Heads Up!: 2015 Spring VHF-UHF Field Day

[VK3ALB]

Hi All,

Don't forget that Contest Radar is still operational and available to all operators.

To recap, Contest Radar is a page that allows you to quickly indicate your intention to be out in the field over the weekend but is not a replacement for the excellent mapping tool available in VKlogger. At a glance you can see where the activity will be in relation to your location and give you a way to check if you've worked everyone you can. You can either submit your callsign and grid on the web page or through VKCL.

Don't worry if you don't have internet out in the field just submit your location details on Friday night making sure you give as much info as possible in the comments field. Good things to add are bands, operating times (if you're only out for a short time) and perhaps a phone number or favorite liaison frequency. If everyone does the same thing it will help all of us to get the most out of our equipment on the weekend.

The radar now supports 8 char grid references which means if two or more operators are in the same sub grid it is easier to visualise on the map. Markers are placed in the middle of the square so you must remember the closer you are to another operator the less accurate your directional information might be.

[VK2ZIW]

Any VK2s interested?

BMARC (Blue Mts.) VK2HZ will 'av a go' from Andrew VK2XPT's place, Mt Riverview.
6m, 2m, 70cm, 23cm.

Meteor Scatter, any possibility??

Alan VK2ZIW

[VK4ADC]

The FD is only a few days away now so a look at the weather forecast shows that it is likely to be a typical FD weekend here in SE Qld :
Partly cloudy. High (80%) chance of showers, most likely in the afternoon and evening. The chance of a thunderstorm. Winds north to northwesterly 15 to 20 km/h tending west to northwesterly during the morning then shifting southeasterly 25 to 35 km/h during the afternoon. Overnight temperatures falling to between 16 and 19 with daytime temperatures reaching around 30.
My plan is still to access Beechmont Plateau on Saturday for 8 hours unless the forecast becomes even more grim, i.e. full rain expected all day but that will be a Friday night/Saturday morning decision. I am checking through the microwave gear but fully expect 50MHz to 10.368 GHz operations.

On a different note, I have now fitted a switch on the LO for the 3400MHz gear so I can now shift between 3398 and 3400 but I need to set the switch position before I hoist the transverter assembly up in the air during FD setup. That begs a confirmation from any others in SEQ going to be active on 3400 during the FD on Saturday (4OE excepted) - are you definitely going to be on 3398.150 or 3400.150 ??

Good luck (and WX) to all during the FD.
73 Doug

[VK3LL]

Wx at the VK3KQ/p site is expected to be "Partly cloudy. Slight (20%) chance of a shower. Light winds becoming southerly 15 to 20 km/h during the day then tending southeasterly during the evening. Top temp around 21 degrees."

We're down an operator this FD as Mike VK3RZ has needed to travel OS on a unexpected business trip, so just Damian and myself will be operating our station.

Good Wx, and great DX to all!

Ralph VK3LL
(Part of the VK3KQ/p team)

[VK4CZ]

The WX for SE VK4 isn't looking too flash, but at least the forecast volume of rain may be delivered in one shower!

I'm collecting the keys for Kobble Creek Saturday morning, And hope to be up on the hill by 8am'ish!

I'll be avail on 2.4GHz from home with the home station now established. May even give 10GHz a run from the driveway!

[VK4CZ]

Seems there will be a lack of activity in SE VK4 on Sunday.... have cancelled plans. Will be on 1.2 & 2.4 from home station... and 10GHz later in afternoon to work the Doug VK4ADC if he doesnt get stormed out.

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

[VK3HY]

VK3HY will be operating for the first eight hours of the FD from Tyaak (between Broadford and Strath Creek). The location is -37.225735° 145.169095° Grid Locator is QF22os.

50MHz 100W Halo
144MHz 100W 7 element Yagi
432MHz 75W 15 element Yagi
1296MHz 10W 35 element Yagi
2403MHz 10W + 80cm WOK
10368MHz 4W 60cm WOK

Mobile phone contact number: 0427 372 277

73 Gavin, VK3HY

[VK4CZ]

Tomorrows WX for SE VK4 and NE VK2

~~ Brisbane CBD & SE QLD : Dangerous storm potential tomorrow, if you think anyone would benefit by reading this post, then please tag them in comments or share this post ~~

** Southeast QLD / Northeast NSW / Darling Downs : HIGH risk of Severe Thunderstorms tomorrow afternoon with VERY heavy (possibly intense) rainfall leading to flash flooding the primary threat **

Tomorrow is shaping up to be one of the most potentially volatile days of the season with almost a report setup of what we saw last Saturday, only this time we have much better wind shear in the mid levels of the atmosphere.

