Hi Fraser,
I’m planning to be on a vk4 summit around that time. I’ll probably start on cw then I’ll look for you on ssb.
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2DA
1 Like
Good evening all
Last evening (0500 to 0645 UTC) propagation was not as pronounced as it had been for the previous week, that may be due to a working day.
Nevertheless working anyone in Europe and the broader northern hemisphere is such good fun, what a nerd I am! Of course completing SOTA S2S QSOs is always a reason for celebration 
My equipment FT-857D @ 25 watts, 20m 1/4 wave GP.
Thanks Andy and Martin for the S2S, both are new summits to add to my unique list. As Andy @G6PJZ mentioned the first S2S was at 0506 UTC where Andy’s signal was 5-5, later I called a 2nd time at 0537 UTC, by now his signal had improved to 5-8. Also heard your QSOs with @VK2IO and @VK3GTV, well done!
I worked Martin @OE5REO S2S at 0523 UTC where Martin’s signal was steady at 5-5, very consistent and little QSB. Thanks Martin
32 QSOs on 20m for 1 hr and 35 minutes (it was a working day). There appeared to be a slight increase in interest from UK stations, that may be due to this thread. UK/Northern Island stations included: G6PJZ/P, MW0BYS, G0VWP, MI0RRE and G4BYU/P. Robbie @MI0RRE dropped his output power from ~195 watts to 10 watts for a 5-5 report. Propagation conditions were good into the UK, I am unsure from which location G4BYU/P was operating portable.
On a personal note, it was good to work Carl @OE5MON, who I had met in Bregenz in 2016, a good friend of Hebert OE9HRV.
VK1AD Log:
VK1AD/P on VK1/AC-043 (Mt Stromlo), 26 Apr 2022
| Time | Callsign | Band | Mode | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 05:06 | G6PJZ/P | 20m | SSB | Andy s55 r52 S2S G/TW-002 |
| 05:14 | VK4/ZL3MR/P | 20m | SSB | John s58 r43 |
| 05:16 | OH1MM | 20m | SSB | s58 r55 |
| 05:16 | SP5BR | 20m | SSB | s59 r55 |
| 05:23 | OE5REO/P | 20m | SSB | Martin s55 r53 S2S OE/OO-376 |
| 05:27 | VK4KD | 20m | SSB | Phil s59 r59 |
| 05:28 | OH1XT | 20m | SSB | Yari s58 r56 |
| 05:29 | SA4BLM | 20m | SSB | s58 r55 |
| 05:31 | VK5HAA | 20m | SSB | John s59 r32 |
| 05:32 | VK4MGL | 20m | SSB | Scott s59 r47 |
| 05:33 | VK4KC | 20m | SSB | Marty s59 r59 |
| 05:37 | G6PJZ/P | 20m | SSB | Andy s58 r53 S2S G/TW-002 |
| 05:43 | OK2PDT | 20m | SSB | s59 r55 |
| 06:00 | F4WBN | 20m | SSB | Chris s59 r57 |
| 06:04 | CT1DIZ | 20m | SSB | s59 r59 |
| 06:06 | DJ2MX | 20m | SSB | s58 r44 |
| 06:07 | EA4M | 20m | SSB | s59 r55 |
| 06:09 | MW0BYS | 20m | SSB | s55 r51 |
| 06:11 | ON7ZM | 20m | SSB | s58 r44 |
| 06:12 | SM4CJM | 20m | SSB | s58 r55 |
| 06:14 | VK5PET | 20m | SSB | Peter s59 r57 |
| 06:18 | VK5DDD | 20m | SSB | Owen s59 r58 |
| 06:20 | ON5SWA | 20m | SSB | s55 r34 |
| 06:23 | OE5MON | 20m | SSB | Carl s58 r44 |
| 06:30 | DL8EXL | 20m | SSB | s55 r34 |
| 06:32 | G0VWP | 20m | SSB | Terry s58 r44 |
| 06:33 | PE1PIC | 20m | SSB | s57 r51 |
| 06:34 | EA2DT | 20m | SSB | s58 r44 |
| 06:38 | EA4FLS | 20m | SSB | Raul s58 r53 |
| 06:39 | MI0RRE | 20m | SSB | Robbie s58 r52 |
| 06:43 | IW1GGR | 20m | SSB | Maua s59 r44 |
| 06:45 | G4BYU/P | 20m | SSB | s57 r43 |
Photos:
Long path view to the south-east
Antenna: 20m 1/4 wave GP with 3 elevated radials. The property in the background is part of the Mt Stromlo Observatory infrastructure.
