Thanks VK

Old Reflector
21

In reply to K6ILM:

In reply to VK1NAM:
.
A few hours ago, activator VK1MA was readable much of the time with my
vertical on 24.960 at 0200 UTC in W6 land. On CW, he would have been
armchair copy.

Elliott, K6EL

Hi Elliot, I noted in my paper log that I heard you (5x7 to me) but despite responding several times, you didn’t call again so I guess I must have dropped into your noise. I was running 80-90W into an OCF dipole (via the tuner) so maybe a vertical or dedicated dipole may improve my chances of getting more contacts over to your side of the world.

I suspect that 12m to North America really needs to be a little earlier in the day - and or better antennas for that band. Interestingly there were much stronger signals to North America on 10m at the same time.

Re CW, it is not something that I have any interest in and have pretty much lost any skills I previously had in that mode. Have made a solitary cross mode CW/SSB contact before (amazing what the S2S motivation makes you do ).

Matt
VK1MA

22

G’day…

What a difference a day makes! This mornings activation of G/SP-004 Shining Tor was a total contrast to the wretched wx of G/SP-013 a couple of days ago. Gone was the wind and bitterly cold weather. It was as if someone had waved a magic wand and Spring had appeared overnight. Arriving at the trig point at exactly 0700z I had the A-99 in the air and a spot on for the 20m band by exactly 0715z,

Sadly, the band was wall to wall with contest calls and the qrm was murder. Nevertheless the VK boys took it all in their stride and we worked our way through it. Sorry to the VK chasers who wanted the summit but couldn’t hear me, I know there were a few that just couldn’t complete the contact. On a normal day, it would have been a doddle, alas, the QRM was the winner, today.

Once again, Matt VK2DAG stole the show by working me on 20m 17m and 12m, giving me another 15 VK contacts, one of then a s2s with Allen VK3HRA/P activating VK3/VC-019 QRP.

Anyhow, it was a bit of a marathon today, with 187 contacts logged.

There were 16 Summit to summits worked, and exactly 100 contacts on the 12m band.

DX highlights were Australia, North America, Japan and Cameroon, these being the ones I remember off the top of my head. DXCC’s worked…To be honest, I couldn’t be asked to count them, but there was a shed load.

Thanks to all the chasers for calling in. Very nice days radio.

73 Mike
2E0YYY

23

In reply to 2E0YYY:

Nice one Mike. I think I just missed you by the time I got to G/TW001. I had a nice leisurely activation in sunshine with 9C and no wind at all. After it went quiet I had a look around and came across 3C0BYP cq’ing, he was lonely so I worked him. 10 minutes later he had the pileup from hell. The activation was rounded off with a pint of copper Dragon in the Buck at Chopyat (chop gate).

24

In reply to 2E0YYY:
Congratulations Mike for such great activation.
I saw your alert last night for 7:15 AM this morning and I set the alarm to 7 o’clock. After 5 to 10 minutes lingering in bed I finally got up, went downstairs and switched on radio and laptop. I saw your spot and went right away to your frequency. Despite my beam was pointing to North America I was copying many of the VK calling and working you, but you were coming to me like a tiny wisper.
With the QSB I sometimes was able to copy you but extremely weak, so I decided to call you and see if there was some good luck for me. Since you were coming to me so weak and having my beam not pointing to you I called you with 700 watts. I think you came back to me and gave me 449 or 559. I gave you 229 but I honestly wasn’t really sure that you had really made the QSO with me, so I decided to wait and see.
Amazingly, as if the magic wand you mentioned had been waved again to make things better, your signal passed from a 229 to 599 +10dB within just 3 to 5 minutes.
At that point, I gave you a second call and this time I’m 100% sure we finally made a good QSO.
It was very nice to work you for the first time (or maybe second time ;-)), Mike, and I enjoyed listening to your work on VK and witnesing your amazing signal build up this morning.
Thank you.
Cheers de Guru - EA2IF

25

In reply to 2E0YYY:

Mike,

Great to finally make contact, even if it was at much reduced signal levels. I had tried a number of antennas and you were not quite loud enough to work and eventually threw the squid pole and linked dipole I use when activating up in the backyard (to the wife’s disgust and neighbour’s curiosity) and you were finally workable.

Cheers,
Andrew
VK3ARR

26

In reply to VK3ARR:

(to the wife’s disgust and neighbour’s curiosity)

ROTFL…

I hope the contact was worth it, Andrew!

