If the Weather holds I will go up to Walton Hill G/CE-002 on Sun am to try to work some LP VK contacts - as last September - this time equipped with the 817nd - SSB as well as CW. 20m GP aerial.
As Phil and Nick, I will work split and listen 1Khz up on CW only. (Been wanting to try this for a while).
Any ideas about the optimum timing?
73 Angel /P
Angel
For the east coast of Australia VK1, VK2, VK3 and VK4 the ideal period is the last 90 minutes of daylight leading into VK sunset. Current east coast sunset is 08:20 UTC. Generally the period of 60 minutes up to and including VK sunset is the most productive.
I would aim for a 90 minute VK window say from 07:00 up to 08:20 UTC, the key is to be patient, wait for the band to open and call CQ VK. After 0800 UTC you may get VK5 and VK6 coming on line. John VK6NU can provide optimum timings for VK6 contacts.
I have collected data on 30 VK > EU SOTA activations at
73, Andrew VK1NAM
Hi Angel
I’m out on a summit on Saturday doing our Field day contest, but will be packing up around 07:30UTC. keep an eye on Sotawatch for spots. The problem is I might be getting QRM from our contest station so maybe not the best time. We will be on Mt.Dale VK6/SW-036. There will be quite a bit of Contest activity around so plenty of VK stations on the band, you should be able to grab one or two and hopefully a S2S contact. better chance of SSB than CW. CW not used much for Sota in Australia, but there is more now than there used to be.
The best time is usually between 07:00 to 09:00 UTC for working VK. The openings can be quite short sometimes and the time does vary a bit. If I don’t get out the following weekend I will get out over the Easter break and will post details on here.
Good luck
John VK6NU
Ha ha , you beat me to it Andrew. I would say optimum for VK6 would be 08:00 to 08:30 but the last day I was out band was open much earlier.
73
John VK6NU
Angel,
As I have a dipole to tune will try to get to a quiet patch in the bush to do this and will listen out for you. My house yard is to small for stretching out dipoles.
As for split on cw will fathom that one out.
Have just finished building a KD1JV 3 band CW set which is intended for more remote SOTA activations so will take that along as well.
Good luck with your activation, Nick
Andrew, John, Nick
Thanks for the info.
Given the Field date is Sat I might try that instead of Sunday to max chances of S2S with VK.
WX will have the final word. I will make an “exec” decision tomorrow night and post the relevant alert.
Nick - I have one of those rigs too - FB. It will do split at 1KHz too with the RIT function.
73 Angel
Yes Angel, saw that in the split function in the instructions and will be a good practice exercise.
I hope when you built yours there was not the trauma of missing capacitors and parts that did not fit !!
Happily the little rig works well and will be a good lightweight SOTA radio.
Cheers, Nick
HI Angel
Listening up you should be able to pick out the weaker DX stations if you tune over a 500 Hz or so span using narrow bandwidth. We’ll be looking for an S2S QSO also with you from Belgium.
73 Phil