Saturday, 7 March 2015

SOTA dual activation with VK1NAM of VK2/SM-053

While activating Box Ridge VK2/SM-065 got an SMS from Andrew VK1NAM, inviting me to join him for a dual activation of VK2/SM-053 and chase EU DX.

Drove back to Jindabyne and checked into my motel before heading up to the mountain as per my last activation. Parked near Andrew's car, soon spotted him up the hill in the trees operating on a large log. 


Got out my radio log and joined him. Photo of me courtesy of Andrew


He had started on 40 m and was working through the usual crowd of chasers, from VK1, VK2, VK3 and VK5, most with good strong signals.

We then went to 20 m to chase the EU activators and work some EU chasers. First S2S was with Herbert OE9HRV on OE/VB-509. He was a good signal, but he was running 150 w! Andrew worked him easy but took me a few overs to get my callsign correct to him.

Went on to work S2Ss with John VK6NU on VK6/SW-039, Mike 2E0YYY on G/SP-013, Tom M1EYP on G/SE-015, and Jonathon GW2HFR on GW/NW-062. Some of these were a real struggle, very low signals with QRM from a contest. We shifted frequencies several times trying to find a clear spot. We kept spotting to try and bring them to us.

With the light starting to fade and the temperature dropping around sunset we gave it away and headed back to Jindabyne for the evening.

Thanks Andrew VK1NAM for an enjoyable activation chasing DX.


 

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