VK5PAS

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VI100AF for the last time.

Posted: 26 May 2021 08:48 PM PDT
https://vk5pas.org/2021/05/27/vi100a...the-last-time/

On Saturday 22nd, Sunday 23rd, Monday 24th, and Tuesday 25th May 2021,
Marija VK5MAZ and myself had the special event callsign of VI100AF for 4
days.


We operated from home on Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday. At home our
operating equipment is a Yaesu FT-2000, and 100 watts. The antenna for 80m
is a home brew dipole, inverted vee. The antenna for 40m is a rotatable
dipole at 55 feet. And the antenna for 10, 15, & 20m is a 5 element yagi
at 50 feet.
On Monday I activated from the field activating a park and two HEMA
summits.


Over the 4 days we made a total of 557 QSOs on 15, 20, 40 & 80m SSB.

Above:- Graph showing our QSOs per band.
A total of 35 different DXCC entities were worked.

AntarcticaAustraliaAustriaBalearic IslandsBelgiumBosniaBulgariaCanadaCanary
IslandsCayman IslandsCroatiaCzech RepublicDenmarkEnglandEuropean
RussiaGermanyFranceGreeceHungaryItalyMaltaNetherla ndsNew CaledoniaNew
ZealandPanamaPolandPuerto RicoRomaniaSlovak RepublicSloveniaSouth
AfricaSpainSwitzerlandUkraineUSA


On Saturday and Sunday afternoon there was a nice opening on the long path
on 20m into Europe. The callsign proved to be very popular, with some very
big European pile-ups. Unfortunately there was no opening at all on
Tuesday to Europe.


We also logged a sprinkle of USA and Canadian stations, along with two
stations from Panama

(HP6DJA and HP6LEF), NP4A in Puerto Rico, and ZF1DM in
the Cayman Islands.
Pedro NP4A was a huge signal on 40m.


Despite the callsign having been on air since 1st March 2021, there was a a
nice steady flow of callers from Australia and New Zealand.


A number of former RAAF personnel were logged. This included:

Frank VK1VKTony VK3CCMWayne VK2DWPRon VK2MUBernard VK3BFH
Overseas former Air Force stations who I spoke to included:

Gerry W5RJJJack FK8GU
Jacques Jack FK8GU and I were 15/9 to each other on 20m and had an
interesting chat. He is former French Air Force.

Above:- FK8GU. Image c/o his QRZ.com page
I worked John VK4VT using a former RAAF transceiver, a Racal TRA906, which
was another interesting contact.

Above:- Racal TRA906. Image c/o worthpoint.com