South Korea Activation - 10th May

Hi,

I will be activating HL/SL-008 Ansan as HL1ZIH on the 10th of May (local) from about 2300 (9th of May) - 0100 UTC. I’ll try higher bands, and VOACAP suggests 17m will reach NA, and 12m will reach VK. I hope there may be some folks around to listen, and to work.

Cheers,
Andrew
VK3ARR / HL1ZIH

Andrew, are you able to do 10 metres? More antenna gain at this end on 10.
CW?
Tony VK3CAT

Hi Tony,

I can do 10, and CW. I’ll have a vertical with 100W at my disposal, although I’ll keep it closer to 25W for battery life.

Cheers,
Andrew

Hi Andrew

I will listen on any band you spot. I can TX on 20, 15 and 10m.

Good luck.

Andrew VK1NAM

Hi Andrew,

I will be interested to see how you go. I activated Ansan last year, it was the most suitable summit to activate near Seoul, although only had 2 contacts on 2m, 20 and 15 were very quiet. I will be there again in June and plan to do some activations.
Will listen out for you.

Cheers,
Glenn in KL.
VK3YY
HL1ZIB

Hi Andrew,
Don’t be surprised if my XYL pops up to Ansan for a look on Sunday morning. She is at Yonsei uni.
Glenn,
(currently crossing the north west coast of Australia at 38000 feet).
VK3YY
HL1ZIB.

Well, I would have been surprised and just a little bit scared :wink:

She should recognise me easily, I will be the one cursing at a radio while my friends disown me.

Cheers,
Andrew
(At 0 feet for the next hour)

Great to work you on Ansan, thanks for the SOTA complete!
BTW, could just hear you on 18MHz.

Glenn,
VK3YY
HL1ZIB

I listened on the 28 & 18MHz spots but nothing heard into VK2, Sydney.

Compton
VK2HRX

Signals were quite weak at first and QSB heavy. @ 2310 had an incomplete contact 3x1 but I could not get confirmation of my report. 10 minutes later signal popped up to 5x3 and confirmation. From then on I could consistently hear Andrew generally OK albeit QSB and rain static taking the signal out on occasion.
Using Triband Yagi, no reception on the wire loop.
Thanks for the new one Andrew & well done on the successful activation. I am sure we will hear about the key later?
Tony

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the new and rare summit. Your signal improved a bit after we worked but then when HL4FZA came up copy had fallen away here and I did not copy him. Nix on 18 MHz.

73
Ron
VK3AFW

The key was left on the bed in my hotel room. Nothing more than a common or garden cock up. Currently standing on SL-006 with a flat battery mooching contacts off Jason HL4ZFA’s 2m rig.

[quote=“VK3ARR, post:12, topic:10836”]left on the bed[/quote]Ah, one of those “Oops! I thought I’d packed that!” moments. Went to France for the day a year or so ago, got set up on a summit, and just needed the microphone to complete the set-up. Luckily the key was packed, so I had a fall-back. Glad you managed something, too. :wink:

Two summits qualified. Time for beer and fried chicken.

Jason HL4ZFA and Andrew HL1ZIH / VK3ARR

1 Like

Wait! You never mentioned fried chicken!

I believe I mentioned it most of the day, but you chose to go home! :smile:

Blog post here:

Hi Andrew,

Nice write up of the activations!

I will be in Seoul from 14 June to 28 June next month, so hope to do some activations. I would be interested in any information on access to Guryongsan.

Regards,
Glenn
VK3YY HL1ZIB

Hi Andrew,

Well done, nice tale.

You need another battery! Two batteries would give you useful time on two summits running 20 - 40 W as well as a back-up in case one goes AWOL. I have been relying on my 8.4 AH LiFePo4 4s battery for a days outing and it has been fine for 2 summits and 20 W RF but probably 2 by 4.2 AH ones would be safer.

I’m not sure if we would have had HF propagation for the second summit as we had lost the signal before you departed the first peak.

South Africa will be a challenge from here. The VK6’s would be in a better position to make the trip.

73
Ron
VK3AFW

[quote=“vk3afw, post:19, topic:10836, full:true”]
You need another battery! Two batteries would give you useful time on two summits running 20 - 40 W as well as a [/quote]

Two batteries are also almost impossible to get on board an aircraft under the new rules :frowning: Essentially if you are carrying more than 100Wh of lithium batteries in carry-on, you need the permission of the captain and the airline before you travel. Not impossible, but more effort than it is worth. A 4.2Ah LiFePO4 is 55Wh or something, the 8.4Ah can’t be taken on board without permission.

You can place the batteries in checked luggage if inserted into the device, but I’d rather not have the ability for the radio to be able to be turned on, even accidentally, while airborne, given the restrictions on radio transmitters on flights.

A better option is to not spend the better part of an hour on FM at high power chasing a S2S :wink:

One of the more popular posts on my blog is called “Travelling with Lithium Batteries”, it almost has as many views as an article about volcanoes!

Cheers,
Andrew