Just a heads up for tomorrow, Tuesday 26th is Australia Day and a public holiday here in VK, Lewis VK6FLEW and myself VK6NU are planning to activate Mt.Randall VK6/SW-039. I will be looking for Europe LP on 20 metres from 08:00-10-00 UTC.
We will be able to self spot and it would be great to get some Europeans in the log again.
I will try some CW but be patient, no rag chewing short and sweet.
Hope conditions allow some contacts.
73
John VK6NU
Will listen out for you as well John. Hoping these thunderstorms which wiped out todays chasing will have gone away by then.
73’s Nick
(aerials disconnected now thanks to another stormcell overhead)
Hi John,
I was just wondering whether to go out tommorow AM and see if I can catch some LP contacts into Australia - some AX calls would be nice to get in the SOTA log. Do you intend to operate as AX6NU / AX6FLEW or just using the normal VK calls?
For the first time in about a week we now have positive temperatures and the sun has come out, so most of the snow should be gone today.
If I don’t get out on a summit, I will certainly listen for you from the home QTH.
Propagation doesn’t look good but we can try - by the way from my side it will only be SSB, no CW.
73 Ed. DD5LP/AX2JI.
Hi Ed
Hope all is good your end, hard enough to do VK6NU on CW, never mind AX6NU. It would be nice to get some Europe in the log. Voacap not looking too good. In a few weeks we may have to look at an overnight camp at Mt.Cook on the Bibbulmun Track and go up the track in the dark to the Summit around 10-11pm local and work short path which seems to have some good conditions. Think from memory its about 40 mins from the campsite to the summit but not the easiest walk. I’ll keep you updated on that one but its on the cards.
I have already qualified Mt.Randall this year but Lewis hasn’t and doing joint activation’s we do seem to get some interference issues. We will work around them the best we can. Conditions have been so bad in VK6 there is virtually no propagation to the Eastern states during daylight hours apart for some 20 metre contacts. If you have a beam it might be a different story but Sota contacts have been few. The last decent haul I had was Jan 1st on my last visit to Mt.Randall.
Not sure if you heard about the fires down south of Perth which virtually wiped out the town of Yarloop. I was down on the outskirts of the fire Zone last week and there were miles of power poles burned down and the bush was totally wiped out in places. It was a very hot fire and was huge, I think the perimeter was around 270kms.
Any Europe a bonus tomorrow and we’ll start planning the overnighter on the way home tomorrow.
73
John VK6NU
OK, keep our fingers crossed for tomorrow but QRP SSB and just a dipole at my end is asking a lot, but I’ve done it before but not in these propagation conditions.
OK on the future overnight camp-out - according to the predictions, at this time of year Short Path is more likely to get through than Long Path and that on 40 metres often.
Well it looks like the weather here tomorrow should be fine, so it’s a good reason to get out in any case even if I don’t manage to get my signal over to VK.
Had heard of some fires at the end of 2015 but it sounds like these are a lot worse. Hopefully there wont be any near Mt. Randall tomorrow!
73 Ed.
[quote=“VK6NU, post:4, topic:12448”]wiped out the town of Yarloop[/quote]Been watching the WA fire situation over Xmas. That Yarloop one was a real monster. Ones nearer my sister’s home caused more family anxiety, though. The day she got home from Kenya this was happening on the local Oval:
Luckily that fire (unlike the Yarloop one) was controlled quickly.
Good luck with the activation.
73, Rick M0LEP
Hello John,
I will listen out for you tomorrow. If the wind is not too great I will put the mast up which will improve chances. I spoke with Lewis last year on 40M, when he was activating, on my SteppIR vertical which right now is not operational as a garden creature, maybe a vole, has chewed through the control cable (repair scheduled tomorrow pm if wx ok), so will rely on the hexbeam.
In any event both have a great time and see what happens 
Cheers
Mike
Thanks for all the replies, conditions are looking really bad in VK today so not holding out much hope.
73
John VK6NU