Wednesday 11 January 2017 – 8:00 am (21:00 UTC) joining the VK VHF DX Net from Tuggeranong Hill 855 metres ASL for VHF Aircraft Enhancement propagation (AE). Purpose of today’s SOTA activation is to: experiment with low power 500 mW (QRP); qualify Tuggeranong Hill with the FT-817ND power output set to 500 mW for QSOs…
Monday 5 December 2016 – Recon of Cooleman Ridge Nature Reserve for a HF VKFF Park activation Wednesday evening 7 December 2016. Forecast temperature is 28 degrees C (82 F). Cooleman Ridge quadripod Trig Station will make an excellent operating position for a radio amateur (Ham Radio) HF station on 7 and 14 MHz. I…
Spotted this 20 cm (8 inch) Frilled-neck lizard on a morning walk around my suburb of Lyons and Oakey Hill Nature Reserve in Canberra, Australia’s Capital Territory. Canberra is known to Aussies as the ‘bush capital’. The frilling of the neck and the open mouth stance is a defensive mechanism to scare potential predators. I…
Wednesday 16 November 2016. Today, after 3 years and 9 months of SOTA in Australia’s Capital Territory (VK1), I completed my ten thousand (10,000) logged SOTA activator QSO with fellow SOTA and Park activator Paul VK5PAS/3 for a SOTA S2S between Black Mountain VK1/AC-042 in Canberra and One Tree Hill VK3/VS-036 near Ararat in Victoria. …
Saturday evening 22 October 2016. SOTA activators in Australia, Japan, New Zealand and countries across Europe have made their way to local and distant summits for the opportunity to work SOTA Dx, Summit to Summit (S2S) from 0630 to 0830 UTC, 0830 UTC being sunset on the east coast of Australia. Radio amateurs in…
Saturday 9 July 2016, planned SOTA activation of Mt Tennent VK1/AC-025, 1384 metres ASL Maidenhead Grid Locator QF44MK Parks Reference: VKFF-0377 Namadgi National Park Possible known Summit to Summit contact: Tony VK3CAT has plans to activate VK3/VC-025 Mt Dandenong in Melbourne for 2 points. Others may be lerking on hilltops, the activators who don’t post…
Saturday 7 May 2016, planned SOTA activation of Bullen Range VK1/AC-033, 925 metres ASL Maidenhead Grid Locator QF44MN Parks Reference: VKFF-0984 Bullen Range Nature Reserve Possible Summit to Summit contact: Andrew VK1MBE has plans to activate Mt Perrisher VK2/SM-007 for 10 points. Bullen Range SOTA 70cm activation Radio: Yaesu FT-817ND, UHF 70cm frequencies 432.200 MHz…
Wednesday 10 February 2016, planned SOTA activation of Mt Taylor VK1/AC-037 856 metres ASL on 439.00 MHz FM Maidenhead Grid Locator QF44MP Mt Taylor Nature Reserve – VKFF-0854 Radio: Yaesu FT-60R dual band HT Antenna: 5/8 HT antenna Power Level: FT-60R 5 watts SOTA Alert: Yes Date posted alert: 7 February 2016 Notice Period: 3…
Friday 5 February 2016, Mt Ainslie VK1/AC-040 843 metres ASL VKFF-0850. Space Weather Services (Australia) has reported 25% enhanced Maximum Usable Frequency (MUF) conditions for Canberra since 09:00 local. At the time I didn’t capture a screen shot of the MUF report. The screen shot below is an example of SWS reporting enhance conditions for…
Sunday 6 December 2015. Today’s activation starting at 2230 UTC (9:30 am local) was meant to include a session dedicated to working amateur radio operators on 28.480 MHz (10m) and the chance of working SOTA chasers in Japan and North America. Whilst the latter didn’t work out, (no DX or even QRM from Indonesians) local…
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