VK6LD/p at Albany awaiting 2M & 70cms across the Bight!

[VK6LD]

Hello All,

Just a quick post for those of you interested in working VK6 across the Great Australian Bight on 2M & 70CM bands - and following on from an earlier thread titled "Where are the VK6's ??" - viewtopic.php?f=11&t=11553

I have recently set up a remote station in Albany WA, using an IC706MK2G and a product called RemoteRig (http://www.remoterig.com/wp/). The RemoteRig product allows me to operate from my QTH in Perth and to transmit/receive remotely from Albany, approx 400kms south.

I have yagis for 2M & 70CM pointing east towards Adelaide & Melbourne and destinations in between. Now just waiting for the right conditions and the bands to open to make some contacts with those I have worked previously and those new to the bands (as well as get some return on the time & money I have invested in getting this on the air!

I will post more details on the project a bit later when time permits, but in the meantime, if the bands open west, please text me to come up on air. Details are in my VK Logger profile. Please though do remember the 2.5 - 3 hour time difference we currently have been the eastern states and the other 1/3 of the country that the rest of Australia forgets about (ie: WA) I still also need to get my beauty sleep!

73's

Rob...
VK6LD

7 element 2M yagi & 12 element 70cm yagi by M2. 2/70 collinear by Diamond.

[VK3OE]

Hello Rob,

Absoultely great to have a good 2m and 0.7m staition in Albany, thank you. I also have a remote rig station (VK3OER) and it is very reliable.
Could you update your grid locator to 8 digits as I would like to know exactly where your /P station is please. The mapping function on the logger will make this very simple.
Looking forward to further details, and working you /P.

73
Andrew
VK3OE/VK3OER

[VK5BC]

Good work Rob, I look forward to working you again and hopefully this may stir up some interest from other VK6 stations.

thanks & 73's Brian
VK5BC

[ADMIN]

The Logger only supports 6 character grid squares at the moment.
(The newer "Mapping" page will resolve to 8 characters though.)

Rob has specified a lat/lng which lands in the Albany Golf Club car park!
Lat/Lng is always preferred over a grid square for better accuracy.
With a square, there is always going to be a margin of error, whereas lat/lng is absolute.

Using the mapping, Rob could determine his real lat/lng (if not meant to be the car park) and update his /P profile.
It's more than close enough for the east coast though.

Other members can then use the mapping to
Locate Users > enter VK6LD/P > click Locate User(s)
Click on the yellow marker (becomes the last clicked position)
Click Set as origin
Then Locate Users > enter your own call sign > click Locate User(s)
Click on your own marker, and distance, bearing, and the path profile comes up.

[VK6LD]

Hello Rob,

Absoultely great to have a good 2m and 0.7m staition in Albany, thank you. I also have a remote rig station (VK3OER) and it is very reliable.
Could you update your grid locator to 8 digits as I would like to know exactly where your /P station is please. The mapping function on the logger will make this very simple.
Looking forward to further details, and working you /P.

73
Andrew
VK3OE/VK3OER

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for your post. I looked at your QRZ pages for VK3OE and VK3OER with much interest. Maybe we could correspond via e-mail on details of your remote setup and some further photos of your installation.

I'm holding my breath with the switch mode power supply and also having live with an Optus 3G internet connection I have put in at the remote station. The 3G internet connection \seems to be settling down in periods that are outside the evening busy peak / rush hour.

Regarding my grid locator, I have created a new profile VK6LD/P with my Albany QTH. The Logger database only allows 4 or 6 digits, so I have included GPS co-ords on my VK6LD/P profile and the 8 digit is OF84XX18. See: http://www.vklogger.com/opinfo.php?acti ... rd=VK6LD/P.

Also looking forward to some openings across the Bight into the eastern states over the summer months. Hope we might be able to work on 2 or 70.

