Friday night (VK2) I had to stay up all night again. 20m was very flat. The only SOTA I heard clearly was EA1IEH at 16:50 at about 54. I tried to work him and several EU chasers told him a VK was calling but I had to give up, just couldn’t get his attention. And I had to leave at 3am to pick the eldest up from a graduation party. A lot different compared to two nights before.
Matt.
G’day Matt,
Thanks for qualifying G/SP-004 for me on the 20m band this morning.
It only took me 63 minutes to make the four contacts!
BTW, thanks for the wonderful 3/1 signal report 
Good to have to have a nice chat later on in the activation, thanks for the info on Lord Howe.
Catch ya soon…
73 Mike
2E0YYY
Hey Ron,
I’ve given Barry a phone call this morning, instructing him not to take anymore liberties. I reckon he sneaked a linear and genny onto Cheriton Hill
Don’t worry, it’s already in hand
Thanks for the call and chat this morning, Ron. Took the 2m antenna with me this morning but the wind got up and it turned very cold, so I chucked the towel in.
73 Mike
2E0YYY
Hi Ron - VK3AFW - many thanks for the qso this am at 6.59z. Nice 579 hr - what antenna and power did u have at your end? Am curious whether any beaming LP or SP too?
I started at 5.50z, prop picked up at around 6.30z. I had to leave at 7.10z for the little one swimming class.
22 QSOs in total with 4W and EFHW with Mountain Tuner - inv L on a 10m pole. My MTR v2 was “sweating” in beacon mode.
Very loud signals around 07.00z Had a nice 5NN x2 with Guru EA2IF- I assume on QRP too.
I wonder how Roger - F5LKW/P (s2s with him at 27wpm) and others did is am.
Mike. Sounds like on your end was tough. I boiled this am with all my winter clothes,13C and no wind,
Thanks to all the chasers.
73 Angel
Hi Angel,
Same with the walk up to Shining Tor, I got very hot too. The wind came up after about an hour and the temperature dropped.
Conditions on the 20m band were poor this morning, Very hard work, over 1 hour to qualify the summit.
Just 37 contacts for the activation 8 of them VK. Only other DX was UA0AYA in Siberia.
No s2s 
Tony VK3CAT/P, who was activating VK3/VC-002 Mt Donna Buang, tried to find me but there was just no propagation early on, although he did work me from his car on his way home.
I’m pleased to see you got VK in your log, Angel…GL.
73 Mike
2E0YYY
Hi Angel.
My first QSO was with Matt - VK2DAG - 06:40 z - rst: 559
Later QSO with Ron - VK3AFW - 07:07 z - rst: 559
I received them without any problem, i think, it had to harder for them … my signal shouldn’t be very strong …
I recorded all QSO, i will prepare a movie next.
Thanks also for the S2S G/CE-002 ----- F/CR-204 - 1155 Km.
Here, no winter clothes this morning, WX so great.
APRS: 10 km to grow up and same to back home:
79 QSO with only 2 S2S - others failed … Chasers are stronger 
I’m going to reply you, Mike, and Angel in this same post.
I saw your Alerts last night, so I set the alarm to wake up this morning at 8AM o’clock local (6AM utc).
I had copy of neither of you guys for about 1 hour, but conditions finally changed and in a matter of 1 minute or 2 around 7AM utc, your signals came up from absolutely nothing to S9+10to20.
Just amazing and fantastic!
This is the magic of ham radio that the non-hams can’t understand. Those asking me why do I still keep trying to contact with other people around the world through my radio when mobile phones, Spyke and internet can do it perfectly, LOL…
It was a great pleasure for me to QSO on QRP 5w with you this morning and I hope I’ll be able to do it tomorrow morning again while I’m activating in the Pyrenees.
Not fully decided yet which summit I’ll activate but an alert will be raised later this evening, when I had made my decision.
Best 73 de Guru - EA2IF
Roger, nice pics and wx. I did not hear Matt, wonder if he heard me?
Looking forward to see that video. Nice S2S … U were keying fast!
Me too. A must repeat with better condx… Cheers Mike. …
I did listen for Tony - VK3CAT too but no luck early in the morning either.
