Yesterday there was still weather here for running in a t-shirt…
It was already clear that there would be a wet cold snap… I had specifically chosen a summit with a shelter where there is a roof over the seat… what I hadn’t expected was the strong wind, exactly towards the seat.
There was also no way to put the mast up… the wind kept knocking it over. I then simply threw the antenna wire over a branch with a stone.
Unfortunately, these general conditions continued in the Condx… no VK or ZL. At least there were a few QSO to JA.
Today the weather was good, sunny 17° to 13° C, during my activation and I was able to stand up two masts. One with a Droopy Ground Plane and one with a “Flower Pot” antenna.
Switching between the two antenna showed better signals on the “Flower Pot”
I made 26 QSOs but only 1 QSO to Europe, EC5JC on FT8. 13 of the other QSOs were with stations in Japan.
As I had only put up monoband 10m antennas no other bands were used.
This 10m challenge is fun, showing what can be done on the higher bands.
The weather was challenging here this morning with a lot of wind and some rain in between after the spring-like and warm day yesterday.
I was also unsuccessful at 10m.
On 20m, however, I managed a S2S with Andrew, @VK1AD on Mt Ginini (VK1/AC-008). Thank you very much Andrew and as well for your patience during the 1st QSO at about 06:52 UTC. On our 2nd QSO at 07:22 UTC the conditions improved.
Well, this was … interesting
The rain started when I arrived at the parking lot. I had to sit out the initial shower and therefore had a late start.
The only DX activator I could hear on 10m was @VK3PF on cw. Peter had a small pile-up of EU chasers but I couldn’t make myself heard.
After QSY on 20m SSB @VK1AD and I had an S2S-QSO. Thanks Andrew Amazing how reliable 20m LP works!
Then I tried a run on 10m cw and was called by @DJ2MX, @ZL1TM, @7N1FRE, @JH1MXV, JA1VVH and a few more DX stations. When it started snowing I packed up.
Still it was lots of fun. I’m always excited to work stations this far away with a few watts and a piece of wire
Similar lack of condx for me too. Initially, I set up for FT4, and the band activity window was like a sweet shop window - plenty of BD, JA, VK, VU, E2 etc. Attempts to actually work any of that DX came to nought though. I did get Asia in the log - but UA9 and TA never truly feels like DX does it?
No hint of any unruly pile-ups anywhere. Hope this week’s “hot topic” hasn’t scared them off. Give me an unruly pile-up over a 1 QSO / 7.5 minute rate any day!
Well, I barely managed to qualify this activation on HB/SO-003. Conditions were really bad. First, awful weather, windy, foggy, cold, though almost no rain. Second, my vertical end-fed didn’t behave very well.
At about 07:22, I got the 4th QSO in the bag with a S2S with SM/LB4FH on SM/VD-003.
@VK1AD Andrew, Sorry I will have to cancel. I’m at an over-running motorsport event and won’t get home until quite late. Also, heavy rain forecast for Sunday morning here.
Might be able to do tbis in exactly seven days, should conditions allow.
Top morning, but not what I expected at all. I started by putting up the 1/4w vertical and was on air by 6.25am on G/SC-002 with lots of VK stations spotting on 10m. I visited them all and couldn’t hear a thing. Some Russian stations about but band was quite quiet. I had opted to leave the Moxon in the car because of the wind but I doubt this would have made a difference.
So I made the quick decision to put up my new 20 m 1/4 vert on my spare mast a few metres away. At the same time @VK1AD Andrew had just spotted on 20m and I was super surprised that when I tuned to his frequency, he was pretty strong, 5x4, so BOOM there was my first Asia and VK summit to summit in no time at all ! Thanks so much @VK1AD !!!
I was super chuffed at this point, objective achieved all before 6.50am. So I then spotted on 20m, while I waited to see if other VK stations would join the 20m bandwagon. Sadly not, I can only assume most had monoband 10m antennas, but I did manage work a huge pileup around Europe with 29 in the log including @GW4BML mobile in his landy !
The weather was rubbish; 3C with some hail and squalls passing through, so some shelter helped, but I hardly noticed while enjoying the DX.
Top morning and many thanks to @VK1AD for alerting, encouragement and everyone who turned up!
I’m impressed!! Your enthusiasm to complete the S2S on voice SSB was addictive. Your persistence with the AX-1 whip antenna should go into the SOTA record books for a 20m SSB S2S LP weak signal QSO between HB and VK1.
Condx were good enough for big sigs from RA9, but that was it. A BA9 station came back to my call, but shame he got lost in the noise before I even got his callsign right. The spotted frequencies of the VK1/3 activators were being checked frequently, but not the faintest signal there. There will hopefully be more oportunities for a VK/EU s2s in the coming months.
I kept calling until 0900 z when the wind increased and a minor hail shower occured. Time to call it a day. When packing my station, the wind blew my thermos off the tower. It got accelerated for 14 m and then hit the roof of the shed besides the tower. The plonk was impressive, even on the platform. A moment later, a couple hurried out of the shed screaming and shouting “What was that?” - “An explosion?”.
“No, just my thermos blown off the tower, sorry for that” I called what seemed to calm theem down a bit.
Thanks Tim for the 20m S2S, I could hear the excitement in your voice. Be careful, 20m LP between Europe and VK can be very addictive, I caught the bug in late 2013. The only cure is more LP S2S contacts
Your challenge now is to work a second VK1 and VK3 summit. I’m happy to help with a VK1 peak.
it was great to work you last evening from the Twins. We had a 20m vertical and KX2 on our end. Unfortunately, we had to pack up shortly after the QSO as the light was fading and we had a steep decent to negotiate. The weather on our end was outstanding. See the photo.
Cheers
Thanks all activators for trying hard today.
I was a bit lazy as weather was bad here (am I getting old?) and decided to chase from home.
Not any signal on 10m despite I checked every spot, but 14 MHz Long path was productive and I got 4 VKs, all with good signals here.
Thanks @VK3YY, @VK1AD , @VK1MCW and @VK2IO, between 06:50 to 07:16.
Looking forward more chances, thanks those resisting against rain and cold.
20m was excellent to EU yesterday afternoon ( here in VK). I was using an IC-705 through and EFHW. I found 10m was good to JA… but elsewhere very quiet. Photos taken at approx 0700 UTC from Snow Gum Mountain VK2/SW-028
Superb Glenn and Andrew. Great pictures, looks sublime weather and nice to see conditions “the other end”. FYI, I was using 10W with a Xeigu x6100. So that was a 10W s2s both ways using 20m verticals, I assume via long path.
Thank you for a memorable experience !
Challenge accepted Got the bug, may even get out of bed early again
Amazing how reliable 20m LP works!
