Hi all
On Friday 31 Oct 14, I plan to activate Mt Taylor VK1/AC-037 at 07:00 UTC for DX chasers and a chance to work DX S2S.
Come on EU activators, drag yourself out of bed and onto a summit. 
73, Andrew VK1NAM
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Hi Andrew,
Thatās fortuitious!
About half an hour ago, I put an alert on for Gun G/SP-013 in the morning.
Iāll be working with a kite antenna if conditions are okay,
Will listen out for you.
73 Mike
2E0YYY
Unfortunately, I canāt drive and, on week days, Iāll lose the Carrots On The Air.
Anyway, good luck and best dx, Andrew!
Donāt worry Mikel, I will save you some poco zanahorias 
73 Mike
2E0YYY
Thank you, Mike!
Even without the kite your signal was solid here at home, but IMO the carrots were few and small this morning. A short opening at 07:30z and later just the sound of the cricketsā¦
73 de Mikel
Unfortunately just a little too weak for me to work you Andrew - hope you caught Tom & Mike. They were hearing you. Iām now looking at vertical antenna options for my home station.
73 Ed.
After a ridiculously lazy day on Thursday, I decided that a little walk and fresh air was needed on the morning of Friday 31st October 2014. When I perused the alerts, I saw that Mickey 2E0YYY and Andrew VK1NAM were already down to do likewise.
A 5.30am alarm was quickly followed by a bowl of Fruit & Fibre, and the kettle was on for the flask of coffee. There wasnāt any proper milk in the fridge, so I had to choose between soya milk and double cream - the latter won, and so I had luxurious āhotel styleā coffee for my activation!
Climbing up The Cloud G/SP-015 shortly after daybreak, it was still unseasonally warm, and I was more than comfortable in my microfleece and jacket. It was very windy at the top, and quite tricky to get the 20m GP antenna up. This was nothing though to the problems Mickey was having over on Gun G/SP-013, trying to fly a kite!
Anyway, it was a really good activation with 62 contacts - 29 on CW, 29 on SSB and 4 on PSK31. Mariusz SP9AMH deserves a special mention for working me on all three modes - thank you! Other highlights were the DX S2S with Andrew VK1NAM/P on Mount Taylor VK1/AC-037, the not-quite-so-DX S2S with Mickey 2E0YYY/P on Gun G/SP-013 and the surprise S2S with Alejandro EA1GMP/P on Pico Remelende EA1/AT-097. Perhaps the greatest thrill of the activation though, came when I called CQ SOTA on 14.073MHz PSK31, and a strong and clear reply came back from Gerard VK2IO.
Lots of fun. Liam and I will now go to meet Richard G3CWI for a celebratory lunch!
When things go wrong, they tend to go wrong big style. Before, I left home this morning, I managed to misplace the car keys. After a 20 minute frantic search, they turned up in the rucksackā¦Donāt ask 
The track to G/SP-015 Gun has turned into its usual Autumn mud plug, so boots were the order of the day.
After messing about for about 20 minutes untangling a birds nest in the lines, I finally launched the kite. To be honest, I should have brought it back down as it was jumping all over the place. Nonetheless I persevered.
It was then I noticed Andrew VK1NAM/P spotted and decided to give him a call. Andrew was weak but workable. As I called, Tom beat me to the punch and he worked Andrew just ahead of me.
As I attempted to call Andrew for the second time, the kite decided to perform spectacular dive causing it to crash and burn. By now, I was pretty much fed up with the damn kite and chucked the vertical into the hawthorn tree.
I eventually managed to work Andrew VK1NAM/P, although his signal was well down. The next VK was Tony VK3CAT, followed by Gerard VK2IO. Quite a few EU calls before Rob VK3EK called in, once again a weaker signal than usual. Rob was followed by a surprise s2s call from Nicholas VK3ANL/P activating VK3/VS-050, a new one for me. Ron VK3AFW was next in the logā¦Great to hear you Ron!
My final VK contact of the activation was from Greg VK8GM in Alice Springsā¦Cheers Greg.
67 contacts completed on a 20m band that is nowhere near as good as a week ago.
Thanks to all the chasersā¦
73 Mike
2E0YYY
Hello Mike,
Sorry to hear about the kite crash.
