VK JA ZL - UK EU S2S QSO Party 19 Oct 2019

I built the VP2E earlier this week, it’s been on my ‘to do’ list for a while but then timing became critical :smile:

I did a couple of test CQs and the RBN picked me up across the Atlantic, so the antenna radiates at least.

1 Like

I fear a moderate risk of rain so I’ve just deleted my alert and will stay in bed instead of getting up at 6h30 (local).
Sorry for that.
Have fun!
73,

Guru

Apologies, I have to cancel - I have injured my back.

Good luck everyone.

Regards

Andrew VK1AD

Sorry to hear that Andrew. I hope it’s not too serious and heals quickly.

To everyone else taking part - please take care and good luck with getting some S2S and DX contacts - I should should be on my summit on the air in about 2 hours.

73 Ed DD5LP.

1 Like

Afraid I just cancelled my alert. Arrived at Bonfire Hill, huge winds and after more or less getting the squid pole up rain started to sweep in.

Given the nature of the treacherous track, risk of falling trees (heavily timbered area) decided discretion the better part of valor so packed up and slowly made my way out.

This is the second time Bonfire Hill has been wiped out when the S2S event is held. Think I will have to look for a easier summit next time.

73’s Wal VK2WP

I just got back home from my activation.

The weather report had announced heavy rain. I was hoping it wouldn’t be that bad and went to HB/ZH-008 anyway. It’s a really nice summit when the weather is good. There are benches and a couple of fire places which I had for myself today.

After a short hike, I arrived at the summit and started to set up my 40m dipole and the 20m GP. Once I was done, it started raining really bad. I sat underneath the trigonometric point to get some shelter and started in CW.

Since I got wet anyway, it was difficult to log my QSOs with a wet touchscreen. After a while I decided to continue the activation with FT-8. This got me my only contact to VK6 and 5 more JA’s, unfortunately no DX S2S. The bag from the Swedish furniture store did a good job keeping my equipment dry :slight_smile:

Although I didn’t hear any of the VK/ZL CW activators, the FT-8 activity was the proof that 20m was at least a bit open. With 40W of TX power, the report I got from VK6QM was -11, I received him with -19. 8 dB difference, so technically the QSO would have been possible even with QRP.

All QSOs were on 20m. While I was doing FT-8, I packed my 40m antenna since I really didn’t feel like spending more time on the summit.

In total I made 21 QSOs:
DX: VK, (1 x FT8), JA (1 x CW, 5 x FT8), 4X (1 x CW)
S2S: LZ2AF/p on LZ/CB-101 and HB9EWO/p on HB/TG-010 (around the corner)

Below I put some photos of my activation.

73 de Jens, HB9EKO

13 Likes

From my side a bit of a disappointing activation but at least I didn’t get rained upon!

I found 40m to be in far better shape than 20m and indeed heard one VK home station on SSB at about 5-5 but he was in a 40m Net (and undoubtedly running full power). No ZL/VK or JA portable stations heard although I found it interesting that a lot of the JA stations seemed to prefer 17m.

A nice bunch of S2S contacts around Europe along with the chaser calls.

I even got called by two JOTA stations - which was nice but in both cases no Scouts were available to get on the air.

20m was a little disrupted by what I am told was OTHR and was a lot worse in VK/ZL. With me it was like electrical interference from an old car or motorbike’s ignition. Annoying but not stopping the working of stations. the problem was there were very few stations on 20m to be heard.

40m had the standard weekend problem in continental Europe - soon after finding a clear frequency, checking it is free and then spotting myself, there is ALWAYS some QRO station that comes and places itself 1kHz above or below my frequency (or in some cases I got one above and one below). The result is anything below S9 is not copyable!

Thanks for everyone who took part in what were not so glorious propagation and in some areas weather conditions.

73 Ed DD5LP.

4 Likes

Set up at Mt.William VK6/SW-042 a Summit with many radio masts and towers even a 2 metre repeater. I have operated there a few times without an issue. Today I was using the FT-857 and Sota 4 band linked dipole 20-30-40-80.

