Tuesday 13 October 2020 – I noticed the Australian Space Weather report MUF and T index were reporting ‘enhanced’ conditions while the K index was close to zero, excellent! I checked the local weather forecast, which with the exception of Thursday, indicated rain for the week. Thursday it is!! Plan: Thursday 15 October 2020, activate…
Good Friday 19 April 2019. Tom M1EYP in the UK has organised at Good Friday DX 30m CW S2S QSO Party, in addition Tom has invited 40m SSB participants. I have considered my options and decided to activate Mt Stromlo VK1/AC-043 for the first time this year, in doing so I will gain a single…
Wednesday 15 March 2017. SOTA activation of Mount McDonald VK1/AC-048 789 metres ASL on 20m Mount McDonald is 17 km west of Canberra GPO. Access to the summit is via a walking trail (3 km long) off Brindabella Road. For route details see this post. My plan is to activate Mount McDonald on 20m and…
Friday 28 October 2016. During the week I posted a note to the SOTA Reflector seeking interest from fellow SOTA activators in Japan, Greece and Portugal for a Summit to Summit (S2S) QSO from the peak of Mt Stromlo VK1/AC-043 in Canberra, Australia’s Capital Territory. The effects of a recent coronal hole were lingering yesterday,…
Hi SOTA fans Friday, 21 August 2015. I took an opportunity after work to try out Mt Ainslie for SOTA DX. Operating a Yaesu FT-857D at 30 watts on 14.310 MHz proved successful for long path contacts with amateur radio operators in Europe and short path to Asia, in this case Japan. The DX session lasted…
Canberra – Isaacs Ridge VK1/AC-041 840 metres ASL During the week I posted a note on the SOTA reflector seeking interest in summit to summit contacts between Australia’s Capital Territory (VK1) and keen SOTA activators in Europe on Friday 13 March 2014, yes it’s Black Friday. I received three firm responses from Mike 2E0YYY…
VK2/SM-053 1459 metres ASL 8 points Wollondibby Road, Crackenback Saturday 15 November 2014. I planned this activation 4 weeks ago after the VK SOTA group agreed with a proposal to hold a VK SOTA Party on the weekend 15 – 16 November 2014. As it turns out the weekend is also known in amateur radio…
On Wednesday 29 Oct 14 I activated Mt Majura after work for the DX window to Europe and a chance to chase Mike 2E0YYY and Tom M1EYP both in England, who planned to activate SOTA peaks Gun G/SP-013 and The Cloud G/SP-015 respectively. My Equipment: Yaesu FT-857D at 38 watts, battery 4.2 Ah 4S LiFePO4,…
SOTA DX – Spring Hill VK2/ST-036 876 metres ASL, Spring Range On Sunday I drove to Spring Hill with a plan to activate the summit in the period 05:30 UTC to 07:40 UTC or 15:30 to 17:40 local. The plan is to work VK chasers on 7MHz for 30 minutes 05:30 to 06:00 UTC then…
Mt Ainslie VK1/AC-040 843 meters ASL, Canberra Nature Park Weather forecast: Sunny day, light winds, top of 18 degrees C Started the activation at 06:30 UTC (16:30 local) on 14MHz to log summit to summit contacts with Herbet OE9HRV on OE/VB-408 Portlerkop in Austria, next Pavel OK1MCS on OK1/PL-051 in Czechia. With two new unique…
