vk3/ve-237 March 4th

Activation Reports
1

Quite probably my last of the vk summits I’ve had the pleasure to activate turned out to be a huge amount of fun!

Firstly, driving psst the new housing development at the bottom of the hill, I saw my first lot of kangaroos! (live ones that is, I have seen lots of ead ones at the side of the road!)
Did i mention I’m easily pleased? I got excited at the sight of 9 inch high penguins scurring up a beach last week :wink:

Anyway, I digress, getting to the top, it was 37c in the shade, and i wasn’t too keen on sitting on one of the exposed viewing platforms that most other activators seem to have used. There is a picnic table, underneath a small roof that provided a little shade on tge grass beside it. I didn’t have enough cable to run from here to the viewing platform, so i ended up velcro-ing the pole to the wire fence surrounding the small msst nearby. Discovering I’d left the pegs back in the hotel, i ended up just laying tge ends of the dipole on tge ground. . Not ideal.

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bodged lash up of pole to the mesh enclosure

In the shade, it was still showing 33c, but at least i was out of the sun!

Starting off on 40m, a range of vk chasers who had help qualify the previous sumits did the same again, before drying up (well it was friday evening, real people probably have better things to do!)

Switching to 20m provided lots of fun! 17 European contacts, one Ja, one zl and 2 further vk contacts ensued. Some of the European ones were particularly difficult to complete, so thanks to those who showed the patience to complete the contacts, it was appreciated.
There were, unfortunately some chasers who were just yoo weak, I could pick out the odd bit of audio, but not enough to get any details at all.
Half way through, a huge orange looking spider ran across the ground… no idea what it was, but having heard all about spiders here :wink: , I moved all the stuff up onto the picnic table :stuck_out_tongue:

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shack on the table away from the scary spiders…

Finally briefly back on 40m for any outstanding locals who missed 40m earlier, before packing up before sunset as i didn’t have a torch with me :frowning:

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view from the top

Once again, my thanks to everyone who made all of my activatons a success, and sorry if i missed anyone along the way.

Don
m0hcu/vk2

4 Likes
2

Hello Don,

Thanks for report. I was beaming LP and you popped out of the noise at 0725Z. - 44 here. I called once (to avoid being flogged :wink: ) but then you went back into the noise with QSB.

Cheers
Mike

3

Don, could hear you again today but very low audio, I really think you need to get some speech processing as I reckon I would have worked you yesterday and today if you had a bit more punch to your audio. I use one of these http://www.box73.com/product/4 and they make a huge difference to the FT-817. Best thing about these is you don’t have to modify your radio or microphone. Awesome little unit.

Glad you had a good activation and have a good trip back to the snow in the UK.

73

John VK6NU

4

Just noticed your battery Don, I think its the same as mine the Tracer 10Ah, Great battery wonder if you are happy with it. Very expensive in Australia. I paid $250 for mine but they do look a bit more professional when you are travelling. Is that the one you nearly lost in Dubai, I’d be really peeved to lose mine. When I travelled to EI last year I was asked what it was and what it was used for but got the ok.

Looks like you got a longer lead for yours somewhere, the one that comes with it is quite short.

73

John VK6NU

5

I have one of those speech processors too… it’s presently sitting on my bookshelf next my tv at home :frowning: next to the filters for my camera… all of which I forgot to pick up when I left!

Its an 8ah (so 96wh, helpfully marked on the outside…) and I did buy a couple of ‘spare leads’ i think thats one of them. Only problem is that ive had it “shutdown” on me twice, both times on summits with large radar stations on. The battery wasn’t noticed in Dubai… I’ll wait with baited breath to see what happens tomorrow :frowning: (817 and amp is going in checked baggage!)

6

Hi Mike,

You should have tried again… the possibilty of being flogged didn’t put some off! Having said that, the vast majority were very well behaved, and patient :slight_smile:

7

Hi Don,

I missed your activations at Mt Ainslie and Huon Hill.

Glad it all went well. I think your flight out from MEL is this afternoon. Hope the SYD-CBR-MEL road trip was worth while in this heat, you will be relieved to get back to the cooler weather.

73

Andrew VK1DA/VK2UH

8

Hi Andrew

No problem, I had to get away rather quickly from My Ainslie, but Huon Hill was very enjoyable (big spider excepted :wink: )
Flight is at 10:25 tonight, I probably could have done another one this morning, but didn’t fancy trying to repack the case in the back of the car!
It’s also been fun being able to drive for more than 10 miles without getting stuck in traffic! (Sydney, and probably Melbourne excepted!)

Cheers

Don

1 Like