{"id":254,"date":"2020-06-28T18:35:11","date_gmt":"2020-06-28T08:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vk1zdj.net\/?p=254"},"modified":"2020-06-28T18:35:28","modified_gmt":"2020-06-28T08:35:28","slug":"tuggeranong-hill-activation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.vk1zdj.net\/?p=254","title":{"rendered":"Tuggeranong Hill Activation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today, I activated Tuggeranong Hill (VK1\/AC-038) again. Unfortunately, I was late leaving home, and the walk up took *much* longer than I expected, likely because of the staying inside with Covid (That’s my story, and I am sticking to it), so I sadly missed the activation time that I had advertised, making it a bit of a tricky activation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, I took my FT-817, an SG LABS 23cm transverter, and a Buddipole. Nothing too remarkable. Eventually I got gear setup at about 12.10 local time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Having a small tarp makes all the difference.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Weather was to die for – No wind at all, and surface temps of 15 odd degrees, making for a very pleasant time up on the hill. That, coupled with the extensive blood flow within my body (something something, it thought I would die from the stroll up the hill) kept me sooo toasty warm \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started by pulling out the SG Labs 1296 transverter, to see If I could contact VK1AD on Mt Tumorrama, but sadly it appears as though he had packed up. I could hear the VK1 1296 beacon S30+, so I am confident now that the 1296 gear receives beautifully \ud83d\ude42 and I understdna the frequency translation rules. Wow, our VK1 beacon emits the weirdest signal, kind of a varying slow warble tone, but thats for another post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think i should work out better mounting arrangements for the transverter and antenna. I had it sitting on the base of the Buddipole Tripod, and didn’t take a photo. I like Andrews idea of the tripod with exchangeable camera mounts, so I think I will find an appropriate eBait supplier. Watch this space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While trying 1296, I put out a number of calls on 146.5, but the frequency was silent, so I was confident that the Mountain Goats had completed their activation and were heading home to a cold beer and the mid-day movie on SBS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, I set up the Buddipole, and configured it as a 40m vertical at about 8 feet with 4 radials. As often happens, I had a small issue with the Buddipole banana plugs being loose, but a quick touch up with my knife opened them up to make them nice and firm. Once everything was ready, I turned on 40M and there was activity!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first contact was with Chris (VK2SR) who was mobile, running 400w into a mobile antenna on his 4wd. He was extremely active calling and chatting with stations all over Australia during his drive. Then I moved up the band a little to 7.095 to find other SOTA people. After a while, I found John VK1FJMG, who was working another ACT summit (Mt Ainslie – VK1\/AC-040). It didn’t take long to qualify the summit, even though I was worried that everybody had gone home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After I finished on 7Mhz, I tried 14Mhz, and the bands were not as open as I would have hoped – lots of activity at the noise limit of my hearing. So I packed up and strolled back down the hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it would have been awesome to prove the 1296 gear, that will have to happen another time. I also need to increase my summit activation rate (Once per two years won’t let me achieve Mountain Goat status). I am considering working Mt Stromlo, or Mt Ainslie next. That way, I can take a chair, and spend time working out how to maximise the benefit from doing this work<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to the people who were able to answer my call on 7Mhz, VK2SR (Chris), VK7LH (Ross), VK1FJMG (John), and VK1MA (Matt). You allowed me to activate the summit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you don’t touch it, were you really there?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In all, while getting there was bloody hard work, being there was awesome. And that in the end is what it is about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, I activated Tuggeranong Hill (VK1\/AC-038) again. Unfortunately, I was late leaving home, and the walk up took *much* longer than I expected, likely because of the staying inside with Covid (That’s my story, and I am sticking… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.vk1zdj.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/104594654_3371941966163189_9081260180045731512_n.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vk1zdj.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vk1zdj.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vk1zdj.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vk1zdj.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vk1zdj.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=254"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.vk1zdj.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":259,"href":"http:\/\/www.vk1zdj.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254\/revisions\/259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vk1zdj.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vk1zdj.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vk1zdj.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vk1zdj.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}