Guru. Your 5watts booming hr. Magical as u say. It was a rapid off/on!
Gud luck in the Pyrenees tomorrow. I will try to chase u if I can.
73 Angel
Hi Angel,
I was pleased to work you after waiting for the band to open. I run 100 W to a 4 ele beam at about 13 m pointing long path for the Eu contacts in our late afternoon. Local noise is usually more of an issue than QRM but sometimes we enjoy both. I use narrow filters and noise reduction DSP and this helps noticeably although sometimes a noise source will sit on a SOTA frequency and that’s the end for me.
I was surprised to see your set up. It was a good signal for such low power.
Yes I have to listen very carefully for QRP stations and sometimes need repeats of report as noise QSB & QRM can happen at just the wrong time. But afterwards it is really great to have the QSO in the log.
I appreciate the EU home stations standing by while I try for a QSO.
Looking forward to working you again.
73
Ron
VK3AFW
Hi Angel.
Each time I had a listen on your freq it was zoo. Dunno why? I kept checking on your freq but I couldn’t pull you out sorry.
Matt.
Ron, it was the first time I worked VK LP on cw and sota. I will remember the qso for a long time.
Matt, I hope the next time there is more luck… I might try QSYing around next time…
73 Angel
Late last night, I posted an alert for G/SP-013 and with not much else alerted, I didn’t hold up too much hope for many contacts. Nevertheless, I loaded up the car at 0530 local time and made the 14 mile drive to Gun. It was still dark when I arrived, so it was on with head torch for the 15 minute walk to the Trig Point…
The Antron-99 was chucked into the hawthorne tree and I was QRV and spotted on 20m at 0538z. The band was not in particularly good shape and not until after 45 minutes of calling and in desperation, even changing the feeder, that I made my first contact. It was Ron VK3AFW who came back to me, to finally break the drought. Ron was followed in a minute later by Matt VK2DAG then Rob VK3EK and another minute later Matt VK1MA to qualify the summit for me. Talk about feast or famine!
The VK’s continued to call in but my signal reports were way down on a couple of days ago. Paul OE5SPW was the first EU contact, with little else being heard from EU. Nice ground wave contact with Phil G4OBK up in Pickering who was having problems with his beam that is stuck in one direction. Then things improved to EU with half a dozen of the regulars calling in. A couple of s2s courtesy of Mikel EA2CW/P and Marcial EA2BDS/P who were activating EA2/BI-055. Then a call from JA1QVR which came as something of a surprise. Allen VK3HRA called in from Victoria and the final call of the day, Garry VK6GLX in Perth.
Finishing up with 14 VK’s on a band I couldn’t buy a contact on for almost an hour, made this a fine couple of hours radio. As ever, thanks for being there VK and of course thanks for the spots.
.
Thanks also to EU for perservering on what was a pretty poor 20m band.
Just 30 contacts made this morning
15 EU, 14 VK and one JA worked.
73 Mike
2E0YYY
Hi Mike,
I checked your frequency 14.333 after RRT alerted me. I thought I could hear something. Maybe. I was able to imagine you calling CQ SOTA but in reality it was a negative S/N ratio. I expected the band to improve with a peak around 0700 UTC. After what I hoped was enough time I returned to the shack but could not hear anyone on the frequency. I put out a hopeful call and yes, you came back! Tough going but call signs and reports heard and confirmed. I said I would return in half an hour and check if sigs were better. I was back in the shack a bit before this looking for some wire and heard you call me. Sigs weren’t a whole lot better but a familiar call sign is quite readable at 0 dB s/n . Eventually I understood you wanted to QSY and be spotted if OK. Having retuned you on 14.340 and called in and confirmed it was QRM free at my end I went to spot you. I did not succeed in getting all my spots through today. Some seem to have gone to the next galaxy where no doubt they are causing some excitement. Sorry.
I did manage to work EA2CW/P on SSB and EA2BDS/P on CW.
Considering conditions were down it was a good return.
Now the referendum is over perhaps some of the stations up north might venture out early?