For the remainder of this week, Canberra (VK1) is expecting rain each day out to Sunday. 
73, Andrew VK1AD
5 Likes
Hi Simon
@G7WKX Sorry I didn’t hear you, I should have put out a call for QRP stations only, your 20 - 30 watts output would have been ample. Well done on working VK3YV, a good achievement.
73, Andrew VK1AD
1 Like
Just worked Fraser @MM0EFI GM/ES-065 from my
home QTH in Canberra where it is currently raining.
Fraser having loads of fun working VK.
73 Andrew VK1AD
4 Likes
@MM0EFI Great to make contact at last Fraser. You have now officially chased NZ’s Lake Poaka - ZLL/0589. You just need 9 more to qualify for the NZART lakes award!
Thanks for the GM summit - GM/ES-065 - finally!
Matt - ZL4NVW
6 Likes
Hi Matt,
is that the same number you gave me on our QSO this Tuesday? I could hear the number you gave me but I was not sure if it is a reference for a park or a lake …
73 Martin, OE5REO
BTW: I drove by this lake (but unfortunately did not stop) when I visited New Zealand in 2007 …
1 Like
Wow! What a morning. 
Left home at 0445z. 0545z I was QRV from Benaquhallie GM/ES-065.
I didn’t operate from the summit this time around. Instead I was on the south slope, by the memorial. Plenty of rocks for me to set up a guyless mast. 7m mast (extended to 6m) 20m monoband Up and outer, 5m rg174, common mode choke, ft-857d, 35 watts on 20m SSB.
A run of VK’s including three VK summits, and then @ZL4NVW. A new DXCC for me! More VK’s, QSB, Europe awakens and pileups at the other end.
0630 pack up and head down. 0715, at work, changed and walking 6" taller.
Thank you ZL and VK!
14 Likes
Thank you. New DXCC for me, as I only operate portable. My challenge now is to get over and get some Completes!
4 Likes
Hi Fraser,
It was great to log you. Thanks
I assume the antenna is a centre fed half wave with the horizontal bit pointed towards the target area. You probably have mentioned this before but it didn’t stick with me. Nice use of the stocks. Pity about work.
The 20 m CW beacons on the EU long path were stronger than the others. I actually worked you with my beam heading short path. Blush. And yes you were better when I turned it 180 degrees. It’s only 2 elements and has a poor F/B.
2 Likes
It’s a centre fed 1/4 wave for 20m. Each element is 16’ (4.88m) of wire. Feedpoint is 1m off the ground. One element vertical up the pole, one horizontal, supported by walking poles at the far end. In theory it has some gain towards the horizontal element, so ihadthat stretched out at 300°, roughly.
TBH 16.5’ of wire would probably bring the resonance down a bit lower in the band. Mine is 1.8:1 at 14.080 and 1.1:1 at 14.330.
1 Like
Hi Fraser,
Great job, well done!
Your success just inspired me to give it a try tomorrow morning as well.
I’ve just entered an alert for HB/BL-014 from 5:30 UTC on and hope to get my first S2S with VK or ZL into the log. Currently there are no alerts from VK or ZK at this time, but @DD5LP will be also looking for VK/ZL a bit later on. So guys and girls from down under, give it a try, before the geomagnetic forecast gets worse on Friday.
