After our snow adventure at vk3/vc-002 on Tuesday 23rd Aug 22, I was less adventurous yesterday at VK3/VC-040 but still made some dx contacts to my surprise, with W6LEN and KC5UGC worked on 20m cw in the middle of our day, around 0300 UTC. Light rain started and I had the distinct impression it was not going to stop, so closed down after 30 contacts and walked back down the short path to the car.
Today looks like more intermittent rain, I will possibly activate somewhere this afternoon so some dx possibilities there. Friday and Saturday may well see me on summits north of Melbourne as I travel back to VK1 area, probably with one overnight stop to break up the trip. Alerts will be posted as far as possible in advance. Either I drive all the way back in one day (about 700km) or break it into several days with activations. You know what I’d prefer, but weather will affect my plans.
Thanks to regular dx chasers ZL2ATH, ZL1BQD, ZL3MR, ZL3RIK, F4WBN, F5JKK, W6LEN and many others (I need to look at my log to be correct with all callsigns). Always a great thrill to make dx contacts with 10 to 15w and the doublet.
today I activated Glenrowan VK3/NE-230 which is in the area where the infamous bushranger Ned Kelly was captured. The summit is in a WWFF park as well, a very pleasant eucalyptus forest. 4.5 km each way from the parking area to the summit. If you visit the village of Glenrowan you will find there is a video show on several times each day, re-enacting the capture of Kelly. He was found guilty of killing one or more policemen and was sentenced to be hanged. One of the films made about him featured Mick Jagger as Kelly.
then I drove about 45km to Mt Stanley VK3/NE-126 and was pleasantly surprised by some of the 20m contacts on ssb into Europe with the kx3 running at 10w. also was called by Terry G0VWP on 40m, that one really surprised me. I closed down before getting into a CW pileup because I wanted to get to the 3rd summit of the day Mt Big Ben VK3/NE-105.
When I was setup on Big Ben I had a handful on ssb contacts on 40m then was amazed to be called again by Terry G0VWP, with a completed contact at only s2-3 soon afterwards. then ran a few contacts on 20 cw and finally 40m cw for the vk/zl gang. I think the sun set at about 07:40Z and I stayed on air till about 0800. packed up in the dark, hope I didn’t leave anything behind.
Tomorrow’s plans are not firm yet, but I think I’ll be on from another summit.
Andrew VK1DA
Today I spent a couple of hours at VK3/VE-189 and made 45 contacts. this afternoon I activated Huon Hill near Wodonga VK3/VE-237 on the NSW/Victoria (VK2/VK3) border, in fact only a few hundred metres away from the River Murray that defines this part of the border (nearly all of the border).
Again this afternoon conditions seemed very good for long path dx to Europe. After 18 vk contacts on 7 ssb, ending yet again with a 5 x 3 contact with Terry G0VWP on 40m at 10w (Amazing!) I moved to 14 CW and worked 11 there, including Phil G4OBK and the ever reliable F4WBN and F5JKK, plus regulars OK2PDT, ZL3MR, JH1MXV, HB9AFI, SM4CJM, VK6NU, EA2EFI, IZ3NVR all at reasonable strength.
During the day conditions on 40m were slightly unusual and rather dead, but on 20m this afternoon it was definitely alive. After those contacts on CW I heard a VK0 calling cq on ssb so managed to get a report from him too. I was running super power on 20m, I wound the kx3 up to its full 15w, which explains, well, nothing! It’s only 1.7db.
Finished the session just before sunset on 7cw working vk1/2/3.
My plans for tomorrow will be somewhat less exciting after the week of fun, I need to drive home so only one activation probably in the morning.
Thanks to the European and VK/ZL chasers, this has been a very interesting week for late winter.
There was some confusion (in my mind) about whether my operating position on Huon Hill was within the borders of the park VKFF-0980. I did not know a park was related to that summit. But having looked at a map with superimposed outline from an imported kmz I am now confident that it was valid for that WWFF park. So all the contacts from this activation (and most of the others) will be submitted to the vk3 parks coordinator in due course.