I start on 20 and have S9+ noise, put out a few calls could hear someone but no hope of working them, I see a spot from Ron VK3AFW that I was 57 in VK3. I was running 45 watts. The noise was not birdies or squeaks just high noise level.

So I pulled down the dipole and went with the KX2 and my 57 feet of wire straight into the radio. It helped the noise but I could not hear one single station on the band any band.

Guess it had to happen sometime, when I would not qualify a summit but I did it in style, not one single contact.

At least it was a drive up summit even if it was nearly 2 hours away.

Can’t get much worse than it was today.

73

John VK6NU

4 Likes

Glad you guys had a good activation, My weather was good about 27C but that was about all that was good.

Long for those 2014/15 days when you bag 40-50+ Contacts a trip in VK6.

73

John VK6NU

4 Likes

Well I gave it my best shot.

I got up at 3.30am (0230utc), made a coffee and slipped out of the house (via my shack for a vital patch lead I’d forgotten to pack) and drove to the parking space just beyond the Old Hill Inn, Chapel-le-Dale. I was parked up by 4.15am (0315utc), it was very dark.

I finished my coffee and then headed off across the road, using the maximum brightness mode on my head torch.

It was fun walking up Ingleborough in the pitch black, I descended in darkness last month, but this was my first dark ascent.

I reached the summit without difficulty just before 6am (0500utc). The weather was good for October, there was some mist but I had managed the ascent perfectly fine in just my fleece jumper. Upon reaching the summit, I didn’t waste any time in putting on my down vest and Gore Tex jacket, I didn’t want to waste the heat that I’d built up!

Assembling the antennas took some time as I had taken a home brew vertical for 20m, a VP2E antenna and a SOTAbeams 3 band linked dipole. I erected all three antennas and had them all connected for instant switching.

I started off on 40m CW but I just couldn’t hold down a frequency and I didn’t get any responses. I heard the VP6R dxpedition CQing a few times, I’m guess they were testing.

I then spent the rest of my time on 20m CW except for one SSB S2S. I found it slow going at times on 20m, there were sporadic bursts of activity, I’m guessing I was spotted as WWFF station as I had a crazy sounding pile up at one point and the chasers were sending ‘44’ back at me.

I heard some snippets from some JA stations but unfortunately the signals were nowhere near good enough to support a QSO.

Despite the disappointing results on the radio, I had a good time and for once I actually managed to operate the keyer on my FT817 (maybe it was the practice on the FTdx101D last weekend?).

For Ed - I found that the VP2E wasn’t as noisy on receive but signals were about as loud as on the vertical. I ended up using the vertical for most of the time.

I spent the last part of my activation calling VP6R on 40m. The incoming signal was peaking S9 on 7.023MHz but despite many calls I couldn’t bust through.

73,
Colin

15 Likes

Many thanks for the excellent report Colin. I see that your lucky anvil was not working. … or did you forget to put it on charge before the event? Erecting 3 antennas is beyond the call of duty (I only ever manage two and that’s on a single pole). It is a shame conditions were so poor given the amount of effort you and everyone else put in.

73, Gerald

P.S. Didn’t manage any radio myself today, nor indeed yesterday. Tomorrow doesn’t look good either. Maybe I am in phase with conditions… a sort of SAD?

1 Like

Seems I did not miss too much although still a disappointment with the weather at Bonfire Hill. Am sure there would have been some DX about, when I arrived home noticed 40M at least was alive with DX.

An expedition at Pitcairn Island had a 7 KHz wide pileup of frantic callers. As well heard plenty of US and EU stations about.

Something was working for someone.

Well done those of you who braved the conditions (wx and atmospheric). I’m sorry I couldn’t participate but enjoyed my own G/VK party :football:

1 Like

Slow going from Mt Jingellic, vk2/ri-001

On early looking for the locals and then spent the next hour to get 5.
Handed the key over to Bernard vk2ib to give the DX a run.