I’m sure she’ll forgive you :wink:

Anyway, got you logged at 0807z

Thanks for the contact and look forward to the next one.

73 Mike
2E0YYY

27

In reply to 2E0YYY:

I had planned to get out early… but Amazon and DPD conspired against it, sending me an email at 6:30am informing me that they were delivering stuff “between 7:47 and 8:47”! typical.
By the time I got onto G/WB-003, around 10:00, 20M was like a zoo, as was 40, so I just gave it a go on the one spare frequency I could find on 40, with the newly constructed link dipole (made a change not to have the old ATU smoking (or was it steaming… yes I think it was steam… Hopefully… on Titterstone Clee a couple of weeks back, it was very wet!) :slight_smile:
Quite a few S2S as well, on 40M, 60M and 2M, in the sunshine, which was nice for a change, even though I was sitting in the snow!
Hopefully next week I can get out earlier (wx permitting of course!)

Don

M0HCU

28

In reply to EA2IF:

No problem Guru, thank you for getting up early. I’m pleased you enjoyed the activation.

Your contact was logged at 0743z.

73 Mike
2E0YYY

29

In reply to K6ILM:

In reply to VK1NAM:
.
A few hours ago, activator VK1MA was readable much of the time with my
vertical on 24.960 at 0200 UTC in W6 land. On CW, he would have been
armchair copy.

Elliott, K6EL

Hi Elliot, I noted in my paper log that I heard you (5x7 to me) but despite responding several times, you didn’t call again so I guess I must have dropped into your noise. I was running 80-90W into an OCF dipole (via the tuner) so maybe a vertical or dedicated dipole may improve my chances of getting more contacts over to your side of the world.

I suspect that 12m to North America really needs to be a little earlier in the day - and or better antennas for that band. Interestingly there were much stronger signals to North America on 10m at the same time.

Re CW, it is not something that I have any interest in and have pretty much lost any skills I previously had in that mode. Have made a solitary cross mode CW/SSB contact before (amazing what the S2S motivation makes you do ).

Matt
VK1MA

30

In reply to VK1MA:

Hi Elliot,

Hi Matt. Watch out for un-expected actions from the reflector. Sometimes, if you go back a page too far, or re-load the wrong page, it re-posts your last message…

Edit and then Delete Post will usually sort the problem.

73, Rick M0LEP

31

In reply to M0LEP:

it re-posts your last message…

The only thing which can re-post a message is your browser. The words “re-post” being the big hint here!

Andy
MM0FMF

32

In reply to MM0FMF:

The only thing which can re-post a message is your browser.

Indeed. However, this reflector seems particularly prone to collecting such re-posts, and at this moment this thread has three copies of Matt’s latest message, so he may not be noticing that it’s happening…

73, Rick M0LEP

33

In reply to 2E0YYY:

In reply to VK3ARR:

I’ll watch for you alert,

Alert now posted for Monday 0700 UTC or thereabouts. A nice 4 pointer. I’m taking the long way in with some friends (12km as opposed to drive-up) so that time may change a little. Hopefully the WX for Monday is looking good on that side of the world!

Cheers,
Andrew
VK3ARR

34

In reply to VK3ARR:

Alert now posted for Monday 0700 UTC or thereabouts. A nice 4
pointer. I’m taking the long way in with some friends (12km as
opposed to drive-up) so that time may change a little. Hopefully the
WX for Monday is looking good on that side of the world!

Thanks for the info, Andrew.

My car was supposed to go into the garage on Monday for some warranty work, however, I’ve postponed it until Tuesday. Not too sure which summit to activate, but I’ll be out somewhere.

73 Mike
2E0YYY

35

Todays visit to G/SP-013 Gun, was to try and work a couple of the VK boys s2s.

The alarm went off at 0445 local time and I pitched up at Gun parking spot at 0600. Finally, the track showed some signs of drying out …still a pretty miserable walk to the trig point though.

I managed to get the A-99 into the hawthorn tree and self spotted at 0638, which I thought might be a little too early for VK. However, Mike VK3XL called me at 0639 for our first contact and three minutes later Ernie VK3DET checked in.