Very few EU stations are on air in the morning before you Mike. It’s an impressive effort. Should your alarm clock ever fail we VK’s will buy a new one for you.
73
Ron
VK3AFW
Ron, Mike,
Today was a beautiful day, plenty of VK QSOs from Ganguren.
Yesterday was Marcial’s birthday, and while sitting late night in front of a couple of beers, we decided to celebrate it making a new early activation today.
Perhaps a bit too early, as at the beginning there wasn’t any trace of chasers, nor EU neither VK. Mike being the unique activator, we tried several times to hear him, without success
Later, the things became more active, and several VK OM’s started to fill Marcial’s log for his plesure. And almost at the end of our 14 mhz band activity, Mike came to us for our only S2S of the day.
But anyway, finally we both filled more than 60 qsos, some of them with well-known VK “sloths”.
No troubles today with antenna or rig, and we again celebrated properly Marcial’s on a near “forest tavern” with some beer&lemon, black pudding and potato omelette.
We must certainly take care of our bodies, wich are becoming older and wasted…
Mainly Marcial’s… 
Thank you all!
Mikel
Hi Mikel and Marcial.
At 0657z I receive a text from a friend to say that you were QRV 14.285. When I visited your QRG, you were too weak to work. After 30 minutes I returned to your frequencey and we made an easy s2s.
FB on your 60 QSO’s, I could only manage 30…
73 Mike
2E0YYY
I forgot the new capability of th reflector…
Here you have a couple of photos of two satisfied goats
Well done, guys!
The pole looks in perfect shape this time
HPE TO CUAGN SN.
I will be back tomorrow morning at Walton Hill G/CE-002 to try to work some VKs and S2S
I will use a 44’ doublet and hope my 5Watts of cw make it again…
I might QSY around to try to avoid QRN at the other end…I will spot the freq
Alert is in place… Start at 6.30z
73 Angel
Ron VK3AFW and Tony VK3CAT, many thanks for the QRP QSO this morning. Brilliant.
Ron, you were louder this morning than last week - 589 with the doublet. Prop maybe better!
Tony, what gear do you have at your end? beaming LP too?
We need more VKs at the key to balance SSB
Guru EA2IF - fb agn S2S - I had to RIT down - 50-100Hz? and picked you up better. … Might be my ears!
I found a new /P home at Walton Hill…!!! Brilliant WX this morning… was tough to leave!
Full Report hr.
http://m0hdf.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/g-vk-long-path-qrp-sota-activation.html
73 Angel
Hi Angel, yes good to have you in the log. A fair bit of congestion on the lower end of 20 metres this evening. Also quite heavy qrm on HF all day. WX was very sunny so the cause could be solar inverters plus people with nothing better to do than watch their plasma TVs.
Not running anything flash here. 100 watts on CW (can do 400 on phone) with a Yaesu FT-847 and a triband yagi mounted through the roof of the house at 15 metres. Using a Vibroplex paddle. Although I have the 500hz Collins mechanical CW filter fitted, I find the DSP set to 200hz works best with some IF shift for fine tuning.
Timing is everything to get the RX signal peaks to align with QRM troughs!
Our bands are generally not as congested as in EU and thus phone can be widely used without too much issue.
I must say I do get a big kick from cw contacts!
BTW, the sota station consists of a KX3 and a 20 metre double extended zepp doublet. This has provided numerous DX contacts (mostly CW but also some phone) to EU and just a couple to the USA.
CW is not as popular in VK as in Europe. My recent trip to France had the majority of activity on CW. Calling CQ SOTA in CW certainly does not produce the dog piles we hear you getting and thus (speaking for myself) often struggle to maintain concentration working DX as an activator. This may also be due to it being at the end of a long day. My most recent Sota expedition had me walking 7.5 kms with a 525 meter ascent to the summit plus the return of course. I then did a second summit and was able to pick up the start of the EU opening before things got too cold. The expedition prior had me doing 5 summits in the day, driving 450 kilometres and out for 15 hours.50 activation points for the day!
Shack is still much the same at Home and a sota blog of sorts at http://vk3cat.wordpress.com/
Cheers from VK3, Tony VK3CAT