Hi SOTA fans
I plan to activate Mt Ainslie after work today. Timing will be between 06:30 and 06:45 UTC for 45 minutes. Sunset is at 07:30 UTC.
I am looking for long path UK & EU chasers plus any chance of a S2S.
73
Andrew,VK1NAM
SOTA blog http://vk1nam.wordpress.com
In reply to VK1NAM:
Hi Andrew, maybe i’m again on local summit as the last two days. But its not sure because there is rain again in forecast later. Ok, by rain i can go again to bw-228 with a dry place there. Also on bw-195 i have a deerstand to sit under in az, if there is not the owner on a hunt :-)…by no rain i go to a new one for vk chasers…bw-193. If there is too much rain i stay at home, because no third morning to be very wet after antenna setup, sri. There are also thunderstorms in forecast for later at morning, in this case i never go on a summmit. Hope chasers work me again of i’m ever on the same summit 
but its the easiest for me with no long way to drive. Hope the summer comes to dm/bw that i can offer new summits to vk chasers. I will update my alert very early in the morning if i go or not.
I wish you a very nice activation with a lot of contacts and many dx. Condx are not so bad as the sfi shows. I had 32 qso’s to vk the last two days, so i think you are called by some eu chasers later.
Good luck and may dx… have fun, enjoy
73 klaus df2gn
In reply to DF2GN:
Hi Klaus
Thanks for the S2S, excellent signal this evening to VK1 Mt Ainslie, 16,470 km. Thanks also to Mike G6TUH for posting a SOTA spot for me on 14.337.
Had a mini DX pile up with 19 chasers across Germany, England, Spain, Czech Republic, Italy, Austria, Greece, Netherlands and the Isle of Man IOTA EU-116.
Greece is a new country for me, also enjoyed working Bob MD0CCE on the Isle of Man IOTA EU-116.
Local VK SOTA chasers from VK1, VK2, VK3, VK5 and VK6.
I’m looking forward to more Spring and Summer activations with the opportunity to work SOTA DX. Have a good weekend, we are expecting rain in VK1 for Saturday and Sunday.
73, Andrew VK1NAM
SOTA blog http://vk1nam.wordpress.com
In reply to VK1NAM:
Hello Andrew,
"…Had a mini DX pile up with 19 chasers across Germany, England, Spain, Czech Republic, Italy, Austria, Greece, Netherlands and the Isle of Man IOTA EU-116. "
Excellent 8) Strongest signal I have ever heard from you I think this morning.
You must have covered the antenna with that special RF grease!
Cheers
Mike
In reply to G6TUH:
Mike
“You must have covered the antenna with that special RF grease!”
Yes, 20m has been open long path between Europe and Australia since early August. In the last two weeks I have chased Klaus on five occasions, Mike 2E0YYY once and listened to the UK and EU chasers, including yourself and Manuel EA2DT. So thought it was time I activated a local summit to test out the long path propagation.
Had the FT857D set at 35 watts into a 1/2 wave inverted V with the apex at 7 metres. Had plenty of success last spring & summer operating long path from VK1, I hope this early start may yield better results for 2014.
73, Andrew VK1NAM
In reply to VK1NAM:
Hi Andrew,
I think if you had been using 5w-10w it would have been difficult because the noise floor here in SE UK was S4 this morning. So the 35w got you well above the noise floor which made it easy.
Loads of rain and thunderstorms here for the last week or so 8(
Bye for now.
Mike
In reply to VK1NAM:
Hi Andrew,
It’s a holiday today in Spain (I think in many other countries too) and I got up early this morning to try to work Klaus and you.
Unfortunately it wasn’t possible for me working either of you. Klaus arrived too weak and I had too much QRM on his working frequency, so impossible for me to copy him.
On the other hand I copied you very well with report 56. I gave you some calls with only 5watts but there were other chasers calling in the pile-up and you didn’t copy my weak signal. After a few minutes, a European station started calling CQ DX only 4KHz up from your QRG and his enormous splatter made me impossible to copy you.
Congratulations for your great signal onto my station.
Best 73 de Guru - EA2IF
In reply to VK1NAM:
Hi Andrew, thanks another s2s to VK1/AC-040 over this great distance. your signal was vy good, at the end of our qso you peaking s9 !. we had a qso from DM/BW-042 to VK1/AC-023 back in 8.march… great to do it again 
as you called in this mornig i wan´t believe, WOW…what a signal ! congrats
first thinking at morning was i stay at home. but after looked on the rainradar i seen a gap from maybe 2 hours without rain so i chosed to went to bw-042 there i have only a short way to the az with a good take off to VK. antenna today was a inv.V again at a tree, but not so high as the mornings before. but after 50 minutes i had to go qrt quickly, the gap in rain was shorter…so it was the third day i went home wet but no problem, all the nice qso´s was the reward.also had a nice s2s with YO6BIP on YO/EC-367 so early.next time i had no time to look for VK again…maybe in a few weeks again …
thanks and greetings
Klaus DF2GN/p