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20 meter LP open Europe to VK6

Activation Reports
#1

Hi all

A fun day out at Mt.Randall VK6/SW-039 with Brad VK6BAP.

We both managed to work 11 contacts on SSB on various bands by swapping over the microphone after each contact. Wasn’t that busy so that worked pretty well. First in the log was Chris F4WBN with a huge signal in VK6, nice to work you again. It pays to jump around the bands when working inter VK and ZL as its surprising what bands are open to VK6 from the Eastern States and ZL when 20 isn’t, 17 metres a good example. Got some contacts on 17 metres and 15 metres which we would not have worked otherwise. Nothing on 10 metres. (didn’t try 12 or 40)

I then tried some CW on 20 LP and had another 20 qso’s with 9 countries all worked with the KX2 running 10 watts and an endfed antenna. (ELK µPAK Ultraportable End Fed Half Wave HF Hamradio Antenna | Etsy Australia)

Really good to catch up with Guru EA2IF and Ignacio EA2BD, my old time regular chasers, glad to see the bands are better and that we can work again.

Prefixes worked on CW were F, VK, ZL, JA, EA, OH, OZ, SA and OH.

A great day out in perfect WX conditions after all the heatwave conditions we have endured here in VK6, was still 32C but better than 42C.

Seeing the bands are improving and cooler WX now its autumn, we hope to get out more, so look for some more VK6 Activations soon.

73

John VK6NU

6 Likes
#2

Hi dear John,

yes! It was a blast to see band was open as it used to be some years ago.
Guru warned me on whatsapp as he was copying you with great signals, and once I turned my heaxbem pointing LP, as he suggested, you were readable for me as well.

Glad you spent some time in 14 MHz CW and congratulations for your nice DX in the bag.
73 and looking forward many mmore qso
Ignacio

2 Likes
#3

Hi John,
It was a big pleasure chasing you today. I had previously heard you on SSB with a much smaller signal and you didn’t seem to hear my call, but CW was much, much better ar you had a tremendous signal most of the time.
After I chased you, I informed my ham radio mates through whatsapp and I managed to record this video of your QSO with Ignacio EA2BD.

I’ll be looking forward to chasing you again soon and we may even try S2S QSOs given the great propagation conditions.

73,

Guru

6 Likes
#4

Hi Guru

Thanks for the video, always nice to hear what your signal sounds like from the other end.
07:30-09:30 UTC is 3:30-5:30 pm local time here in Western Australia. I have always enjoyed the LP path opening to Europe. Mt.Randall is a very quiet Summit, no HF Comms or Power Poles anywhere near it to cause any noise. Sorry I missed you on SSB.

I nearly didn’t do any CW yesterday but really glad I did. Its well worth the effort, Brad VK6BAP and myself were commenting on the way home about how good a mode it is for SOTA. Hopefully I will get out again in a few weeks and work some LP again.

73
John VK6NU

1 Like
#5

CW is definitely a winner. I was a bit frustrated seeing all your SSB spots and being unable to make my call heard by you on 14.310, but frustration turned into joy when I saw you spotted on CW, went to the frequency and realised your signal via LP was superb.
There’s a time window for that. At the moment, several JA have been spotted on 20m CW so far, but none of them are copied here yet. It’s 7h15 utc, too early. If they stay there for a while, I think we will be copying them in a matter of 20 minutes or so. In fact, I’m starting to receive something very weak on 14.062 and I guess it’s Seiji-san @JG4LCS/4 on JA/HS-208
Our QSO yesterday was at 8h39 utc and that was the perfect time for that LP opening.
I’ll be looking forward to chasing you guys in VK many times.
73,

Guru

3 Likes
#6

Hi Guru-san

Thanks for QSO yesterday.
As you said late evening was better for propagation.

JA/HS-208 14.063
0820z RST 319/229
0838z RST 539/439

73
Seiji JG4LCS

1 Like
#7

Dear Seiji-san,
I was stalking all the JA activators spotted yesterday and none of them was copied at about 7h utc. Only 20m worked fine and at a later time. When I first chased you at 8h20 utc, your signal was very marginal (229), but I remained on your frequency and decided to chase you again at 8h38 utc to let you know that your signals via Long Path had improved to a 439.
Thanks for the activation and the QSOs.
73,

Guru

2 Likes
#8

Hi Guru, what was that monitor you used to determine the signal path? How is set up? Looks very interesting.

cheers Geoff vk3sq

#9

Hi Geoff,
It’s the SAISIE SOTA program by @F6ENO. You enter the callsign and the SOTA reference and the program tells the beaming (Short Path) and the distance. If you want to do Long Path, just add or substract 180° to that Short Path beaming.
73,

Guru

1 Like
#10

Thanks Guru. Is it available in English as well?

Geoff vk3sq

#11

Yes.

http://www.sota-france.fr/pages/programmes/SAISIE_SOTA/Saisie_SOTA_setup.zip

73,

Guru

1 Like
#12

thanks Guru, have down loaded and installed :+1:

Cheers

Geoff vk3sq