Thanks to Mike 2E0YYY and Andrew VK1AD for all their hard work in organising this spectacular event.
As it turned out, some DX propagation was there, but as I feared, not sufficiently for my 5 watts to “cut it” like in times past (such as the peak of the last solar cycle).
7 SOTA activators in SWL log (ie where I tried to work them but they couldn’t/wouldn’t hear me):
2E0YYY/P on G/CE-004
DL/OE7FMJ/P on DL/KW-008
G1INK/P G/TW-005
G7LAS/P on G/CE-004
M0IML/P on G/SE-015
SV2OXS/P on SV/MC-077
SY2BIK/P on SV/MC-077
18 SOTA activators in S2S log:
CT1DBS/P on CT/ES-007
CT7AGR/P on CT/ES-007
EA2DCA/P on EA2/BI-056
EA2IF/P on EA2/NV-119
EA2WX/P on EA2/BI-055
EC2AG/P on EA2/VI-038
F6HBI/P on F/AM-360
G6PJZ/P on G/TW-002
G8JSM/P on G/SP-017
GW4WSB/P on GW/SW-001
IN3ADF/P on I/AA-307
MW0XOT/P on GW/SW-018
OE1HFC/P on OE/NO-197
OE5EEP/P on OE/OO-106
OE5REO/P on OE/OO-084
OH2NOS/P on OH/JS-037
VK1DA on VK2/ST-044
VK6NU on VK6/SW-042
Many thanks to VK2QR, VK1AD,VK2AOH, VK2IO and VK1DA especially and also to the other activators for the S2S contacts.
The vertical did a good job. Signals from VK on the dipole were about 2 S-units lower.
It was a nice experience, I enjoyed it a lot. Thanks to Andrew and Mike for organizing
TNX for contact Gerard. I use FT817 and fuchs-antenna with reflector. VY nice copy. Where can we see your activation video? Id like to hear my QRP signal down under.
DX S2S worked: VK2IO/P, JP3DGT/3, VK1DA/P – all in CW (+ about 10 EU S2S)
DX chasers worked: VK1MA, VK3AFW, VK3CAT – all in SSB with strongs sigs but QRM on our frequency
Equipment: KX3, 15m fiberglass pole, Matt’s fine-tuned J-Pole for 20m and an amplifier delivering ~160 W.
WX: sunny, around 0 °C, cold wind, but fortunately we had a “shack” to protect us from it while operating.
Thanks everyone for the contacts, and especially to Andrew & Mike for bringing up the idea – for me this was definitely the best reason to get up at 04:30 in the morning in a long time!
Don,
Sorry to read your difficulties with antenna connections. The phono connector might actually be good enough for HF. The phono - if that means the RCA connector commonly found on audio equipment - was originally designed for RF use. HeathKit used them as the antenna connector on many of their rigs. The problem is standardising on one connector type. I know the frustration of missing adaptors and the 1/4" key jack on my 703 caused me a lot of grief one day last year. Realising the adaptor is missing after you have set up the complete station is not good. And although the mike up/down buttons are usable as the key paddle they do not permit decent speeds. Since then I carry two adaptors.
Next time!
Clear sky and sunshine made this trip to DM/BW-089 very enjoyable.
DX worked from there:
JA1VRY, JP3DGT/3 on JA/OA-012, VK3CAT, VK5CZ, VK2AOH on VK2/CT-003, VK1DA on VK2/ST-044 and VK3ARH on VK3/VC-018. Missed VK2IO on VK2/SY-002.
Equipment: K3, 100 Watts into EFHW- Dipole for 20m
Yesterday, with 5 hours to spare before my planned activation I knocked up a 20m EFHW J-Pole as per your design spreadsheet combined with notes I had from Herbert OE9HRV back in Sep 15. I agree with Peter OE5AUL, for my installation at Mt Taylor the 20m EFHW had 2 S-units on my Inverted V dipole.