I already activated this low summit this year, but it’s quick to reach from home, not surrounded by too many trees and has a bench.
The best takeoff from this summit is towards S/E, but I already did several contacts from there to North and Central America, also a S2S with @AJ2I.
I’ll use my typical setup with an EFHW antenna in inverted-L configuration and 10W SSB.
I’ll enable the speech compressor and reduce the TX-bandwidth a bit, for additional punch.
Fraser, maybe we’ll have a S2S later on, when you’re on GM/ES-070?
73 Stephan
2 Likes
Thanks Fraser,
I should have played your video in the middle of this topic where you do a nice show and tell on the antenna. Sorry. We can be a bit slow here.
73
Ron
VK3AFW
1 Like
Hi Ron, Ive had so many questions about the antenna (on youtube, socials etc) that I am doing a short video on it. I think that SFI is the real star, not my wire!
2 Likes
Your antenna was working today Fraser 16 thousand km journey to Mt Bryan.
I was using a link dipole up at 6m feed point and KX3 was at 10w pwr.
I ended up with 37 QSO today on Mt Bryan the pile up on CW was full on really hard to pick a station to reply to. It been so quiet this part of the world for a while now will take some getting used to big pile ups. I wish HI.
Not sure what that distortion was to start on our QSO i could hear it on your signal as well to start off. I had not quite netted onto you either for a couple overs. But you were nice and clear by the end. Hope you managed to work the other Ops who were out in VK/ZL. I got an S2S with Matt ZL/VK1MA on the morning summit.
Once again great to get you in my log.
Regards
Ian vk5cz …
3 Likes
It was great to make the contact, Fraser. There was local QRM due to overdriven transmitters on nearby frequencies causing wide band distortion products to bleed over into our frequency. Luckily the worst of them was silent when I was listening for you. I had nothing like the signal level reported by Andrew VK1AD in Canberra.
My station was a KX3 at 15w, ZS6BKW doublet at 7m AGL centre fed by 11.1m of 300 ohm ribbon, a current balun at the radio and the ATU in the KX3. It usually works pretty well on 20m, which is one of the bands it is supposed to work well on. (also works well on all other HF bands incl 80m).
The summit Mt Coolum VK4/SE-114 is about 1200 km by road north of Canberra. Enough distance that radio conditions can be quite different in the two locations.
On CW I had about 25 contacts with EU callers on 20m. As others have mentioned, sometimes the caller were a mass of continuous sound on the exact same frequency, and while you type in their callsign, some of them decide to send their callsigns another few times, just to let you know they are there. On 40m I had some local contacts on ssb and cw. I looked for an F who was spotted on 7.026 and heard EA2DT work him, but could not hear the activator. Manuel was not strong himself.
Hope you have a good day with all that extra height. Take care going through doorways!
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2DA /4 this week
3 Likes
Yes - same lake. Nice quiet spot. There is another campground next to Lake Wardell by the main road that is very popular - 40-50 vehicles there at moment. And this one 1km along the canal with about 8 vehicles in 5 times the space.
Lovely spot - ducks out of one window, Aoraki - Mt Cook (ZL3/CB-001) out of the other. Now there’s a peak I will never activate!
1 Like
Yes Stephan, that would be great. I hope to be earlier that advertised, but I am cycling, so it’s a bit difficult to be precise.
1 Like
Sunday 1 May, I will activate Mt McDonald VK1/AC-048 from 0500 UTC to 0645 UTC.
Sunset is at 0720 UTC, 1720h local.
Wx forecast for Saturday, around the VK1 region is thunderstorms and heavy rain. Saturday is out for me.
73, Andrew VK1AD
I could hear snippets of you above my local noise, but never enough to complete the contact. I did hear G0VWP’s side of his QSO though! Will try head out to a summit in the next week or so to try cash in on these moments.
