A Day at the Golf

Old Reflector
1

The WX severely disrupted my SOTA plans this weekend. My idea was to activate a couple of WB summits but the WX Gods had other ideas. This left me short of ideas for a summit. Then a light bulb moment! GW/NW-061 Y Golfa. It fitted all the criteria, a unique for the 12m Challenge, but more importantly, a unique for the VK chasers. I was somewhat surprised to see that Y Golfa hadn’t been activated since last August. Strange really, because if someone ever arranges a summit beauty pageant, Y Golfa will easily make the final.

It’s one of those summits that seems to tick all the boxes. The views from a hill with so little prominence are really striking. Not only can watch the golfers but wildlife is so interesting. This probably explains why I’ve activated it five times.

The walk takes about 20 minutes from the golf club car park. The summit is a bit cramped but working with a vertical antenna is easy peasy.

No problem with a mobile signal or 3G, on the Three network, so self spotting is a breeze.

As soon as my 20m spot was up, along came Matt, VK2DAG with his excellent signal. We had a chat about his exploits on the VK summits this week. Seems like Matt had a ball, with a shed load of s2s contacts logged. Ernie VK3DET was soon in the log as was Andy VK3CAT/P activating VK3/VC-032 for my first s2s of the morning and then Andrew VK2UH following right behind him…nice to work you again Andrew.

Good to work Adam, VK2YK, and Paul VK5PAS with his big signal, Next VK in the log was Rod VK2TWR and then Nigel VK5NIG for our second contact. Always good to work John VK6NU in WA. A real treat was working Gerard VK2IO/P who was activating VK2/SY-001 for I think, our first s2s contact. Ian VK2YY called in for the Y Golfa unique…Trust me, there’s an awful lot of Yankees in our overs! I then noticed a spot for Stuart VK5STU activating VK5/SE-013, he was a fine signal and the s2s was easily completed.

Time to visit the 12m band and that’s where my luck began to run out. Just one 12m contact was required and quite frankly, I couldn’t buy one. I seemed to be calling for an age before 2E0PFD finally came to the rescue with a ground wave contact from Chester.

A spot appeared for Matt VK1MA/VK2/P on 20m who was activating VK2/ST-001 asking for EU contacts. So, what better than an EU/VK s2s? This was a tricky one but our persistence paid off. Big thanks to all the EU chasers for waiting so patiently…

At 0930z I decided to make an all out assault on the 12m band and so self spotted. Up popped Mark G0VOF and we had our regular Saturday morning natter…Cheers Mark.

What can you say about the 12m band, a couple more calls and then Ian VK5CZ pops up! Thanks Ian, you made my day…

Anyhow, the 12m band went quiet, so I chucked the 2m Dipole up and finished off with a dozen VHF contacts.

Thanks to all the chasers for a wonderful days radio.

69 contacts in the log, 15 VK and one PY. Not a single North American contact logged.
7 Summit to Summits completed 4 of them VK.

73 Mike
2E0YYY

2

In reply to 2E0YYY:

Nice going Mike, sounds like you had a good time. I was busy planting potatoes on my allotment!
73.

3

In reply to 2E0YYY:
Hi Mike,

I was delighted to work you even if you had to work hard to get my call and your report. I was running the standard FT817 to a tuned doublet on a squid pole. I was also on the same summit as Tony VK3CAT whom you worked earlier. (He had a whole 10 watts to a tuned doublet!) So you had 5 VK S2S. We were also in the Wombat State Forest.

Most VK SOTA stations are called Andrew.

Hope to catch you on your next activation.

73
Ron

4

In reply to 2E0YYY:
Pretty much on par then Mike!

Barry
M0IML

5

In reply to AX3AFW:

Hi Ron,

Many thanks for another VK s2s!

My apologies for missing you out of my report, yes we worked at 0658z straight after I worked John VK6NU.