All of my 20m DX QSOs were made on the EFHW vertical.
Thanks for sharing the spreadsheet. Very pleased with the results
I was on the summit Homert DM/NW-206 this morning, using a FT-817 with PA MX-P50M and an inverted-V-dipole 12m up. I tuned around the 20m band but the only DX I could hear for a short time was VK3JBL/p. So I worked 4 EU-S2S-contacts from the hill: CT1IHX/p, DK2FK/p, DG7ACF/p and G1INK/p. The skip to VK/ZL seemed to be better to south DL and OE/HB today.
Hope to meet you at the next event,
Arrived at Mt Bindo with plenty of time to set up. Truely gale wind blasting over Bindo, fortunately a stand of trees gave a bit of protection.
The noise of the wind made listening with the lightweight headphones very difficult at times and wished I had taken my Koss metal detector phones with their large earpieces.
Noticed 20M/30M were open with much dx at 0545Z so band conditions were excellent by 0630Z.
Have not as yet sorted my results and did not try PSK31, was to preoccupied with cw.
Halfway through the event my squid pole slid down to half height which I did not realise as was in a tent.
Wondered why the VSWR went up a bit ??
Mt Bindo is not my favourite site as there is interference from the solar powered repeaters there, unfortunately the track to Bonfire Hill my preferred site was closed by the recent rains.
Apart from the gale winds and noise it was bitterly cold which made keying a bit difficult at times.
Stepping out of the tent with a head torch on saw flurries of sago snow whirling past at times which finished any illusions of camping there for the night.
By torchlight packed everything up and gingerly drove down the slippery track.
All in all a great event only wish the weather would be a bit kinder.
Whilst looking around the band, I heard your chasers but not a whiff of your signal. I was running 100w to a resonant dipole on arguably the worst take off summit in G land.
My activation was a damp squib. 55 chasers logged with about 11 s2s. I heard a couple of VK2’s in the low part of 20m but nothing from the VK sota guys. I set up in the dark & was qrv by 0530 utc. The sunrise was spectacular with no fog as was reported by other G stations. Bigest down for me was no data coverage on the summit,so I couldn’t spot myself or see other spots
I did jump down onto your frequency for a bit to listen, but you were ESP level. When I called on my CW frequency, I tended to get six or seven stations call back over the top of each other to the point I could get nothing out with my weak CW-fu. A QRZ? just yielded the same result over and over. Me going “screw you” and going search-and-pounce on other CW stations.
I had a hail storm when I arrived and single digit weather, which didn’t bode well, but a look at the weather radar showed it to be passing, and sure enough, 5 minutes later I could set up. The rain held off for the entire activation, starting again for the drive home. Plenty of 'roos and rabbits to avoid on the drive home.
Worked VK6NU, VK8GM, VK1AD, VK2IO, VK3ARH, VK3JBL, JP3DGT, JS1EUH for S2S. I also worked JJ1SWI and am fairly confident I got the report right, but will check before logging that one - the band to JA was much weaker by then.
Heard HB9FVF as well working VK3CAT, but they were battling QRM at that point and their new frequency had QRM for me.
Two non-S2S chasers, including my first 9A station.
Plenty of fun (once the fingers thawed out), although my expectations based on previous versions of these was a log book full of QSOs, and that didn’t quite happen. Turns out my expectations are the problem
Maybe that is a bit harsh Steve as the Wolds aren’t a massive flat top. Indeed, they have been used for VHF contesting for many years, but I get your drift. Sorry to hear of the lack of DX contacts at your end. Not as though things were any better further south.