Last weekend we had almost all of the ingredients in place, except for one thing... and that was some decent wind shear in the mid and upper levels. Tomorrow we have almost the IDEAL scenario in this respect, with an exit region in the jet stream lying pretty much over the Brisbane area.... and not only this, in the middle levels of the atmosphere we have over 50 knots of steering shear and this is what could be the trigger for some supercell thunderstorms..

And if these ingredients aren't enough, we also have a strong southerly wind change which looks to be timed PERFECTLY for the SE QLD area in terms of enhancing the storm risk.

The only limiting factors I can see is the possible saturation of the atmosphere too early in the afternoon... and if this happens we might have to deal with cloud cover and reduced heating being a factor... but in saying this, I would be very surprised if the areas close to the southerly wind change don't receive at least marginally severe storms that would be capable of leading to flash flooding.

Large hail and damaging winds will also be factors that need to be considered, however due to the more saturated atmospheric profile, it's likely that hail may only be a factor early on during these storms life cycles.

As with any southerly change / triple point setups, there is always the possibility of at least damaging winds and the low risk of tornadoes where helicity is the greatest.

On the graphic below, the 1km helicity chart is the middle diagram. This shows the amount of "turning of winds" in the first 1km of the atmosphere (i.e from the ground to 1km above the ground surface). This is the most significant near the southerly change, which is tipped to be moving through the Gold Coast late in the afternoon and should be somewhere near Brisbane not long after dark.

It's not scaremongering to be mentioning the slight possibility of tornadoes in these setups, because we have nearly all the right ingredients in place... the only thing we don't have is strong deep layer wind shear. If the northerly winds ahead of the southerly change were a lot stronger? Then we would have a MUCH higher potential for tornadoes... Even still, the shear at this level isn't too bad, so if anything tornadic does happen, it will only be short lived.

Away from the SE QLD coast, there will also be widespread storms.. the Darling Downs in particular looks pretty ripe for widespread storms but these could be slightly more high based due to the atmosphere around here being just a touch drier... Taking this into account, we could see a higher risk of large hail in the storms west of the ranges.. then as we progress into the night, moisture from the southerly change will mix into the area around the Darling Downs with the potential for thunderstorms and rain areas with possibly heavy falls during the night tomorrow.. and this will also be a case around the Southeast QLD area, with possibly INTENSELY heavy short duration rainfall under the strongest storms.

Tomorrow is a big day! So if warnings are issued by the BOM in your area, don't be complacent and take note of the details contained within them.

Stay Safe everyone!

(Cam)

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

[VK4ADC]

BOM radar 7.30AM 14Nov15

I have the trailer and car packed ready to journey forth and yet I hear thunder and the sky looks mostly black. The cloud colour has been darkening in intensity since I first checked about 4.45AM and any traces of blue have now gone. Is it a good day to set up for a field day when the forecast for the day says... Partly cloudy. Very high (90%) chance of showers, most likely from late this morning. Thunderstorms likely, possibly severe. Moderate to locally heavy falls likely. Winds northwesterly 15 to 20 km/h tending northwest to northeasterly 15 to 25 km/h in the middle of the day then becoming light in the late evening. Daytime maximum temperatures around 30. with 10 to 50mm of rain expected ?

My mind says that discretion over valour is the safest option so I will not be venturing out to the normal hilltop today - apart from the fact that even if I manage to get the car and trailer into the paddock at Beechmont, I may not get it back out onto the roadway tonight. I might set up the gear to operate from home but I haven't decided yet. Apologies to others in SE VK4 for any non-appearance.

73 Doug

POST EDIT: 9AM: I have now set up some of the microwave gear in the shack and am hoping the grid-pack plus microwave log periodic feed will work at a few of the bands up to 10GHz. I have to manually change over the single feeder to each transverter to achieve a band change but at least I have the hope of running 50 MHz to 10GHz, at least until proven otherwise.

[VK3ALB]

VK3ALB is ready to go on all bands from 50MHz thru 24GHz. Details in Contest Radar. Wind is a little chilly and brisk from the SW but the sun is still with us.

[VK2ZRH]

Well done, Doug VK4ADC.