My working conditions were the FT-857 and about 40 Watts. The antenna was the Antron A-99, which was mounted on 10 feet of poles and guyed. I would have liked the antenna a little higher but it was just far too windy.

The strongest signal I worked from a VK summit yesterday, was Stuart VK5STU/P, he seemed to have quite a pile-up. I would have liked to have asked him about his working conditions, but I heard him tell the previous chaser that his battery was very low.

Look forward to working you from the next one, Ron.

73 Mike
2E0YYY

6

In reply to 2E0YYY
Your signal is quite reliable Mike. I was working into EU and NA on 20m CW when I saw your spot and came straight up to hear you finishing up with Ernie.
My Antenna is a 20m double extended zepp doublet which I had oriented towards EU. Using the KX3 at 10 watts.
No problems with the Over the Horizon Radar this time.
Cheers Tony VK3CAT
PS. Will be in France in about 3 weeks.

7

In reply to 2E0YYY:
Great to catch you again Mike. You have a great signal when the bands are open here to VK.
73 Nigel
VK5NIG

8

In reply to VK3CAT:

In reply to 2E0YYY
Your signal is quite reliable Mike.
My Antenna is a 20m double extended zepp doublet which I had oriented
towards EU. Using the KX3 at 10 watts.
No problems with the Over the Horizon Radar this time.

I’ve persevered with the Antron-99 because for SOTA activations, working 20m thru 10m, I’ve found it to be a great antenna. The one touch tuning is a real plus, Tony.

However, and it’s a big however, to all intents and purposes, it’s totally impractical for most SOTA expeditions, unless you have a drive on, an easy or shortish walk summit, or take in a joint activation where the weight can be shared.

BTW, it helps if you have the patience of a saint when it comes to erecting it …After a lot of practice, I can usually be QRV in about 15 minutes these days.
Trading off the hard work of carrying the antenna against the DX I’ve worked, I’m reasonably happy to tolerate the A-99’s weight and cumbersome shortcomings.

PS. Will be in France in about 3 weeks.

I’ve no station in the house these days, so maybe we can make an s2s contact.

73 Mike
2E0YYY

9

In reply to VK5NIG:

Thanks Nigel, I plan to do some more summits that should be unique to VK shortly. They will be around 0700 to 0800z. Your call is always welcome.

73 Mike
2E0YYY

10

In reply to 2E0YYY:
Hi Mike,

I’ve tried to find info on the Antron-99 and all I get is ads for a 27 MHz fibreglass base station antenna. I am interested to find what you have done - probably described elsewhere some time age - as I have a (damaged) half-wave for 27/28 MHz that could be converted to 20 m with radials added and could come apart into portable lengths. It should outperform the doublet on dx.

Can you point me to info on your antenna please.

73
Ron
AX3AFW/VK3AFW

11

In reply to AX3AFW:

Ron

There is an article on it here:

73 Richard G3CWI

12

In reply to AX3AFW:

In reply to 2E0YYY:
Hi Mike,

I’ve tried to find info on the Antron-99 and all I get is ads for a 27
MHz fibreglass base station antenna. I am interested to find what you
have done - probably described elsewhere some time age - as I have a
(damaged) half-wave for 27/28 MHz that could be converted to 20 m with
radials added and could come apart into portable lengths. It should
outperform the doublet on dx.

Can you point me to info on your antenna please.

Hi Ron,

Okay, let me start by saying the A-99 is not everyone’s cup of tea and it has come under a huge amount of criticism over the years, mostly due to its inflated gain figures and questionable build quality. Nonetheless, I’ll bet their are few Ham operators, certainly in the UK and North America, who have not heard of, own or have owned an A-99 at some time or another.

The Antron-99 is a base station antenna, now called the Solarcon-99 which appears to me, not as well constructed as the old Antron.

