At 9.00am I operated with 40 metre band first thanks to the 8 contacts
VK2FGJW S2S
VK2UH and fixing the problem with my radio on air Thank you
VK3PF
VK3MEG
VK2YK
VK5FTRG
VK3MRG
VK5WG
then I switched to 15 metre band.Tried to spot with my phone but it keeped going under Alerts
I couldn’t hear anyone on 21.150?
I was going to use 40 & 15 metre band on the Castle on the 2nd of February. Does anyone use 15m or was it that I couldn’t spot that I was on 15 metre band
Phil
vk2fpjr
In reply to VK2FPJR:
Hi Phil,
Firstly you were on the International HF beacon frequency. Few would work you there! Please try further up the band. I notice another VK2 F call operating SSB in the CW segment of 21 MHz. Operating outside of the band plans does reduce the chances of a QSO.
Secondly not being able to spot or to be spotted is a significant disadvantage. If there is no mobile coverage ask one of the chasers to spot you as you move frequency.
Thirdly there wasn’t much propagation on 21 MHz this morning from VK2 to VK3, VK5 or VK6. That’s a major problem.
Fourthly the heat wave has kept most of out of the shack. I don’t like the idea of running the black box in an ambient of 40 C.
Finally I caught up on my sleep this morning and was late out - others maybe the same.
Hope I can work you on 15 one day.
73
Ron
In reply to AX3AFW:
Thanks Ron for the reply.
I did plan for 21.200 but there was a lot more noise there. As I haven’t operate on 15 metre before I was hoping that 21.150 was ok.
When I was trying to spot I just brought up the earlier spot but keeped pushing the, another alert button.Pilot error
Phil
In reply to VK2FPJR:
Hi Phil,
21155 would have been OK although a lot of QRP phone takes place higher up. 21285 and 21385 are popular but of course you do need to find a quiet frequency - no local noise and no QRM.
Incidentally if you listen to 21.150 in CW mode for 3 minutes you should hear the ZL, VK6 and JA beacons if there is any “local” propagation. You can look up the other frequencies on other bands on the web. The beacons are frequency and time locked to GPS and the sequence repeats every 3 minutes. If looking for say VK6 if you have the frequencies in memory you can listen for the VK6 beacon on 20 m and after its 10 second slot switch to 18 MHz and after 10 seconds switch to 21 MHz etc to see what propagation there is.
You don’t have to be able to read the CW. Just have a copy of the beacon sequencing times and set your watch to within a second or two and you can ID by the time.
If you can hear the VK6 beacon the band is definitely open. (Duh!) The band can be open to parts of VK6 sometimes when the beacon isn’t audible as VK6 spans a long way N-S and E-W. The beacon is near the biggest population of amateurs so it’s very useful for SOTA.
Pilot error? If I had been an airline pilot by now I would have wiped out the whole fleet of a hundred airlines, if I survived. Still trying to stop getting mad when tapping doesn’t work (sliding is apparently required sometimes).
73 Ron
In reply to AX3AFW:
Good work on trying 15m Phil Sorry I missed you today.
I really don’t know why more vk ops don’t use 15m its a great skip distance to most other states some of the time. I have had a qso with vk2 4 6 and myself in 5 and everyone could hear each other back in the good old days with our “novice” calls as they were then known as. You always hear the Japanese guys chatting among themselves on 15m so the skip characteristic can be good over the continent of Japan which is not as vast as vk. A lot of the SOTA dx qso’s I have made from a summit have been on 15m.
73 de vk5cz …
In reply to VK2FPJR:
It’s well worth giving band plans a read. The Aussie one is a bit lacking in detail, and the IARU region 3 one (found via a link on http://www.iaru.org/region-3.html ) is even more terse. However, 15 metres is a good band for intercontinental contacts, so it’s worth checking what’s done in other parts of the world. You can find band plans linked from the appropriate region pages at http://www.iaru.org/regions.html and for SOTA it’s often worth noting where the QRP Centers of Activity are…
73, Rick M0LEP
In reply to VK5CZ:
Thanks everyone for the replys.
I will try 15m band again on next activation and hopefully I will be able to spot my position better
Phil
In reply to AX3AFW:
21155 would have been OK although a lot of QRP phone takes place higher up. 21285 and 21385
are popular but of course you do need to find a quiet frequency - no local noise and no QRM.
It’s often worth avoiding 21nn0 and 21nn5 frequencies; they seem much more likely to be hit by QRM than, say, 21nn3 or 21nn7 ones, though if the band is open and the big DX guns are busy you might as well forget anything between 21151 and 21300. Working from Kenya, I’ve generally found it easier to find and hold a clear frequency when working above 21300, but it gets harder to raise replies as you go higher…
In reply to VK2FPJR:
I will try 15m band again on next activation and hopefully I will be able to spot my position better
Good luck with the next one.
73, Rick M0LEP