Amateur radio with VK1DA

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VHF/UHF Field day/contest Jan 14/15 2017

Posted: 11 Feb 2017 07:20 PM PST
http://vk1da.net/blog/2017/02/12/vhf...jan-1415-2017/


The VHF/UHF field day in January is one of my favourite events. Â*I have had
some great surprises on these weekends. Â*I had no idea what to expect this
time, though the weather was forecast asÂ*damp on Saturday and dry on Sunday.

I arrived on site around 6pm Friday night. Â*Along the route from Yass via
the Mountain Creek Road I had noticed a lot of debris on the road,
including some tree branches that had been broken off by high winds. Â*I
didnt realise a storm had gone through Canberra while I was driving to Mt
Ginini, breaking trees and strewing debris all over suburban streets and
bringing trees down over some of the arterial roads, leaving damage that
would be visible for weeks afterwards.



The weather at the time was windy and when I tried to set up the tent it
was clear that it would not survive that wind. Â*In the hope that it would
clear away in a few hours, I decided to sit it out and stayed in the
car. Â*By 9pm it was dark and I had to decide whether to Â*re-pack my tent
and go back to Canberra for the night or hang on. Â*I decided to hang
on. Â*It rained quite heavily for a while and the wind kept howling so once
it was really dark, I felt there was no other option.

In the early morning it seemed to be better. Â*The wind was still there but
didnt seem so bad. Â*The rain had cleared. Â*But I hadnt slept much.

I set about the job of assembling the antennas, the tent, the
interconnections and generator. Â*By 12 noon, the contest start time, I was
just about ready to roll.
432 MHz preamp cabling
144 MHz antenna
1296 MHz antenna end mounted



The erected antennas looked very much like they have for the last 10 years
so I didnt take any new photos of them. The 2m, ;70cm and 23cm yagis on one
mast and the 6m 3el yagi on another, both rotated from the base using KR400
rotators. Â*Feedlines: RG9B for 2m, CNT400 for 70cm and 23cm, RG213 or
similar for 6m.

Heres a pic of the antennas from a previous operation at Ginini. Â*A few
configurationÂ*differences for the 70cm antenna but otherwise very similar
this time.
VHF/UHF antennas on Mt Ginini



Once I got on the air, I found beacons from VK3 were very low, the Sydney
beacons were almost undetectable and few portables outside the VK1
area. Â*Only VK2IO was heard initially, but one or two others did emerge
later in the weekend. Â*VK1DSH, VK1RX, VK1RW, VK1MT and VK1AI were all out
in the field, most of them on 50/144/432 and Dale was on 1296 as well. Â*We
had a small number of home stations operating the bands too.

After working Gerard VK2IO (Mt Bindo near Oberon) I then worked PhilÂ*VK5AKK
on both 144 and 432. Â*We tried 1296 too, but although I could hear a signal
from his 100w, my 10w was too far down to make it a two way contact. Â*A
digital mode would have worked. Â*hmm. Â*More power on my end would have
helped too. Â*Double hmm.

The day progressed without any more surprising dx, and I found it hard to
convince myself to stay awake after 9pm, having got very little sleep in
the drivers seat of the car on Friday night.

At 5:30 in the morning, there were good signals from the vk3 beacons,
Sydney was a bit better too. Â*And I had a very good signal from the Mt
Gambier beacon on 144.550 plus a weak signal from Mt Lofty on 144.450. Â*I
hoped this indicated something of the contacts to be made in the following
hours.

It did, partly. Â*VK5DK at Mt Gambier was worked, as was VK5PJ. Â*But
conditions were not good enough to give us contacts on higher frequencies.

My surprise contact on Sunday morning was being called by Mike VK3BDL/7 at
Flinders Island. Â*After working me on 144 and 432, Mike went on to work
Chris VK2DO at Batemans Bay on 144, a contact which they were both very
happy with.

Eventually the contest ended and I followed it up with a short period of
activating Mt Ginini as a SOTA station, using the IC703 running from a
LiFePO4 battery. Â*I had at 6am set up the 20m vertical in the hope of
making an S2S with a US station who was looking for VK contacts. Â*I may
have been a bit unlucky with conditions, or jut not spending enough time
listening for the US signals. Â*No luck with S2S but did have a good contact
with home station NS7P on CW.

The packing process took about 4 hours and I left the summit at 5pm. Â*A 2
hour trip back to Yass and a welcome shower and a cold drink when I got
there.

The 6m beam seen in the foreground (in the shade, sorry) travels in a
partially assembled state. The gamma match stays in place, but the
extensions just come out of each element and it then is not much wider than
the 2m beam and is narrow enough to be carried quite safely on the roof
rack of the car.
Mostly packed up and ready to be loaded into the car and trailer. 2m and
70cm mast still to be disassembled.