VI10SOTA activation of Yellow Rabbit Hill for long path propagation on 20m.
I will keep this simple. LP conditions were brilliant and from my point of view 20m LP couldn’t have been better. This time the propagation appeared to center on Japan and central Europe, UK, France, Germany, Austria, Finland, Poland, Sweden and Greece.
My equipment: FT-857D at 25 watts, 20m Inverted V half wave dipole antenna with the apex at 7m AGL, battery 8.4Ah 4S LifePO4.
44 SQOs, 39 on 20m and 4 on 40m SSB. A huge thanks to all chasers and S2S contacts who made this activation a fun evening right up to sunset. I am very pleased to have shared VI10SOTA and VK1/AC-039 with all chasers. Edit: BTW, week day LP activations are IMHO the most rewarding with almost no conflict in frequency choices.
Long path opened at 0740 UTC and was still open, although weak, at 0900 UTC.
At first LP signals started out weak however propagation improved around 0800 UTC, thereafter EU chasers were reporting my RST up to 5-5 to 5-6 until 0850 UTC. After 0850 UTC signals started to fade, as expected.
To my surprise I worked the following activators S2S: Hiro @JG0AWE at JA/NN-232, then right at the close of LP conditions I heard two more requests for S2S. Thanks Alain @F5ODQ for the EA2 S2S at EA2/NV-174 and Neil @G0WPO for another surprise S2S this time at GW/NW-047.
Below is the VI10SOTA activator log.
VI10SOTA on VK1/AC-039 (Yellow Rabbit Hill), 16 Feb 2023
Time |
Callsign |
Band |
Mode |
Notes |
07:21 |
VK2IO |
40m |
SSB |
Gerard s59 r57 |
07:23 |
VK3PF |
40m |
SSB |
Peter s59 r57 |
07:23 |
VK5CZ |
40m |
SSB |
Ian s58 r43 |
07:29 |
VK1MA |
40m |
SSB |
Matt s59 r59 |
07:35 |
VK1MA |
20m |
SSB |
Matt s59 r59 |
07:37 |
ZL3MR |
20m |
SSB |
John s59 r55 |
07:39 |
DL8DXL |
20m |
SSB |
Fred s58 r33 |
07:40 |
SA4BLM |
20m |
SSB |
Lars s59 r53 |
07:42 |
SP6KEP |
20m |
SSB |
Club station s55 r42 |
07:47 |
VK4EHI |
20m |
SSB |
Chris s57 r43 |
07:50 |
JG0AWE/0 |
20m |
SSB |
Hiro s41 r33 S2S JA/NN-232
|
07:51 |
SV3IEG |
20m |
SSB |
Dinos s58 r55 |
07:53 |
ON7ZM |
20m |
SSB |
Jean s58 r44 |
07:56 |
OE9HRV |
20m |
SSB |
Herbert s57 r34 |
07:58 |
SV3IEG |
20m |
SSB |
Dinos s58 r55 |
07:59 |
G4OBK |
20m |
SSB |
Phil s58 r56 |
08:02 |
VK2DA |
20m |
SSB |
Andrew s51 r51 |
08:05 |
G0RQL |
20m |
SSB |
Don s58 r53 |
08:06 |
OE5YYN |
20m |
SSB |
Sylvia s57 r44 |
08:09 |
SM5LNE |
20m |
SSB |
Jan s55 r53 |
08:10 |
SV3IEG |
20m |
SSB |
Dinos s58 r55 |
08:10 |
EA2DT |
20m |
SSB |
Manuel s55 r44 |
08:14 |
F4WBN |
20m |
SSB |
Chris s58 r56 |
08:15 |
DL5FU |
20m |
SSB |
Wolf s57 r44 |
08:17 |
DL1ASA |
20m |
SSB |
Thomas s58 r44 |
08:17 |
DL8DSL |
20m |
SSB |
Michael s58 r55 |
08:19 |
OH6GAZ |
20m |
SSB |
Juha s53 r51 |
08:20 |
DJ2MX |
20m |
SSB |
Mario s58 r55 |
08:23 |
G4IPB |
20m |
SSB |
Paul s52 r41 |
08:26 |
OE9HRV |
20m |
SSB |
Herbert s58 r56 |
08:32 |
SP9JKL |
20m |
SSB |
Jerzy s58 r44 |
08:33 |
7L4LKK |
20m |
SSB |
Michio s58 r57 |
08:35 |
DL6MST |
20m |
SSB |
Klaus s55 r52 |
08:36 |
SQ9MDF |
20m |
SSB |
Leszek s55 r31 |
08:37 |
F4ILH |
20m |
SSB |
Jean s58 r55 |
08:40 |
JH7GZF |
20m |
SSB |
Toku s58 r55 |
08:41 |
M7CBI |
20m |
SSB |
Dean s58 r55 |
08:48 |
IU5LBQ |
20m |
SSB |
s58 r56 |
08:50 |
JA0OZZ |
20m |
SSB |
Masakazu s57 r55 |
08:51 |
F4IOS |
20m |
SSB |
Steph s58 r47 |
08:54 |
EA2/F5ODQ/P |
20m |
SSB |
Alain s53 r53 S2S EA2/NV-174
|
08:56 |
JR8SGE |
20m |
SSB |
Ken s57 r53 |
08:59 |
GW0WPO/P |
20m |
SSB |
Neil s52 r57 S2S GW/NW-047
|
09:05 |
VK1MA |
2m |
FM |
Matt s59 r59 |
The summit is one giant ant nest including bull ants which bite. It is not at all wise to sit on the ground therefore I carried a small fold out table, chair and my backpack to the summit. This is not a drive up or drive to summit. Yesterday was hot around the VK1/VK2 mountains which means horse flies or March flies as we call them in VK are very active in the heat. The female fly which bites and draws blood, loves nothing more than sensing a SOTA activator in the Aussie bush. To deal with the biting flies I applied a double-coating of DEET insect repellent, it wasn’t perfect but it prevented the bites.
VI10SOTA shack
Sunset
Last light
73, Andrew VK1AD for VI10SOTA