Friday evening I set up the 1/4 wave 20m vertical, trimmed the SWR with the ATU to squeeze every ounce of performance out of the system. Arrived in the shack at around 06:10z to find 5 S points of noise had arrived overnight. Despite this set back, it was still interesting to hear the band come alive and I concentrated on trying to track down VK / ZL activations as I was limited time wise. Heard NIck VK2AOH and Andrew VK3ARR, but both were on someone else’s frequency. Generally I was reluctant to get into QSO in case I held up any potential S2S contacts, but eventually picked up three summits courtesy of CT1DBS, OH2NOS and OE1MVA, all well above my noise level - thanks, I didn’t go off at 07:30z empty handed.
Hopefully next time (and I am sure there will be a next time), I can plan to be on a summit.
The evening started with hail and stayed cold. Never the less went to my local summit (VK3/VC018) that has good cover and setup for the evening. Given the wet conditions, took FT817 as not ready to drown KX3. 20m dipole at 7m so was dependent on CW for contacts.
Had a great time. The EU CW is so much harder then VK.
Only DX contact was with DL3TU3H on DM/BW-089
Local contacts with VK6NU,VK3CAT,VK3ARR & VK2IO
Heard many activations and called HB9IT,LZ1GY,JS1UEU,2E0YYY (SSB) , F/ON7DQ & JP3DGT but my QRP did not cut through.
Thanks Andrew and Mike for organising.
So when are we doing this again ?
Mt Stanley vk3/ve-126 is my closeted drive up with easy in the dark access but has communications and FM broadcast stations which brings the noise floor up to near S4 on 10 MHz and up. So just three contacts for the trip with one EU and two locals, certainly heard more than I could work.
The XYL joined me on this trip and had the foresight to pack the biscuits, cheese and wine so a pleasant albeit cold evening playing radio whist the sun set.
Sounds like us Southern Australians had the worst of the weather. Mitch VK7XDM couldn’t even get to his original summit due to snow.
Andrew, when running a pileup, it can help to avoid sending ? As you have observed it will just result in more of the same. If you manage to get a fragment, send that fragment along with a signal report. I found that worked well in E5 - the difference in behaviour was quite astounding. I’m way out of practice with CW but again it seemed it proved it’s worth for others, seems much more reliable for cutting through the local QRM the Europeans face.
Thanks to all those early risers. Very much appreciated to all making it out. As for the 4:30am start for the Swiss pair - it definitely looks like it was worth it!
NA/JA/VK/ZL party next time? 15M from 7am AEST looks reasonable according to VOACAP.
Yes there was more to hear than work.
Did not hear yourself, VK3JBL, VK2AOH or VK3/VA3OZI.
Took a 20/40M trapped dipole.
Thinking of a 20/30M using SOTABeams traps given the low pound.
Unable to get out yesterday due to mum and hospital visits. Not sure if I would have been brave enough anyway due to the weather. Horizontal rain, sleet / hail throughout the afternoon in Bayside Melbourne; snow to low levels.
20 metres did not open up until 06:30 hrs with an attempt to work HB9FVF/P on phone. Succeeded 15 minutes later after a qsy and 5x5 signals.
A little later DL3TU/P was worked on CW but was a bit of a struggle.
An hour later I worked DL/OE7FM/p on phone. 4x4 but lots of qsb and qrm. Signal was starting to fade rapidly as I monitored VK8GM and VK2IO attempt an S2S.
Allen VK3ARH was worked on ground wave on CW. Listened whilst Allen worked a weak VK6NU at 0721 hrs.
Worked John VK6NU 30 minutes later on phone at a steady 5x7 peaking 5 and 9
Greg VK8GM was a steady 5x7.
It was difficult to break through to the EU SSB operators. Using the yagi and even turned on the amplifier. Guessing higher qrm levels in EU?
Noted that some VK operators were operating on close to identical frequencies which could have caused issues with reception / chasers in EU.
Mike 2EOYYY/P came out of the noise only briefly but was too low to consider calling. Only G station heard here.
Nothing much heard on 17 metres. Nothing heard from JA.
All up, an enjoyable interlude for the evening and thanks to everyone involved.
Cheers Tony VK3CAT
