Well I am here, Mt Bindo VK2/CT-003, wind blowing, the squid pole is securely taped to a fence star picket and tested for 20m as a start. Comfortable in a tent.
If I don’t get to excited with cw may try a burst on PSK31 for a change.
CUL at 0630Z.
Cheers
Hi Nick
Wx report from VK1, grrr rain and storms
I will be heading to Mt Taylor soon.
73 Andrew VK1AD
Good luck with the weather Andrew, not the brightest here and the wind is abominable.
Lots of blown down trees on the way.
Cheers, Nick
Dear Sol
Could you please warm up the ionosphere?
0700z No VK or ZL stns heard - only weak EU SOTA stns so far…
73 Phil
Well, that was fun,if a little cold and wet!
Held up by lots of sheep which seem to enjoy sleeping on the road, I didn’t make it to the car park at the bottom of G/WB-004 around 06:20UTC. It was so foggy, turning the head torch on just seemed to make everything grey. Glasses steaming up didn’t help either! Still, on the air by 06:45, quite a few s2s,thanks to everyone who called,or answered, but sadly none down in the southern hemisphere.
Only one vk in the log, the final QSO, thanks to Matt, vk1ma, for hanging in there in exchanging signal reports between my intermittent antenna connection, and the OTH radar that suddenly popped up 
Thanks to Mike and Andrew for the idea, and everyone who called in.
There’s a radar station somewhere in the background!
Off to dry all the stuff off now!
Don
m0hcu
thank you 4 ur call today. it was 1st dx s2s
Great fun! Heavy mist as I was driving to the hill and a downpour just before exiting the car. Managed not to step in too many bogs on the way up. Several S2S and heard ZL1MRC booming in, but didn’t even try to fight through the pile up for him. There’s always next time.
Thanks Andrew and Mike once again for organising it. And thanks for all the contacts.
Hi all
Had a great time on Mt Taylor VK1/AC-037, temperature on arrival was 11 degrees C which plummeted to 6.5 degrees over two hours, included 40 - 50 km/h wind gusts and rain 
Summit to Summit (S2S) QSOs on 20m included: Starting with John VK6NU VK6/SW-042 at 06:10 UTC followed by Rob VK2QR VK2/SW-021, Peter OE5AUL OE/OO-330, Herbert OE9HRV OE/VB-509, Christos SV2OXS SV/MC-077, Takeshi JS1UEH JA/IB-001, AL VK1RX VK1/AC-038, Greg VK8GM VK8/AL-100, Martin OE5REO OE/OO-084 and Franz DL/OE7FMJ DL/KW-008 at 07:51 UTC.
Summit to Summits (S2) QSOs on 40m: Gerard VK2IO VK2/SY-002 and Andrew VK3ARR VK3/VC-032.
I heard Mike 2E0YYY but couldn’t get a word in. Barry M0IML who I called three times however we didn’t make a valid contact, shame as Barry’s signal was 5-5 above the noise.
Listened for Ed, sorry Ed nothing received.
Thank you to all activators and chasers. This evening I made my first JA and SV summit to summit QSOs, thanks Takeshi and Christos
VK1AD station set up on Mt Taylor VK1/AC-037
Left: 10m pole supporting a 20m EFHW J-Pole. Right: 7m pole supporting an Inverted V linked dipole. Antenna switch is next to the FT857D (above)
Strong winds bending the 10m pole supporting a 20m EFHW J-Pole. Thank goodness the pole didn’t snap!
73, Andrew VK1AD
As I did not receive permission from the site access owner for the original summit proposed, I drove a bit further west to Bobbara Hill/Mt and operated from there. It was cold and very windy. My pole collapsed mid-qso several times.
I worked 12 contacts, DL3TU, VK4BJS, HB9FVF, OK2PDT, DL3HXX, DL4CW, HB9DQM, OE5AUL, CT7AGR, HB9AFI, JP3DGT and M1EYP just after sunset. Thanks to all.
73 Andrew VK1DA VK2UH
Don,
I did hear you at better strength than Matt reported, and call you after your contact with Matt, but you were getting so many calls from Europeans that you didn’t hear me. Directional calls might be a good strategy next time.
73
Andrew VK1DA/VK2UH
Hi Andrew,
Fairly slim pickings here. I could hear an OE SOTA activator working you but did not find him after he QSY’d. Worked ZL2AJ and VK6NU. heard M1EY? calling CQ SOT? at 26 wpm but rain static and QSB made copying any more impossible until his last contact before QSYing to SSB. The band was just starting to lift but on SSB - nah. Very poor timing for a musician! No sign of 2E0YYY in the noise. Worked HB9FVF and an OE activator. Nil heard from Ed or any other spotted activators including the other VK’s.
I had to pull the plug a few minutes before 0700 - the band seemed to have reached its peak but maybe it got better. Dunno.
Anyway a great idea and fun was had by all.
73
Ron
VK3AFW
Hi Andrew,
Unfortunately I didn’t hang around much longer, the BNC connection to the coax went O/C and no amount of ‘fiddling’ seemed to fix it. I had a second cable, but not with the cheap phono (yes really!) connector for the bottom of the GP antenna.I thought I’d put a BNC - phono adapter in the bag, but I couldn’t find it.
Thanks for trying anyway, hopefully next time.
Don
m0hcu
There I was thinking the weather the last time couldn’t be much worse…
50m down the track after parking a major hail storm started, fortunately they stayed below pea sized. Based on the description of the southern approach to Andrew Hill being steep, I took the longer northern approach with better parking. Made light work of the 3.3km hike arriving in 41 minutes, despite the legs feeling a bit tired after a race on Thursday. The track up resembled more a river than a road.
