For Star Wars Day #maythe4thbewithyou I plan to activate three VK2/SW summits. Alerts posted.
I will be trying out the new SG-Lab 23cm 25 watt amplifier. Compton VK2HRX and I will attempt a 189 km S2S QSO between VK2/SW-027 Mt Tumorrama and VK2/IL-003 Mount Wanganderry.
Happy Star Wars Day, 4th of May.
73, Andrew VK1AD
Google Earth mapping says its @ 237 Degrees.
I’ll be busy trying to make the Kessel run in faster than 12 parsecs.
Scott WB8ICQ
Kessel Run? Pah!
I’ll be watching C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.
I’d rather have a black monolith star gate to play with!
Watch out for the attack ships off Orion’s shoulder - reports suggest they are on fire.
All went fine once we got every thing plugged in that should have been.
55/57 signal reports for ~ 190KM.
There should be enough head room in the ERP and with the premaps to lengthen the S2S distances I reckon. Just have to research some suitable summits with clear take off, and workable paths.
I did notice and, similar to the 23 on 23 event a few weeks before, that the band started to work about 23:00 UTC. Reports moved from 41 to 57 quite quickly.
Working Barry, VK2BJ, in Syndey off the back of the yagi ~100KM was nice as I didnt have to get up to move it… and could focus on my coffee and squashed fly biscuit.
Compton
Mt Coree (VK1/AC-023) to Mt Canobolas (VK2/CT-001) ~225KM.
Looks straight forward enough. Good coffee and buns in Orange at the foot of Canobolas.
“Hope” I reckon in keeping with the SW thinking.
I am embarrassed to report that a 13cm transverter between a FT817ND and a 23cm 25 watt amplifier does indicate an attention to detail issue. Yep that’s right I had a 13cm transverter feeding a 23cm RF amplifier and yes the combination does not work out to well.
When I suddenly discovered the 23cm transverter was sitting in its carry box next to my right hand, I realised the error of my ways.
So after one hour of faffing around with the wrong transverter and then substituting the 13cm transverter with the correct ‘23 cm transverter’ between a FT817ND and a 25 watts 23cm amplifier, suddenly everything worked as designed, woohoo 
Thanks Compton for the 189 km S2S on 1296.150 SSB. Next, I think we should aim for ~220 km. Al VK1RX will be firing up his 23cm amplifier soon. 
I left my tripod platform at home. The transverter and amplifier are both wedged and balanced inside the tripod frame. So embarrassing 
73 Andrew VK1AD
You’re missing the earth’s curvature option.
Andrew VK1AD
Yes. Thats what concerns me about Canobalous.
Ben Lomond in Tas to Mt Hotham would be great if the earth was flat:
Let’s try Mt Canobolas <> Mt Coree next. I know I can work Mt Canobolas on 2m SSB. I assume you will activate Mt Canobolas, is that tight?
Cheers Andrew VK1AD
Why not include some AE and get beyond 600 km and don’t worry about the dirt inbetween?
73
Ron
VK3AFW
Yes,
Its gota better bakery than Coree!!
Ron’s idea of AE is a good one. We should be checking FR24, I wonder if thats the reason why the signals come up a few hours after sunrise, after all we have been sitting under one of the most flown aircraft routes in Australia?
Because of the high RF noise produced by the DC > AC invertor that I used to run the AC powered linear amp I converted it to be able to operate on 24VDC today to eliminate the invertor. Does mean I need a second 12VDC battery to get 24VDC but importantly it gets rid of the noise. I then measured the power consumption.
On 23cm at max 10 W power the 910H draws ~6A and 1.7A on Rx un-squelched.
The 60W linear amp draws 0.5A (24V) on idle and 0.6A with the pre-amp running. On Tx it draws 5.5A.
So I need a bit of battery power to run all of this as I am using ~ 204W when I say hello to Andrew, VK1AD!
Compton
Just out of interest, at 13.2 volts the SG-LAB 23cm 25 watt amplifier draws 3.3 amperes on Tx.
With all three devices in the chain (FT817ND, 23cm transverter and 25 watt amplifier) the current drawn on Tx is 5.5 amperes. My battery is an 4S 8.4 Ah LiFePO4.
I can operate the 817 on a separate and smaller 12 volt 3S LiPo. In this case I can use a 4S 4.2 Ah LiFePO4 to operate both the transverter and the 25 watt amplifier.
Andrew VK1AD
Thursday 4 May 2023 is Star Wars Day for which you can earn a Force Sensitive badge for activations or chasing on the 4th of May, I have one.
I’m planning to activate Mt Taylor VK1/AC-037 from 2300 UTC (3 May) for a couple of hours into 4 May 2023 UTC. Alert posted.
Hope to work some enthusiastic US and ZL chasers on 10m.
73, Andrew VK1AD
Nice badge 
This is mine
… If only you could see what I have seen with your eyes
