SOTA Activation VK3/VG-001 Mt Cope

Sat 29th December 2012 morning

My first SOTA Activation! Weather was great, about 17c, not a cloud to be seen.

The sign to Mt Cope was easily found off the Bogong High Plains Rd, just out from Falls Creek

The track meandered up to the summit, following a line of snow poles.

..

Arrived at the summit of Mt Cope, the Trig had seen better days.

Dropped down to a open point just to the East of the summit out of the wind. Lashed my extension pole to a dead snow gum and ran the 40m dipole out to a couple of nearby gums. Had a few passing bushwalkers wanting to know what I was doing, explained to them about SOTA.

Set up the FT817ND on a nearby rock and had a nice shady spot to operate. Could hardly hear
anything?...Found I had a dry joint on the inner connection of the coax to the SO239, after some jiggling got it going and the band came to life. First contact was with Peter VK3PF/P Mt Granya for a S2S contact. Managed 13 contacts. Signals quite good with most. After a few hours headed back down for lunch.