On air more or less on time and OE9HRV/P was first in the log. Almost made it with OE5REO/P before that, not quite there. Further S2S’s with VK8GM/P, VK6NU/P, VK3YY/P, M0IML/P, 2E0YYY/P, and VK3ARR/P. The two G summits were worked back to back between 0715 and 0732 UTC. Switched to CW, probably too late as I was only able to work 9A7W and JA1VRY. A station came back at a billion WPM (at least) and sent a 5NN TU 73 etc etc and disappeared. NIL.
Only managed to work Gerard VK2IO/P (S2S) and Nev VK5WG on 40.
I suspect I was a bit late despite being more or less on time, probably should have hit up 40 for VK earlier, and probably should have gone CW earlier.
Now about the operating conditions… despite reasonably good wet weather gear, my rain jacket gave up after 2 hours being soaked in the at times heavy rain. I couldn’t fully utilise the bothy bag as I discovered that it gave the leeches a direct route to my head. I will never ever complain about summits with ants, there is something far far worse. 
Walking out took 1 minute less than the hike up, such was the track condition. The road surface was mostly clay which turned into a ice skating rink. I theoretically could have been down really quick but wanted to do so in one piece!
Anyway, much harder than hoped, but I still managed to get the two QSOs to complete an EU association and thereby opening up Silver Mountain Hunter so job done. Pity I couldn’t get any other EU associations, as I still need 2 more associations. Many stations could be heard in the noise but needed another 3 or 6dB to be workable. I could clearly hear HB9FVF and co with their 160W but they could not hear me.
Thanks for organising Mike and Andrew, however don’t feel too offended if I sit out the next wet weather s2s party 
Thank goodness for waterproof log books.
Andrew VK3JBL
It was a beautiful cold morning on DL/AM-178.
Unfortunately I could not create a SOTA Spot. I could hear VK1AD in QSO with DL/OE7FMJ/p on 20m and VK2AOH/P calling CQ on 30m, but I was not able to reach any VY/ZL stations. Got one UA9 and several EU S2S.
Better luck next time.
Martin, DF3MC
hi andrew,
sorry but not enough copied on my end to get you in the log. i tried hard and could imagine it was you … maybe next time. worked here with a ft-857 and a j-pole. a lot of european stations were qrv early in the morning, so it was hard to find a clear qrg and i had to cope with heavy qrm almost all the time.
i definately had fun this morning on OE/OO-084, working 46 stations and 17 S2S (2 VK). weather was sunny, but cold with +1 or +2 degrees celsius. sorry, forgot to take some photos …
thanks to the organizers, 73 martin, OE5REO
You had nice WX Martin. I was in mist all the time. Cairnpapple Hill GM/SS-254 is 20m higher than the car park and 10mins walk. A little misty in the car park but I could hardly see at the summit!
I head VK3ARR very strong for about 1m then he faded. So no real DX for me. 7 S2S contacts about Europe, ODX RV9DC in Krasnoturinsk, Asiatic Russia.
Equipement: Buddistick clone + 817 and 5W.
After reading Andrew VK3JBL’s report makes me glad I was in the best part of Australia WA. 
where I operated in a balmy 27C with smoke haze due to prescribed burning keeping the sun at bay. It was a great day and I had heaps of fun.
For this activation I used a 20 meter half square antenna supported by 2 7 metre HD Squidpole’s. I’ve used this antenna once before so I thought I’d give it a go, had a couple of back up antennas if things didn’t go to plan. The radio was a FT-857 and I was running 40 watts all day.
15 S2S were worked and 42 S2S points were bagged. S2S Stations worked on SSB were VK1AD VK3ARR VK3YY VK2QR VK2IO OE5AUL VK8GM VK3JBL M0IML 2E0YYY GW4VPX G8JSM DL/OE7FMJ and on CW VK3ARH and M1EYP. 27 contacts all up may not seem a lot but it was just a beautiful day to be out.
It was 07:45 before the band opened up to UK and it was nice to finally get Mike 2E0YYY in the log again, also great to get work Don G0RQL one of my regulars.
Thanks to all for for the contacts and to Andrew VK1AD and Mike 2E0YYY for their stellar work in getting it of the ground, look forward to many more of these sort of days.
73 John VK6NU
WX was sunny and cool after the morning rain cleared away at VK2/SY-002 VKFF-0041.
Set up 2 antennas on one squid pole, a 20m elevated λ/4 wave ground plane and a ZS6BKW. Used KX3 barefoot at 15W. Focused on 20m CW and there was plenty of activity heard. Made 33 contacts with 14 S2S: VK6NU, JP3DGT, HB9FVF, OE5AUL, HB9DQM, S52FT, S53OM, VK2AOH, VK8GM, VK1AD, VK3ARH, VK3ARR, VK3JBL & VK3BYD. Also 5 WWFF park-to-park: VK4FW (SSB/CW), VK1AD, VK3JBL, VK4AAC.
Early on at about 0700z heard DD5LP on 20m SSB and called but Ed was being overrun by EU. Also missed DL3TU, LZ1GJ, VK1DA & CT7AGR all with good readable 20m CW sigs. Recorded the whole activation on video.
Thanks for all the contacts!
Gerard VK2IO
Thanks Andrew VK1AD and Mike 2E0YYY for enticing us to get out of bed early
Hafod Ithel GW/MW-029 …33 contacts…11 s2s …thanks everyone
73 Allan GW4VPX
Dawn on Hafod Ithel
VK6NU in the log
Great to work you Allan, first of many I hope and thanks for the S2S.
John VK6NU
