Summer VHF Field Day 2013 - 12/13 Jan

[VK3BQ]

3er/p is located in the middle of the wombat state forest south east from the fire. Hope they are safe.

Vk3bq won't be participating this weekend. You all don't have to struggle with my vertical antenna. Yay!!

[VK2KRR]

I'll be available over the weekend for contacts. 6 - 2 - 70 - 23.

I would suggest that if people are heading bush, you need to be extremely careful and mindful of the current & potential fire situation. Nothing much seems to have been written about it in this thread, and if most of u live in the cities you may not be aware of how bad it is in some areas.

I cant find the current number but there are still at least 100 fire grounds in NSW alone. Not all of these are still burning as such but are being watched as they have many smouldering stumps logs, trees etc. If the winds pick up along the current low pressure trough line it is possible these areas could re - ignite.
The other hazard will be further lightning strikes, which is what created many of these fires in the first place. If the trough hangs around, storms could build up from no where.

Current NSW fire map

Likewise, take care if you are connecting up batteries of have petrol generators at your site and other things that can produce heat and sparks. Be careful if your driving in areas with dry grass due to your exhaust heat.

Thats my duty of care, taken care of. Have fun.

EDIT - also keep an eye on the NSW RFS page if your in VK2 http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/

[VK4ADC]

Doug, are you forgetting about the S/E QLD microwave activity day in February?
The October 2012 activity day was well participated (well more than those who posted their intention) despite the patchy wet weather.
Lot's of fun, and no rules to get hung up on.
See you there, only 6 weeks to go.

No I hadn't forgotten it - but the date has yet to be confirmed and I may not be available - depending on which date is finally selected...

[VK4CZ]

Made the decision not activate VK4CZ/P with hot WX (>34c), just two or three local stations planning to be portable and almost no mention of anyone between BNE & SYD the effort:reward ratio is certainly going to be negative.

Time will be better spent working on the installation of the permanent 2m, 70cm & 23cm antenna at home.

[VK4BLP]

I might go for a short drive to a location in QG62MC after lunch or perhaps later in the evening, and see what I can hear on 6m, 2m and 70cm via my outback perth plus (6m + 2m).

Better fill up with petrol so I can keep the A/C running though !

[VK2XAX]

Given its going to be 45+ here today I wont be venturing outside much either.

That being said I intend to be QRV on 2,70 & 23cm from the home QTH at QF56if.

cheers

Tim

[VK2CSW]

Geez I wish you lot would stop with the field days...

Every time it is either freezing, blowing a gale or scorching hot.

I am not sure who it is, but one of you has annoyed the weather gods.

[VK3FJEN]

I'll be operating home station 2m & 70cm from QF21GT, Drysdale on the Bellarine Peninsula.

[VK3BQ]

How did everyone go? I called cq on 146.500 fm from Horsham yesterday afternoon to silence )

[VK2AVR]

How did everyone go? I called cq on 146.500 fm from Horsham yesterday afternoon to silence )

Operated portable under the club call VK2MB this morning for 3 hours near our repeater site. A bit quiet as I suspect most ops were active yesterday. We had 6/2/70cm/23cm, unfortunately no 23cm contacts this time round. Was nice to get out and play a bit of radio though

[VK3ALB]

Heard lots of good contacts over the weekend. Even worked my first VK4 on 6m with 100W using a discone. Just lucky I guess.

[VK3FJEN]

I had a ball. Thanks to everyone that worked me and especially those that persisted on those difficult contacts.

[VK3QI]

Hi,

You may have seen from some earlier posts that the operators from EMDRC (VK3ER/p) had an interesting weekend.

We arrived at our usual location McLaughlin Lookout in the Wombat State Forest QF22dm around 2 p.m. with 39 degrees and a strong gusting northerly,with a forecast south westerly change predicted for late in the day. Total Fire Ban Day of course.

Started to erect the tent and immediately noticed smoke to our west and decided to hold off for a while to see what eventuated - checking on the CFA website - which is an excellent quick updating site. There were two fires, one to the west and one to the east (the easterly one was contained within a hour). With the wind gusting severely, we had issues with the tent which had never occurred before in even stronger winds, so with discretion being indicated and the wind change still not arrived, we decided to leave and return to Melbourne (about 1.5 hours and 80 kms distance - it takes 15 minutes just to exit the forest).

Later on Friday evening after the wind change, we reconsidered our situation and decided to return to McLaughlin Lookout early Saturday morning but only operate for the Saturday afternoon.

In hindsight, if we had delayed our original arrival on Friday till after sunset, things may have been better - but it is always easier to be wise after the event.

With a full complement of equipment from 50 Mhz to 47 Ghz it takes about 3 hours to setup and as we found later, about 2 hours to dismantle.

We were all pretty exhausted by the end of Saturday afternoon, especially operating from makeshift operating positions, but still managed a respectable score in about 5.5 hours operating. 2860 points.

