2014 Winter Field Day

[VK4CRO]

VK4WIE will operate from Mt Gravatt Lookout qg62mk on Saturday from 12-8 in the 8hr section 10ghz 2.4 ,1296 70cm 2m and 6m
ops vk4cro vk4mjf vk4pi and vk4faeo
cu there CRO

[VK4ADC]

I will be portable in the Gold Coast hinterland for Saturday only, around from 0100Z to 0900Z, +/- weather, at grid QG61OV. I may finish a little earlier (0900Z etc) if there are no re-works available.

Gear/antennas for 50 SSB & 52 SSB/FM, 144 SSB, 146 FM, 432 SSB, 439 FM, 1296 SSB, 2403 SSB, 3400 SSB, 5760 SSB & 10368 SSB will be going along. I will update my VKLogger /P profile shortly, and hopefully you will update yours too, and I will take a snapshot from it on Friday evening to use with my 'off-line' bearing software while on site : http://www.vk4adc.com/web/index.php/sof ... o-software

I have made a number of improvements this time around - a longer 70cm yagi as well as lower coax losses on the four 6/2/70 antennas, plus higher transmit power on the 5.7 and 10GHz bands and am expecting to achieve some longer distance contacts as a result. Hopefully there will be operators around to help me out with that

Weather forecast is still some scattered showers up there for Saturday but hopefully the wind will non-existent and it will be a pleasant outing.

Talk to as many of you as I can come Saturday.. Good luck in the contest.

P.S. The rules on the WIA website indicate start times of 0200UTC for Div 1 and 0100UTC for Div 2, while the rules printed in AR shows 0100UTC start for both divisions, VK6 excepted in all cases with their time being offset. From past events, the correct start should be 0100 UTC..

[VK3ALB]

VK3ALB will definitely be out this weekend. The weather predictions for the next 72 hour looks reasonable for winter. We'll have all bands from 50MHz thru 10GHz and our Op Info for VK3ALB/P is correct. Haven't seen a lot of VK3's posting their intentions but hopefully there will be a few out and about.

We intent to run with the Division 2 scoring and cross check against Division 1 post contest and I'll be submitting both scores to the contest manager. I'm doing that because I think it would be helpful to examine how the two systems stack up against each other. Hopefully other participants feel the same way.

[VK3ALB]

Doug,

I recall being caught by this start time business once before. FD has always started at 12:00 Noon and the UTC start time changed to suit. Spring and Summer FD always start at 0100UTC which is 12:00 Noon AEDST. I believe the correct start time for Winter FD this weekend should be 0200 UTC = 12:00 Noon AEST. Except WA of course.

VKCL 3.10 predicts the start time to be 0200 UTC. Since most of us will be using VKCL I think it would be prudent to follow that lead.

[VK3HY]

Lou

I believe you are correct. I have asked VK3KM & VK5DK if they could confirm this.

Gavin VK3HY

[VK3HZ]

There was a "cut-and-paste" oops in the rules which carried over the summer time start of 0100 UTC.
This was noticed too late for AR, but has been updated on the web site - although it appears not all instances were changed.

Nevertheless, the official start time for the eastern states is 1200 EST = 0200 UTC for both classes.

Regards,
Dave.

[VK3BQ]

thanks Dave. midday it is............

[VK3YE]

Plans finalised.

Scott VK5FSKS and I will be portable from Olivers Hill (near Frankston) from noon today, each in Section B.

Running 6/2/70 QRP. Also seeking CW contacts if signals are weak.

[VK3MEG]

Rob VK2GOM hit on something

Make a contest 2m-only and you suddenly have a lot of viable entrants.

or have single band entries in the current contest just like the hf people do.
or 2/70 with bonus points for fm to give the fcalls something.
btw I'll be operating from home qf22gg look at ballarat side of mt cottrell should get me

2m ssb
6m 52.100 and up
70cm verticle.
cheers

[VK2ZRH]

It's winter solstice. Have fun in the sun (wherever it shines).

Like 2.jpg (2.59 KiB) Viewed 2608 times

[VK3VFO]

I think the fairest way to score would be to have a different section for each class of license so it relates to the bands and power allowed.

Nick
VK3VFO

[VK4CZ]

Sun starting to set VK4CZ/P (VK4CZ, VK4UH & VK4YJV) about to pack up. Thanks to those who participated!






Scott
VK4CZ

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[VK5ZD]

VK5LZ portable...