Some EU chasers were logged, then a run of eleven VK chasers followed. Amongst them were Tony VK3CAT/P activating VK3/VC-007 and Andrew VK3ARR/P activating VK3/VC-032 for two s2s contacts. Sadly, the QRM became awful on 20m so I decided to take a look at 12m and after finding a clear frequency, sent off a self spot. It was there I ran into Tom M1EYP who was absolutely made up at working Mic FK8IK and advising me of his QRG. By now Mic had a big pile-up, nevertheless, I stuck a 5Kc split into the FT-857 and joined the scrum.

Just like Tom, I was on the verge of giving up when I heard the magic words “Yankee Yankee”. As ever with my dreadful 2E0 prefix, Mic struggled. However, this guy was a fine operator and despite his pile-up, persisted until he dragged it out and read my call back with a 5/2 signal report.

The 12m band was busy, so I took my chances on 17m instead and rattled off 18 contacts including an unexpected JA, before finding a spot on 12m for the final 20 minutes of the activation, which returned a further 12 contacts.

A total of 67 contacts for my early morning trip to Gun, 15 of them VK, two of which were s2s.

Well done to Matt VK2DAG, my single point taking him to double Shack Sloth.

Thanks to all the chasers, especially EU, for demonstrating great patience this morning,

73 Mike
2E0YYY

36

In reply to 2E0YYY:

Excellent stuff Mike. Well done! A far cry from SOTA in 2002 when the scheme hit the bands and it was a struggle (or so I am told) to bag 4 contacts. Things were somewhat better when I joined in 2006.

After working that pile and getting up so early, I think you may well need a lie down! :wink:

73, Gerald G4OIG

37

In reply to G4OIG:

In reply to 2E0YYY:

Excellent stuff Mike. Well done! A far cry from SOTA in 2002 when the
scheme hit the bands and it was a struggle (or so I am told) to bag 4
contacts. Things were somewhat better when I joined in 2006.

Indeed Gerald,

Even in the short time since I started participating I can’t believe how many quickly things have moved on. About two and a half years ago, I remember working 2 VK’s on an activation, (one of them Paul VK5PAS who is now a regular Activator and Chaser) when VK contacts were like hens teeth.

After working that pile and getting up so early, I think you may well
need a lie down! :wink:

These 5AM starts are playing havoc with my body clock and my eyes are developing crows feet :wink:

73 Mike
2E0YYY

38

In reply to 2E0YYY:

Todays visit to G/SP-013 Gun, was to try and work a couple of the VK
boys s2s.

Some EU chasers were logged, then a run of eleven VK chasers followed.
Amongst them were Tony VK3CAT/P activating VK3/VC-007 and Andrew
VK3ARR/P activating VK3/VC-032 for two s2s contacts.

Thanks for the early start and the s2s contact. I was about to put out a spot when I saw yours and went up 10 to kick off the evening’s activation with the s2s. That contact also qualified the Mountain Hunter award for me at the Bronze level, so thanks!

I had a smaller crowd this time, no doubt due to it being a Monday and everyone off to work, but my first DX after yourself was a ZL4, then two Gs, an OK, OE and ON, before dropping the dipole and switching to 12m. That yielded me a JH contact, the first successful 12m contact I’ve made, before I was clobbered by the split QRM from the FK8 station, which I couldn’t hear.

We packed up shortly afterwards, with some very impressed friends at the distance we were working on about 40W. Two potential new hams there.

I’ll post a full blog post with our walk in once the pictures make it off the camera.

Cheers,
Andrew
VK3ARR

39

In reply to 2E0YYY:
Mike. Yours was the first contact from VK3/VC-007. Operating conditions at my end were quite different to yours. Temperature still being around 30c and humid after a light shower. Perspiration / sweat blobs on the log book with smeared ink!
I managed a couple of other G stations plus a DL & PA on 20 before giving it away. QRM became prolific on 20 and phone internet access was sporadic at best so could not self spot. RBN worked for the 20m cw contacts.
My noise was like a chainsaw and fog horn that at times made it impossible to hear anything. It came on in ever increasing bursts.
Anyway, we made the contact & had some fun so that is what counts.
Thanks Andrew too for the S2S
cheers Tony VK3CAT

40

In reply to VK3ARR & VK3CAT

Thanks Andrew and Tony, for finding me and completing the s2s contacts. Once again, as you rightly pointed out, QRM was a real pain on the 20m band.

I’m planning to activate somewhere on Saturday, however, because of the very early start required to work the VK window, it will probably only be a one pointer, but it should be a unique for VK.

73 Mike
2E0YYY