Tenacity and determination. Great Field Day spirit !

[VK4CZ]

Nothing like a hastily setup 10GHz operation from the carport to try and keep dry... but Doug VK4OE/P was RS59 over 27.5Km path.



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[VK4CZ]

WX not to forecast this morning (go figure!).

Just made the dask to the 'lookout' up the ridge and completed 10GHz Q with VK4WS/P @ 96.1km & RS59+.




Shame the forecast WX put pay to many activations.... would have liked to push the distance out.

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

[VK2ZRH]

Well done, Scott. Another example of tenacity and determination.

Now all we have to do is get a log out of Wayne.

[VK3ZAZ]

WX not to forecast this morning (go figure!).

Just made the dask to the 'lookout' up the ridge and completed 10GHz Q with VK4WS/P @ 96.1km & RS59+.




Shame the forecast WX put pay to many activations.... would have liked to push the distance out.

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

try being a pilot
at least you can park the toorak tractor and hide under an overpass
all we can do is zig and zag the micro bursts
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/VHCTF

[VK4ADC]

Well done, Doug VK4ADC.

Tenacity and determination. Great Field Day spirit !

Despite the weather outlook in SE VK4 and a partial receive failure in the microwave I.F. transceiver, I managed to achieve contacts on all bands from 50MHz to 10368MHz. Maybe I shouldn't mention the 25 metres of LDF4-50 that was being used to feed the microwave LPY and grid-pack on 2.4 / 3.4 / 5.7 and 10 as I suspect that it was really just a giant attenuation network. It's not much fun trying to operate on microwave when the I.F. receiver drops its sensitivity in the the order of 60dB - it really needs a strong signal to make the grade. It is fixed now, after the contest has finished, by replacing a front-end semiconductor....

Sincere thanks to the few operators in SE Qld that participated and I worked yesterday.

Should we now hope that the Summer FD in early January 2016 won't manifest in the same way ?

[VK5KK]

Hi All

Great weather in VK5, no significant propagation but the best level of activity seen for a few years on 1200 MHz and above. Remembered to take some photos this time, sorry no videos didn't have a cameraman!

Cheers

David VK5KK/P PF95ht

[VK2ZIW]

Bizarre scores when MaidenHeads are entered in capitals:


01:47 144 SSB VK2IUW 59001 59002 63 QF56HG QF56IF
01:51 50 SSB VK2IUW 59002 59003 21 QF56HG QF56IF
02:20 144 SSB VK2CZ 59003 59005 3 qf56hg qf56oe
02:22 420 SSB VK2CZ 59004 59006 105 QF56HG QF56OE
02:41 144 SSB VK2YOC 59005 59008 3 qf56hg qf56hi

BMARC VK2HZ operating from Andrew VK2XPT's place, East Blaxland.

[VK3BQ]

Some time-lapse video from VK3ER/P from the weekend. (it looks the same as 2012/2013/2014 sorry)..

packup is around 2 ½hrs of effort.

[VK3LL]

Wow Andrew, nice videos.

2.5 hours of packing up! That is seriously efficient. Damian and I started packing up after the FD at midday and we left the site at 8:00pm that evening.

I suspect we took it more casually, as we had a few rest breaks along the way so we could sit down, relax and enjoy the glorious weather we had on Sunday.

We had a terrific weekend. Thanks to the many stations who worked us - we appreciated it very much and it made the effort all that more worthwhile. What made the biggest impression on us was the high level of activity on Saturday afternoon - it was hard to find a spare frequency on 2m sometimes and Damian (who was operating 1296MHz and above) reckons he's never worked as hard! There were a lot more operators with 23cm this Field Day (more than any I can remember in the past) and quite a few more with 2.4GHz, it seemed as well. Thanks to the great Wx we had on the weekend, we worked a plethora of /p stations around VK1, VK3 and VK5. It was great that Andrew VK1DA was making the trip to us quite well, but without the S9+ signal enhancement we saw a few FDs ago.

Most of our system worked fine, but I blew up our new 160W UHF amp, so I'll need to go looking to see if there are any of those old TV transmitter modules still kicking around so I can rebuild it. We did have some problems with some USB drivers for Windows 10, but that was our own fault for not testing the compatibility before we left town.

All in all, a great Field Day weekend. And I think it is one of the most enjoyable I've ever had.

Cheers,

Ralph VK3LL
(part of the VK3KQ/p team of two)