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[VK5KK]

VK5KK/P ...

24 GHz fore ground, best DX = 166km despite winter conditions,
1.2 - 10 Ghz antennae on towbar mount (c/w rotator). operating position rear seat!

[VK4EA]

Very truncated operating oportunity for me this year, SES stuff got in the way. But managed a very nice 180km contact on 24GHz to Doug (VK4OE/P) from Howells Knob. New distance based rules gave 1725 points for the single contact, looking forward to the Summer event where I'll give div 2 a real nudge. Thanks to the WIA for pushing the div2 option through the 'resistant to change' barrier.

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[VK3ALB]

An interesting weekend to say the least. It was hard to predict the level of activity for this weekend. The usual big teams did not go out and I reckon overall participation was down due to the WEATHER. With apologies to Noel Coward and Rudyard Kipling it seems only penguins and mad microwavers go out on the winter solstice.

We worked 31 unique callsigns and our best distance was VK5DK @ 267km on 10GHz this morning. A very difficult path for us and it's not often that we manage it. We also worked a number of rovers which was a bit different for us. Thanks to everyone that went out and worked us. I think everyone had fun notwithstanding the cold and rain.

Here's a picture of our field day station. Not sure who was in the caravan with all the little dishes but they didn't bother us.

[VK5ZT]

Hi all

Here's the rover van at one of the usual operating sites....

Port Giles, York Peninsula

The van computer started warning me about low voltage on the vehicle engine battery after about an hour. I ignored it because the transverter supply was fine and the main batteries were also fine. When I went to start the engine about a half hour later it was very sluggish and needed help from the main batteries. As I walked around the van to get in the back I noticed the headlights were still on!! It's just noticeable in the photo that the tailights are on....missed that one!!!

Interesting contest with the distance factor. No idea how it will turn out....I just went for a leisurely fourteen hour drive with periodic breaks..... Went out again Sunday morning to visit a couple of Adelaide's high spots for a chat with the few diehards still operating.

Cheers

Tim VK5ZT

[VK2KRR]

I was actually surprised with the level of participation and from my perspective the activity level seemed to be up from normal Possibly helped by the fact there was a large tropo opening for 2 days earlier in the week which spurred peoples interest.

On the Saturday afternoon conditions from here were above average in the SW and more southerly directions such as Melbourne but average or slightly below to the west. Better conditions from the very start of proceedings which slowly deteriorated with the changing weather toward night time.
On Sunday morning conditions were about average all around, but still some stations presented some good signals in here.

Was good to fire up the 23cm equipment here with some good contacts made out to nearly 500 km.

Impressed with Peter VK3YE and Scott VK5FSKS portable near Frankston in Melb with 5 watts and small yagis, worked them both on 2 & 70.

While VK5JR, VK5DK, VK5LA & VK5PJ (going by memory) were VK5's worked, I think it would be handy if some of the other VK5 stations were on the logger chat so they could at least advise when they are listening east and what freq, would help gain some extra contacts with those stations.

Thanks for all the contacts those who participated

[VK5ZD]

The upload page for contest logs has appeared on the WIA website

See http://www.wia.org.au/members/contests/upload/

[VK4TS]

Excellent news...been needed for a long time.

It better be able to handle heaps of logs from the 100's of people who wanted distance based scoring - it could well be overwhelmed.

Overall it was a great time in the paddock (VK4WIS) the Queensland weather was superb - although I do wonder about some of the ways to garner more activity - From SE Q we really need some activity in the New England to get more heading south. VK2MAX was there as a lone voice in the wilderness..but able to make the logs of several in Brisbane from Kempsey on 70cm.

The distance based category was of interest and some different tactics may well be needed in future -

I wondered why we persist with differentiating between portable and home stations - Personally I think they should all be in the same category - with hill-toppers looked upon as Dx-peditions for the contest but without any constraints such as setup time.

It may also encourage the setup of specific permanent locations for VHF UHF contesting in the same way as we have stations for HF around VK - I also must wonder about the rules not allowing the operators of a multi op to contact other stations - in the quiet times what would be wrong with being able to use more than one call-sign from a multi-op site as long as it could not contact say within the same grid locator (6 digits) ? There is always a reaction to a change - it could be as simple as manipulated contacts - perhaps those with more experience could enlighten me... Probably those pesky VK3s

Maybe a name change for the weekends could reflect the differentiation and use the Activity Day nomenclature