A quick activation today of Canberra’s iconic Black Mountain.
As you can see there is a fair bit of interferance possible from the tower site, I have been advised that 2M is practically a no go.
However even with the quiet morning activation I managed to snag enough to activate a ‘day’ eariler than I had planned!
The video is up.
Summit number 14 for me.
Wade
VK1FWBD.com
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Thanks Wade. Your video recordings are very handy to assess one’s own voice on air. HF 40m propagation was pretty average today. As is often the case on 40m there are exceptions and today VK4s were booming in to my position on Mt Marulan VK2/ST-039.
My first QSO was at 23:38 UTC and my last at 00:45 UTC for a 1 hour op. 9 chasers pre UTC and 20 chaser post UTC. I managed to complete one 30m 10.130 MHz QRP 0.5 watt QSO with Rick VK4RF. I missed working Nev VK5WG, Ian VK5IS, Col VK3LED and Steve VK7WG today, not sure if they were busy or if 40m propagation was on the nose.
Thanks for the pre and post UTC S2S QSOs today, always useful to check if propagation is NVIS or ground-wave. Like you I completed a SOTA <> Park contact with Paul VK5PAS and Marija VK5FMAZ on 7.144 MHz.
On 17m 18.145 MHz and with the FT-817ND set to 5 watts I was very pleased to work Thomas NQ7R in Arizona, that’s right 5 watts. Dx chasers included John ZL1BYZ, Jacky ZL1WA, Phil ZL3JD, Andrew ZL3CC and Yuu JH1OCC. 17m is a reliable band for SSB QSOs with JA and NZ chasers. Offering JA and ZL chasers the opportunity to chase VK1 and VK2 summits has its own rewards.
Today’s VK long haul contact was with John VK6NU on 20m. For the folks in Europe that’s 3170 km spanning Australia’s east to west coast lines.
Thanks again for your efforts to document and film your activations. You are providing readers with an opportunity to see the activation conditions in and around Australia’s Capital Territory, Canberra, known locally as ‘The Bush Capital’.
73 Andrew VK1AD
Always a pleasure. Thinking of a new camera angle, and the original ones seem to be right at GUT height. When I can sit as close to the mast base as today I will mast mount the camera giving a semi-birds eye.
For anyone wondering the camera is a simple GoPro Hero Session (the small one) that doesn’t need a case so the audio is better. It is sitting on the base that comes with the packaging - no fancy tripods. Records for about 1h30m set and forget. Wide angle so like me, you can get your gut as well as the surrounds in shot.
Wade
