Thanks VK

Old Reflector
81

Another appointment in North Wales at 1200 local time meant that if I left early enough, I could go via GW/NW-070 Gt. Orme, giving me the opportunity to work some DX if I was QRV early enough. So, the alarm was set for 0400 local time and I was on the road at 0445 for the 90 mile drive to Llandudno. I found myself QRV 0601z, but didnt make my first contact until 0609 courtesy of Viktor HA5LV. Next in was Dan KA9BLH from IL, followed by Peter VK3PF.

Aaah the joys of working vertical, you just don’t know what’s coming next. A mixture of VK, W and EU was finding its way into the log and this kept me busy until a big gust of wind caused two of the swaged aluminium poles to completly fail leaving the A-99 on the grass amongst a crumpled heap of poles. It was at this point I had to laugh, because there was Greg, VK8GM calling me with a 5/9 signal on an antenna that was lying on the ground in a total mess.

After a few minutes, I managed to get just one five foot pole under the antenna, however, this affected the A-99’s performance badly, so with a bit of fettling, I got another pole attached getting the A-99 up to 10 feet. I’m pleased to say, Paul VK5PAS called me and put a spot up. Then Greg VK8GM called me back and we were able to complete the contact.

I’ve stuck a temporary image of the poles at the bottom of my QRZ page if anyone is interested.

This was a somewhat interesting activation to say the least.

107 contacts logged, 16 of them VK, also Jim ZL1BP with a fine signal and some rare SOTA DX provided by a call from Mike RI1ANT, with a 15450 Km hop from Mirny Base Antarctica.

Many thanks to all the callers, for making this day a lot of fun.

73 Mike
2E0YYY

82

Well, another milestone for me. Activation #100 of G/SP-013. Sadly, I’d got my timing a bit wrong as I was to be hampered by both the 20m band conditions and WX.

Another very early start in order to track down some dx, left me QRV at 0533z, with my first call in the log, Ernie VK3DET at 0537. The EU signals were well down with some of the VK’s working very hard for their point. My normal Saturday natter with Mark G0VOF never really materialised with both of us having to settle for a signal report in difficult conditions. The big signals of the North American stations were way down too, however, one or two made the trip AC8RD followed by some nice DX courtesy of VE8GER in the Canadian Northwest Territories and not forgetting Tom N7AMA from Arizona.

The VK’s continued to call in with a s2s call from Matt VK1MA/P activating VK1/AC-039 for yet another VK1/AC unique in the form of Yellow Rabbit Hill, many thanks for the call, Matt. A look at 12m produced a derisory three contacts, 2 on ground wave and one Ukraine. There’s little doubting this band is pretty much past its sell by date in the early morning.

Just one contact on 17m, Matt VK2DAG, well done, Matt.

It was at this point I received a call from Dave G4ASA, to say he was sitting in his car at the parking spot of G/SP-015 Cloud, waiting for the rain to abate so he could head up to the trig point. Sure enough, a few minutes later, the rain made the 7Km trip from Cloud to Gun and I pulled the plug.

I drove home via Cloud, to have a chat with Dave, only to find him huddled up in his bothy bag, just past the trig point working some CW.

Thanks to all 81 callers today.
However, a special thanks to all 21 VK chasers who made the trip on a very difficult 20m band, many of you working so hard to log G/SP-013. Cheers guys, it really is appreciated.

VK1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 worked.

73 Mike
2E0YYY

83

In reply to 2E0YYY:
Thanks for being there Mike a big tally for you.
base rig Kenwood 2000X 100-Watts with inverted V feedpoint 30 metres of the ground pleased to work you comfortably on the last 2 summits.
look forward to some S/S contactsin the future

73Rod
VK2TWR
QF43PL

84

Todays activation of G/TW-004 was joint with Dave G4ASA. The idea was to find some DX especially VK. As usual this meant a very early 0430 local time alarm call. The car was loaded, before the 50 minute drive to Bishop Wilton Wold.

We were qrv and spotted by 0525z and the first call in the log Was Gerard VK2IO. Ernie VK3DET was next in, giving Dave his first SOTA VK contact. We played pass the mic and our third call was Greg N6CK from CA. Dave wanted to put up his 40m dipole, so I carried on calling and another 5 more VK’s enterd the log, one of them Tasmania, courtesy of Dave VK7OB. We had a very nice natter before I called Dave over and handed him the mic, leaving them to exchange pleasantries and signal reports. VK7 is EU SOTA hens teeth, my only other SOTA contact being nearly 2 years ago. Dave was made-up to log this contact.

Dave worked a fair bit of 40m CW and I had a shout on 40m SSB.

We both managed a s2s on the 20m band with John EA8/M1NNN/P on EA8/LP-002. Many thanks to John for waiting for me to find him.

The other highlight was working Waleed A41LD on 10m FM.

Dave logged 5 VK’s and I stayed on 20m to log ten.

Nice days DX. Thanks to all the callers.

73 Mike
2E0YYY

85

I see elsewhere on the net, a discussion about cross-mode (SSB/CW) QSOs on SOTA activations, with a link to VK1MA’s post in this thread.

I actually have quite a number of these in my activator log, usually when activations have coincided with VHF/UHF contest nights. This has usually occurred when my call in SSB has not been heard by the distant running station!

On regular SOTA activations, I have several times been called by Phil G4OBK in CW when operating in SSB. I think for these though I have usually switched to CW myself rather than complete a cross-mode QSO.