Heard more than we could work, John vk6nu was strong but could not get through his local noise. Same for HB6EKO who also had a good signal but we could not make it back.

So best DX for us was, a couple of ZL’s (including 1 s2s) and a pair of JA’s (including a s2s with JS1UEH)
The poor radio conditions and the increase cold chased off the summit.

Thanks to all we work and for those who took the time to activate.
73,
Warren vk3byd

2 Likes

Good to get you both in the log last night, similar challenging conditions here in ZL. I managed a couple of other S2S’s with VK’s but no luck elsewhere, had copy on JS1UEH but too weak to work. I did work one JH chaser and a few others got lost in the QSB, also worked ON4VT chasing from Belgium so my signal was going the distance (now and then). ZL2ATH

2 Likes

Hi Wynne,
I took a listen for you when I saw your spots but unfortunately there was always a strong EU (I think Italian or Russian) station on each of the frequencies you chose. When he wasn’t talking, I could hear “something” which could have been you at a hard to understand level, given the radios AGC kicking in when the local QRO station came back on.

It’s a problem to get a free frequency in EU on 40m on a weekend and as the QRO stations may also have beams (yes on 40m!) it’s very possible that you wont hear the station meaning you think the frequency is free, which it is in Australasia, but we in Europe have no chance of hearing you under this stations big signal.

Perhaps we should try this event next year on a weekday when there is less on the bands? At least for those in Europe who are no longer working? (In ZL/VK, it would be late afternoon and possibly at an “after-work” time for some).

Hopefully by next year the propagation will be a little better as well.

73 Ed DD5LP.

3 Likes

No Thanks, for a weekday Ed, it will rule me out as 5 pm in VK2 is only 3 pm in VK6 and some of us still work. Plus you have traffic congestion and about 2 hours to the summits. When I do Sota for 06:30 UTC Activation. I need to be leaving home at Midday local time 04:00 UTC. So weekend only, Please.

Just do something about conditions. IF Only we could. :slight_smile:

73

John VK6NU

It was, as Warren VK3BYD says, slow going. We both qualified the Summit VK2/RI-001 but it took a while.

We were watching the spots coming through and went looking for M1BUU (nothing heard at all) and DD5LP (likewise). Sorry guys. We had a good 559 signal from HB9EKO on 20m CW but couldn’t get through there. Heard John VK6NU at good strength on 20m but again couldn’t make ourselves heard. Local noise at the receiving end? We worked JS1UEH/1 on 17m at about 8,000km QRB so the north-south path was working OK.

We had no trouble getting across the ditch to work ZL1TM and ZL2ATH, thanks for the QSOs guys.

We heard nothing at all from the VK chasers on 40m but worked Peter VK3PF at very good strength on 80m, QRB about 300km.

At our end Warren was using his KX2 into an end-fed wire. When I took over I used my Barrett 940 with 20W into the same end-fed wire.

We got off the hill at about 7pm local time (0800 UTC) as the cold wind was starting to cut through whatever warm gear we had with us. Then we played dodge the wallaby (and kangaroo) all the way home. They were out in significant numbers, and we really didn’t want to hit one of them - they’re not small animals and a collision can really ruin your day (not to mention the kangaroo’s).

It was good fun and we’ll be back for the next one.

2 Likes

Hello John, i could hear you well. About 5 6 at my qth in n/e victoria. Using a hex beam and 150w. You did not hear me as i called after each of your overs. Also heard ZLs calling but you did not as at times you doubled with them. Better luck next time.

73 & 44 de Geoff vk3sq

while calling CQ, I thought heard something in the noise, but even while playing with all the filter bells and whistles of the FT-891, I could not get any identifiable call fragments. There must have been more local noise/QRM in the area than I was aware of. (unless my RX has become deaf for some other odd reason…) Anyway it was similar to the 8 dB difference in signal level during my FT8 QSO with VK6QM.

73 de Jens HB9EKO