Cheers,

Rob...
VK6LD

[VK6LD]

Good work Rob, I look forward to working you again and hopefully this may stir up some interest from other VK6 stations.

thanks & 73's Brian
VK5BC

Hi Brian,

Thanks for your message. Going on previous activity, I think either you or VK5AKK will be one of my first contacts...!

Hopefully will get a truckload of contacts over the summer to make the blood, sweat, tears & cash worth it!

Cheers.

Rob...
VK6LD

[VK4OX]

Hi Rob,
I'll be very interested to see how your remote station performs this summer.

Just wondering if your beam rotator is remote controlled also.. Probably 90% of your 144MHz qso's will be via tropo into vk3_5_7, but it is not impossible for double hop Es propagation to occur into vk2..That has happened before, several times. Being able to beam to vk2_4 would be advantageous.

I don't think ANY vk6_vk4 double hop, two-way ssb/cw Es qso's have EVER been recorded on 144MHz, but I could be wrong about that.

I have researched the path between OF84xx18 and my qth, QG63kf83dl.. qrb=3445km. Your qtf to me is 84 degrees.

The half way point along the Great Circle Path, (GCP), is in PF87cv36as. This happens to be in Lake Gairdner, which may or may not be water but, even dry, I think would be a salt lake and should provide a gud ground reflection point required at the midpoint of the path...

Single hop 144MHz Es into vk5 from my qth is quite common..Several openings will occur every summer.. I'm sure you will find similar 144MHz single hop Es propagation into vk5 from your remote station. All we need is the "Daily Double".. I guesstimate the probability at about 1%. That is, one opening in every 100 Single hop 144MHz Es openings from either end of the path will support a double hop.

The key thing is to have active stations at both ends of the path and your remote station could be a very powerful aid in probing any opening..

The optimum time of day seems to be in from 0500z onwards until sunset on the east coast but any daylight path would be worth watching..Any day from now on until end on January is possible with the max between about Dec 17'th
to Jan 15'th

vklogger is also a crucial tool in co-ordinating these low probability qso's.

It's a long shot, but not impossible.

I'll be looking...

73, Adrian. VK4OX.

[VK2KRR]

Well done Rob, a great effort
I'll be looking out on 2 & 70 of course, but its usually going to be early morning for me being well inland.

Adrian, Im pretty sure the yagis are simply fixed beaming between Adelaide & Melb with a broad main lobe to cover most of these areas.

[VK6LD]

Hi Adrian,

Thanks for your reply.

The yagis are fixed facing approx 100 deg azimuth and no rotator. The rationale behind this being from my location, Adelaide is about 95 deg and Melbourne is approx 105 deg.

The 2M yagi is a 7 element M2 antenna and the 70cm yagi is a 12 element M2 antenna. Specs for 2M yagi is 12.3dBi gain, 20dB FB and 43 deg beamwidth. I deliberately kept the 2M yagi short down to 7 elements so it wouldn't be needing a rotator for the majority of QSO's and the area which I'm in, the houses are pretty close together, so need to keep the neighbours happy! Yagis on 20-40ft booms hanging over the fence tends to upset most neighbours.

Regarding the E's & double hop E's during the daylight hours, I will try to keep and ear/eye out, but do work during the week. When I lived down near Albany, there was an opening one day through to VK2 during the daytime, which I was aware of, but by the time I could break free from work to get home and get on air, the sporadic E propagation had closed down. It really was a matter of being in the right place at the right time!

73's,

Rob...
VK6LD

Hi Rob,
I'll be very interested to see how your remote station performs this summer.

Just wondering if your beam rotator is remote controlled also.. Probably 90% of your 144MHz qso's will be via tropo into vk3_5_7, but it is not impossible for double hop Es propagation to occur into vk2..That has happened before, several times. Being able to beam to vk2_4 would be advantageous.

I don't think ANY vk6_vk4 double hop, two-way ssb/cw Es qso's have EVER been recorded on 144MHz, but I could be wrong about that.