Here’s a good place to start Solarcon A-99

Also here http://cbradiomagazine.com/Feb%202007/The%20A99%20-%20a%20best%20seller.htm

Of course, with any review, it’s purely subjective. One review describes the A-99 as a bit deaf on 20m. However, my 260 VK contacts on the 20m band over the last eight weeks would certainly suggest otherwise. The higher frequencies is were it really shines and I’ve had over 2300 SOTA contacts on the 12m band with the A-99.

There is in fact a ground plane kit available for this antenna, however, what the effect would be below 10m is something maybe the antenna builders could advise.

A couple of years ago, when I dug my original Antron-99 out of the shed after a 22 year hiatus, to try some SOTA activating, there were a number of operators who thought I’d just fallen off the turnip truck.

Whether the vertical or dipole is better for DX’ing is a whole other argument, but for working 20 thru 10m on a summit, the A-99 has proved to be an outstanding antenna, although in reality, totally impractical for most SOTA summits.

Having said this, I’ve had more fun and logged more DX with this antenna than all other antennas I’ve worked with from summits put together.

Sorcery, black magic, voodoo, who knows, but it works for me and at the end of the day, it’s extremely difficult to argue with a log book full of DX.

The link which Richard G3CWI posted, gets trotted out on here a couple of times a year, but my experience of this cheap vertical has been nothing but positive.

Of course, as with all antenna, YMMV.

Good luck with the build.

73 Mike
2E0YYY

13

In reply to 2E0YYY:

Mike - you`d do so much better with an EFHW antenna. Now if only we knew where to buy one from!

14

In reply to 2E0YYY:

It’s an end fed 5/8 with an integral matching unit.

The reason it works is not because of how it is built or the design or anything magic. You set it up higher above the ground than most others with portable antennas. HAAT is the key.

With a fair amount of HAAT and nice length of feeder there is plenty of effective counterpoise on the outside of the feeder for any mismatch currents to disperse.

In addition to operator skill being used, you are keen enough to get on the bands at the right time. Your own descptions show you are often QRV before the propagation and continue to operate throughout the propagation window.

No magic, just a keen and committed operator with an antenna up high. All basic elementary RF and procedural stuff which is why it works.

Andy
MM0FMF

15

In reply to MM0FMF:

for any
mismatch currents to disperse.

Disperse? Kirchoff’s law?

16

In reply to 2E0YYY:
Hi Mike,

Thanks, it’s given me some ideas I might try on the defunct 10 m/11 m vertical. A vertical should be better for use on 14 MHz and up and with radials and a tuner this could do nicely and be no more burdensome than a squid pole and link dipole or a tuned doublet with ATU.

However it’s on the back burner until I fix the lawnmower and a couple of other things around here.

73
Ron

17

In reply to G3CWI:

Flow.

Though if correctly setup, the load should be resistive and so voltage fed. The current flow should be negligible. For small to moderate mismatches there should be plenty of outside braid surface for the current flow. Skin depth at the lowest frequency used being 14MHz where it’s about 20um deep.

Andy
MM0FMF

18

In reply to G3CWI:

Disperse? Kirchoff’s law?

It’s clear what you are trying to say, but Kirchoff’s Laws don’t help as they are only valid at DC (and good approximations at AC where the wavelength is much larger than the circuit). If they were valid at RF, current could never flow into an end-fed antenna element.

At RF, Maxwell must come to the rescue.

19

In reply to M1MAJ:

Maxwell’s silver hammer!

Since we’re into antennas and verticals, I am kicking around the idea of multibanding a vertical by paralleling wires in a similar manner to parallel dipoles, with the three elevated radials also paralleled. I was thinking of using lightweight three core wire with the outer sheaf stripped back to the shortest element. Has anybody tried this, and how interactive would the elements be for tuning to resonance?

73

Brian G8ADD

20

Seen the scary complicated thing in the latest QST?

Looks quick, light and easy to setup… NOT!

And he has a beg for a VK contact. Maybe he should try SOTA.

Matt