Picked up a heap of awards from the YB6DMC Indonesian Award scheme for working up to 80 stations in China
5 from China award
10 from China Award
20 from China Award
30 from China Award
40 from China Award
50 from China Award
60 from China Award
70 from China Award
80 from China Award
With a nice mild sunny Saturday morning decided to get out and activate a park. Last activation of Kowen Escarpment Nature Reserve I only made 25 contacts, so returned to finish the 44 needed for WWFF.
As per last activation parked off Sutton Rd in front of the Sutton Forest pine plantation. There is an ACT Parks sticker on the boom gate, about the only sign that this is a nature reserve.
Walked down the road, passed the power lines that had caused me to move last activation from QRM... Headed up the escarpment, a steep climb.
Around the bend the road leveled out a little, still quite steep. Started looking for an operating spot.
Decided to use the boundary fence for the reserve as antenna support. Strapped the squid pole to a fence post and ran the dipole legs along the fence.
A good view here to the West. Black mountain to the left of the tree branch, tower on top just visible. Mt Ainslie behind it in the centre and Mt Majura to the right. Only about 5 km from Canberra airport here.
Checked on the antenna analyser on 40m, not too bad, resonant on 7.150 Mhz with SWR of 1.32
Shack on the tarp near the fence. A bit of shade here which was good.
Got on 40m. I did hear Adam VK2YK doing an activation on 7.144, but vanished after I called him. Worked VK3PF Peter with a good signal.
Adam returned and made a P2P contact, he was in VKFF-3185 Cleland National Park, also on SOTA summit VK5/SE-005 Mt Lofty.
Stayed on 7.144 and made several contacts. The band had lightning QRN but most signals over it.
VK5HAA, VK1RF, VK3AFW, VK1AO/VK2MET, VK2EXA, VK2IO, VK1CHW, VK3UH, VK4SYD, VK4KLA, VK3CWF, VK3AMO, VK2LEE, VK3SQ, VK3ANL, VK4HAT, VK2PKT, VK4TJ.
After contacted stopped on 40m went to 20m. Found Adam VK2YK/5 again on 14.310, a strong S8 signal, still in VKFF-3185 Cleland National Park
After working Adam moved to 14.244. Worked VK5STU, VK3BBB/VK2CCP, VK7IAN, VK4KLA, VK4GJP. Returned to 40m.
Worked VK4GJP again, a lot lower signal compared to 20m. Then VK3VIN and VK2SLB.
Had 31 contacts so park qualified. Packed up and headed to Queanbeyan for lunch.
Latest award for me, for hunting 1175 VKFF parks. Thanks activators for contacts.
After turning on the radio this morning I checked the FT8 frequencies in memories for activity. Hearing signals on 6m started up WSJTX. Much to my surprise there were signals coming in from the USA!
Called CQ and managed to work W6TMD Darrel in Los Angeles California
12,335 Km away in Los Angeles, a new record for me. This was on a 40m dipole loaded up on 6m!
Some of the signals received. Mainly California, with some Nevada and Arizona stations
The band closed shortly afterwards, these openings are rare and do not last long.
After stopping at my brothers place at Pambula Beach headed back to Canberra, on the way stopping to activate a WWFF park I had not done before, Bournda Nature Reserve, VKFF-1896. Drove through Merimbula, North to Tura Beach, then stopped off Sapphire Coast Dr at Bournda Quarry Fire trail in the park.
The trail was locked, so continued on foot until reaching a park sign suitable for squid pole support, Set up here. Able to extend the dipole out along the fire trail.
Location, from Google Maps
Another award from the European Ros Club, for working 75 Canadian stations. Most of these would have been on 10m recently.
In the USA there is an award for working all 488 Grid squares in the lower 48 States on VHF and above. Not much hope of doing this from Australia, however curious to see how I am going with working US grid squares on HF. So designed a Log4OM award to display this. After creating the award scanned my log and got a list of grids worked per band
Looking at Statistics, 10m has the most grid squares, followed by 17m and 40m. The grand total is 300, so about 3/4 of all grid squares worked.
Log4OM mapping shows what grid squares worked. Not too many holes in the East Coast, however central and parts of the West Coast have large areas of missing grids. Doubt I will ever work all grids in the USA from Australia, even located in the USA would be tough going.