This morning I had the hexbeam pointing LP for Andrew VK1NAM - fragments. I then switched to the SteppIR vertical, better, but not much.
If I had given a report it would have been 33 but as I was about to give a shout my little radar QRM āfriendā popped up.
Game over, went off and had some tea and toast and then took Bertie the greyhound for a walk!
Cheers
Mike
Thanks Mike.
The kite has temporarily lost its certificate of airworthiness and is grounded for the time being 
Iāll get around to fixing it laterā¦
BTW, when you worked Alejandro, EA1GMM/P this morning, you were hammering into G/SP-013 Gun!
73 Mike
2E0YYY
Indeed, Mike G6TUH was a big signal with me also when I heard him this morning. So much so that I was quite surprised that he didnāt call in when I subsequently did a stint on 14.285MHz SSB.
Hello Tom & Mike,
Thanks for the signal reports 8)
I always ātune inā to G station activators first. Firstly to see if I can hear/work them and if not - secondly to see what the propagation is like - that is what reports they are getting from āabroadā.
Sorry to you both but I could not hear either of you on 20M. I suspect on 40M it would not have been a problem, despite the downside for that band of QRM ā¦ oh well.
Night night
Mike
Hi all
A warm day in Canberra yesterday 32 degrees C and very windy on the summit. Looking back at the BOM data, wind gusts were peaking at 50 km/h.
Left home for a 4 km drive to the base of Mt Taylor followed by a 250m ascent over 1.5 km. Took Harry the dog, he enjoys the challenge of mountain climb and the opportunity to bark and Kangaroos. So many Kangaroos not joking!
Conditions on 40m were very good, 19 VK chasers between 06:40 and 07:10 UTC. Meanwhile on 20m conditions were marginal, I struggled to work Mike 2E0YYY/P yet Tom M1EYP/P was in the clear 5-6 to 5-7. Regular and familiar EU chasers were Don G0RQL, Frans ON5SWA, Manuel CU3BL, Mikel EA2CW, Herbert OE9HRV, Geert PA7ZEE and Thomas DL1DVE. New chasers or perhaps their callsigns are not engraved on my brain, Milan OK2YR, Karl OE3KAB, Paul OE8SPW and John GW4BVE.
Long haul VK chasers: John VK6NU 3700 km west, John VK4BZ and Alan VK4NAI 1200 km north.
I too was surprised to hear Nick VK3ANL on VK3/VS-050 thanks Nick. Peter VK3PF/P popped up on VK3/VG-007 (10 points) for a short 4 contact activation, thanks Peter.
A successful activation yet very difficult on 20m, 4 summit to summit contacts plus 40 happy chasers. 
Wish you all a great weekend and successful mountaineering. Thanks Mike and Tom.
73, Andrew VK1NAM
Hi Andrew,
After my QSO with Nick VK3ANL, I checked the SWR on the 857, only to find it high. The feeder to the antenna was the culprit 
73 Mike
2E0YYY
[quote=āG6TUH, post:12, topic:9643ā]but I could not hear either of you on 20M[/quote]Sometimes propagation is just plain weird. Iām guessing this might be down to their hearing you (very) long path, but not themselves having the power to get back to you by the same route? Any other explanations that might fit?
73, Rick M0LEP
Mike has a deaf receiver?
Hi Tom,
Glad you had a profitable day. By the time I sneaked into the shack i think the band was on the way out. Although i did make an exchange with Mike, just as you went back to CW i had trouble deciding if i could hear you or not. The chasers were poor copy also. Hope to get better cndx next time
73
Ron
VK3AFW
Perhaps, but Iām guessing that the distance between his QTH and Tom and Mikeās summits isnāt exactly optimal for 20 metres. Iām slightly closer to them (about 250kms) than Mike. From here, Iāve worked G/SP-013 Gun on 80 and 40 metres, but Iāve only worked G/SP-015 The Cloud on 80 metres, and theyāre both normally in skip zone for me on 20 metres.
73, Rick M0LEP
Iām sorry Rick, I forgot to add the
ā¦and I wasnāt really awake, but had dragged myself to my rig (and computer) to see whether I could hear John VK6NU/P on VK6/SW-037 from here. I couldnāt, but Mike clearly could