SOTA Activation Mt Stromlo VK1/AC-043

I am at the stage of life where I get to have Wednesdays off on a reliable basis – It is a wonderful privilege and an opportunity to do much pottering around the house.

Last night (Tuesday) there was much discussion on the local email reflector about people deciding to do a SOAT activation at 10.30 local time, so I had a quick look at summits, and decided to drive up Mt Stromlo for a bit of HF and VHF fun with radios.

The drive up was completely uneventful – no cyclists (which is rare for Stromlo) – I vividly remember riding up this hill in my youth a couple of time with my workmates – Hard up, but *fun* down!!

I setup near the geodetic observatory – Essentially a bright laser that measures how much our tectonic plate has moved by bouncing light off a nearby satellite – My sister Suzy used to run the one on Orroral Valley back in the day.

Henry – The husky, keeping me totally focused 🙂

Anyhow – setup was on a convenient rock, where I used a squid pole to hoist a 2m j-pole. I also deployed a HF longwire made by bushcomm.

Contacts were thick and fast – many other VK1’s had visited nearby hills, so there were summit-to-summit contacts a plenty.

In all a fun morning – left by about 12ish, and came home.

TimeCallBandModeNotes
00:21zVK1MA2MFMMatt 5/9 – 2.5 watts
00:24zVK1DI2MFMIan 5/9 S2S VK1/AC-039 2.5 watts
00:27zVK1MCW2MFMBill 5/9 S2S VK1/AC-040 2.5 watts
00:29zVK1MIC2MFMWade 5/9 – 2.5 watts
00:41zVK1MF2MFMMatt S2S VK1/AC-034 2.5 watts
00:46zVK1AD2MFMAndrew VKFF 0377 5/3 2.5 watt
00:52zVK1CK2MFMChris S2S VK1/AC-042 5/9 2.5 watts
00:52zVK1MBE2MFMAndrew 5/9
01:02zVK1DA2MFMAndrew S2S VK1/AC-041 2.5 watts
01:05zVK1MF40MSSBAndrew – S2S VK1/AC-034 5/9 2.5 Watts 7.090Mhz
01:11zVK1MF20MSSBAndrew – S2S VK1/AC-034 5/9 2.5 Watts 14.310Mhz
01:14zVK1MF15MSSBAndrew – S2S VK1/AC-034 5/7 2.5 Watts 21.3Mhz
01:28zVK1DI40MSSBIan S2S VK1/AC-039 5/9 2.5 Watts 7.110 Mhz

My HF antenna is a bit interesting.

Bushcomm SWE-100/P

It is a Bushcomm SWE-100/P Longwire antenna. Built like a brick dunny, and simply works. Being a longwire, it does not have a neap of gain, but it does the job.

I shall write about it in another post. I have to set it up properly so I can do an A/B comparison.

Anyhow – a fun day – now home for some sax practice 🙂

You May Also Like

About the Author: Doug

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *