hopefully from a more cleared summit and better conditions.

Cheers Ian VK1DI

8

Last weekend was definitely at least slightly better, one way or another. At this end of the path today there were lots of loud signals to contend with. I think I might have heard VK6NU briefly in a gap, and I could tell VK1MBE and VK5FO were there, just about, but none clear enough to call. Time to get a beam… :wink:

73, Rick M0LEP

9

Hi Ian,

Apologies for not recognising your call sooner this morning, especially after hearing VK5C. The Eastern European QRM was murder. All the EU SOTA stations were being totally battered in the 20m zoo. I must have QSY’d half a dozen times. Well done on the 20 Watts, I was running a shade under 40, to keep the 22Ah Lithium. battery in good shape. Thanks for calling in on both days. Look forward to getting you in the log real soon.

73 Mike
2E0YYY

10

Hi Guru,

Thanks for the nice words.

This morning, conditions to VK were even better, so I finished up with 25 VK’s in the log including 3 s2s.

BTW, Matt VK2DAG made an audio file of me working a VK pile-up in the contest QRM, about the end of March this year. You were at the very end, working me, from G/SP-004 Shining Tor.

Best 73
Mike 2E0YYY

11

Hi Andrew,

Big thanks for keeping the commentary going, this morning, really enjoyable.

I’m not sure if I can make Friday but I’m sure we’ll soon have another s2s in the log.

73 Mike
2E0YYY

12

Thanks for the flowers, Bob. You were my final call of the day and I certainly didn’t expect it to be a VK s2s! Look foward to the next one.

73 Mike
2E0YYY

13

Hi all

I woke early to find a cloud and windless morning so decided to go out to Walton Hill (G/CE-002) to see if I could near any VKs.

Mike you were the first in my log and you said you had got a head start on me :slight_smile:

I ended up with 11 VKs including 2 s2s (VK3AWF and VK5FO) and one VK on hols in France (VK2IO).

20 meters was hard work this morning with loads of very strong qrm causing me to miss out on several contacts.

Thanks for making it worthwhile going out especially to try contacting Oz,

Carolyn

Antenna 1/2 j-pole, FT-817 + Tokyo HL50B

14

Hi Ian,

It was so frustrating for me too. It’s really annoying for both sides when a s2s contact fails…even more so when it’s DX :frowning:

IIRC, Andrew VK1NAM tipped me off as to your QRG. I could just hear the VK1 prefix on the peaks, however, that was it. There’s precious little that deafeted the Antron-99 this morning, sadly, it just wasn’t to be. Untill next time…

73 Mike
2E0YYY

15

Hi Jack,

I wouldn’t mind, I couldn’t remember how to spell dreich, so I Googled it.

Dreek came up in the Urban Dictionary as “the kind of weather that makes you miserable, dull grey and wet!” Blame the Urban Dictionary, probably written by a sassenach :wink:

Look forward to our next s2s. Good luck.

73 Mike
2E0YYY

16

Carolyn could also hear you this afternoon but no luck getting back to you, signals just too weak with too much strong QRM nearby.

Your summit looks nice and clear, I had a few trees on mine

1 Like
17

Ian

That a bit like what I had to walk through today but with heaps of grass trees also.

Mike

Great to work you today, had 5 G stations in the log G4UXH G4WSB/p G6TUH G0RQL and yourself and also 1 German station DJ5AV, so not bad for my first Activation from the Wild West, well it was, later in the day.

73 John VK6NU

18

Hello John,

Thanks very much indeed for the activation today and the contact. Not the best of days here in EU land because of the Field Day contest but you got through it - well done. I thinks it pays off to hang around for awhile as the DX window VK-EU is shifting around in terms of time at this time of year.

Good luck with the next.
Cheers
Mike

19

Carolyn, Mike and VKs… Congrats.

I might give it a shot myself next Sat if conditions allow with 5W cw and an efhw and MT.

I was at Walton myself later today around 16.30z and worked Gerard VK2IO in France too…it was also nice to work Ignacio EA2BD as we have crossed some emails this weekend about his vertical /p aerial and other chasers.
20C and sunny, great summer WX.
But not heard DX.
My MTR v2 is “in the garage”.,. Antenna ground cable broke due to rotation of the RCA connector and rigid Teflon Coated wire used. Easy to fix though.

73 Angel

20

Hi John,

Thanks for the s2s. We’ve had many contacts since the begining of the year, so great to catch you on your first activation.

What were your working conditions?

73 Mike
2E0YYY