Hi all.
I will be visiting VK for a month soon for a family wedding.
I’m wondering whether it’s worth throwing the handheld in to my bag, in case I manage to get some radio / SOTA time. I’ll be in VK2 (Sydney and blue mountains) followed by VK4 (Cairns and Yungaburra) and finally VK3 (Melbourne). Am I likely to get much activity on 2m / 70cm FM?
Any advice appreciated, thanks all.
Al - M1FHM
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I visited in late 2017. I found some local VK Operators who were keen to do dual activations and VERY accommodating in meeting me, even picking me up to travel to the hills in a couple of cases! They provided the radio gear and the local knowledge to get a few summits done.
I was moving about quite a bit and really could only give 1 day in Melbourne and 1 in the Sydney area to SOTA. So it seemed difficult to justify carrying radio gear.
I remain very grateful for their assistance and to two further people in New Zealand who helped me when we moved on to there as our holiday progressed.
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Hi Al,
Publicising your approximate plans (dates and locations) here and ideally on the Ozsota group on groups.io will help you to find some assistance. Both Sydney and Melbourne are built on relatively flat land so you have to travel 40-50 km away from the centre of each to find any SOTA summits. I don’t live in either.
Travelling to summits with a local will have numerous benefits, not only for navigation and transport but also equipment and antennas. And re the handheld, it will need 146-148 to access repeaters. Note that 146.5 is the national simplex frequency which is commonly used for SOTA contacts.
Activity levels on simplex channels and even on repeaters is notoriously low in most VK areas. HF is a much better bet for SOTA.
If you plan to drive in Australia, you will find road rules etc are very similar to the UK. However, we moved to metric units in 1976. So all speeds are km/h and distances on road signs are km.
Contact me directly for other info as required.
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2DA
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Alan,
There are a number of summits around Melbourne that can be qualified on 2/70. You need something better than the original rubber ducky antenna.
There is some info on summits around Melbourne on the OZSOTA site mentioned by Andrew VK1DA.
Depending on your timing I may be able to assist with transport and an HF station and a better antenna for the HH.
73
Ron
VK3AFW
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