Activity in VK3 was certainly down on previous weekends, no doubt due to weather issues.

Thanks to 3XPD and 3UHF for our first DX on 24 Ghz at 113 and 74 kms respectively.

We weren't the only ones to feel the effects either - Damien VK3KQ/p who intended to operate from Mt Moliagul between Bendigo and St Arnaud had the same issues with the strong northerly winds and had to leave the site. A great pity, because Mt Moliagul is turning out to be an excellent location for catching the large trop ducts than can often settle in north of the Great Dividing Range across into SA and into western NSW. In the November FD, Damien had some excellent 600kms plus contacts on 23 and 13 cms into VK5 - but not to be this time!

Until next time!

Cheers

Peter VK3QI (VK3ER/p)

[VK4CRO]

WE @ vk4wie had a quiet day at Cooran lookout QG63kq on Saturday but Sunday
was WOW!!!
zl on 2m and 70cm -vk2ei on 2m and some openings on 6m
thanks to all
vk4wie/p
vk4mjf , vk4mil , vk4cro , vk4ksy .

[VK4ADC]

My Saturday FD outing came off better than some previous attempts, great site but too few stations on to keep busy full time. A little Es on 6M but no tropo noted on 2M. I had my first contact on 10GHz, and my second on 5.7GHz during this FD, more to come as the gear is improved. The contacts on 2.4 and 3.4 were at a distance of 112KM, an improvement over my previous distances.

My full report is at http://www.vk4adc.com/web/index.php/fie ... 73-2012sfd

Many thanks to those who gave out numbers and/or made the effort to go /P despite the lousy weather conditions and the fires around OZ.

[VK5ZD]

Hi

I operated a portable station for a few hours on Saturday then a short stint as a home station on Sunday morning (separate logs). I tried a new location for the portable operation, a massive 15m ASL. Despite that, I had no trouble working other stations on all bands up to 24GHz although the distances weren't huge (85km max. for microwave contacts).

The single biggest problem was the item of equipment I forgot to bring; Aerogard If there were any more flies around I'd be making aeronautical mobile contacts as they carried me away

That aside, the number of local stations participating was low compared to previous contests; only 13 (that's all I worked, there may have been a couple more I didn't hear). There seems to be a steady decline in numbers. Looking at my logs from past contests, the number of locals participating are (these are just the number I worked):

• Summer 2011 -- 23
  Winter 2011 --- 24
  Spring 2011 ---- 36
  Summer 2012 -- 26
  Winter 2012 --- 18
  Spring 2012 ---- 19
  Summer 2013 -- 13

This does not bode well for the future of the contest

VK5ZD field site at PF95ek

73
Iain

[VK3ALB]

That aside, the number of local stations participating was low compared to previous contests; only 13 (that's all I worked, there may have been a couple more I didn't hear). There seems to be a steady decline in numbers. Looking at my logs from past contests, the number of locals participating are (these are just the number I worked):

• Summer 2011 -- 23
  Winter 2011 --- 24
  Spring 2011 ---- 36
  Summer 2012 -- 26
  Winter 2012 --- 18
  Spring 2012 ---- 19
  Summer 2013 -- 13

This does not bode well for the future of the contest

73
Iain

Iain, get up on that hill and look East, we'll work you and I'm sure many others would be happy to you too.

[VK4BLP]

Just wish it wasn't so hot on the weekend, as I would've run /p for a lot longer than just the hour that I was on the air for.

Had been working on my tower, so nothing was up in the air to do it from home.

[VK3QI]

VK5ZD wrote

"That aside, the number of local stations participating was low compared to previous contests; only 13 (that's all I worked, there may have been a couple more I didn't hear). There seems to be a steady decline in numbers. Looking at my logs from past contests, the number of locals participating are (these are just the number I worked):
Summer 2011 -- 23
Winter 2011 --- 24
Spring 2011 ---- 36
Summer 2012 -- 26
Winter 2012 --- 18
Spring 2012 ---- 19
Summer 2013 -- 13

This does not bode well for the future of the contest "


Iain,

Without being too controversial, my worst fear is that a proposed move to distance based scoring would result in even less entrants in the states with low amateur numbers to begin with.

What incentive will there be for locals to operate and give out numbers to those few who bother to make the effort to get out at those really good DX locations?

Cheers

Peter VK3QI (and microwave operator for VK3ER/p)

[VK4FB]

I had 100 contacts, worked from home, would think twice before I spend the money for anymore microwave gear if there is no person on the other end, if you know what I mean.
The day will come where something has to change to make it happening.
If I do to my business what's happening to Ham radio I would be on the dole, I constantly have to change and work hard to get new customers.
The same thing has to happen to this hobby.
It's ok if some local stations don't want to enter in a contest that's fine.
Get new people interested into Contesting, this hobby needs some serious support 15000+ Amateurs 100 logs entered, who’s fault is it?. To many worried about change.