I have researched the path between OF84xx18 and my qth, QG63kf83dl.. qrb=3445km. Your qtf to me is 84 degrees.

The half way point along the Great Circle Path, (GCP), is in PF87cv36as. This happens to be in Lake Gairdner, which may or may not be water but, even dry, I think would be a salt lake and should provide a gud ground reflection point required at the midpoint of the path...

Single hop 144MHz Es into vk5 from my qth is quite common..Several openings will occur every summer.. I'm sure you will find similar 144MHz single hop Es propagation into vk5 from your remote station. All we need is the "Daily Double".. I guesstimate the probability at about 1%. That is, one opening in every 100 Single hop 144MHz Es openings from either end of the path will support a double hop.

The key thing is to have active stations at both ends of the path and your remote station could be a very powerful aid in probing any opening..

The optimum time of day seems to be in from 0500z onwards until sunset on the east coast but any daylight path would be worth watching..Any day from now on until end on January is possible with the max between about Dec 17'th
to Jan 15'th

vklogger is also a crucial tool in co-ordinating these low probability qso's.

It's a long shot, but not impossible.

I'll be looking...

73, Adrian. VK4OX.

[VK4OX]

fb Rob,

Well, if ur fixed qtf is 100 degrees, ur qtf to me of 84 degrees is well within the 3dB beamwidth of ur yagi, so I don't think that is too much of a problem.

I was in Sydney when both of the 144MHz openings to vk6 occurred. The first occurred when I was at work and I missed it.. I thought it would never happen again but it did, about one yer later and I was ready for that one.. I don't have my logs in front of me atm but, from memory, the band was open for over 30 minutes and I worked VK6WG and VK6BE.. Signals were NOT weak, about s7 at best. They were heard as far north as Port Macquarie.. Throughout that opening, Brian, VK5BC, could hear both ends of the link and was well over s9 into Sydney..

So,I understand how work "gets in the way" of things... At least we have vklogger to alert us to possible openings,,, The most likely days for 144MHz Es openings are between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day, and many operators are on holidays during this period so it is a good idea to be close to the radio or at least have vklogger running to monitor events during that period.

73, Adrian. VK4OX.

[VK5ACY]

@VK6LD:- Thanks for your efforts in getting a much needed/much wanted VHF/UHF station going.

I hope to work you from my location (East of the Mount Lofty Ranges) ..... I will certainly be trying for you. .

Bill VK5ACY
BOWHILL Sth Australia
PF95sb

[VK2KRR]

I will try to keep and ear/eye out, but do work during the week

It really was a matter of being in the right place at the right time!

I was in Sydney when both of the 144MHz openings to vk6 occurred. The first occurred when I was at work and I missed it..

I understand how work "gets in the way" of things... At least we have vklogger to alert us to possible openings

Just some of the situations where WSPR is advantageous ....

[VK5AKK]

Great news Rob. I have just got another tower up so I will be able to keep the old "system B" K1FO 13 el beaming west most of the time. If you call CQ around the hour or half hour when your on air, it makes things less random.
Looking forward to putting the remote station to the test.
Cheers
Phil

[VK2ZRH]

Congratulations on realising your vision, Rob.

I have confidence that the propagation gods will smile upon you

73, Roger Harrison VK2ZRH

[VK6LD]

Thanks all for your messages and I look forward to making many contacts on 2M & 70CM.

The south coast area of WA, around Albany & Esperance is only sparsely populated with amateurs and of these, only a few are setup for long haul DX on 2M & 70CM. Having lived down that way previously from 2007 - 2011, I had a great time working into VK5 & VK3 when the VHF & UHF bands were open. Unfortunately work brought me back to Perth in 2011 and the opportunities to work east from Perth on 2M & 70CM are quite rare.

I just wanted to put up a short post of a project I have been working on for the last few months to hopefully give 2M & 70CM operators in the eastern states another voice to talk to on the VK6 end of the Great Australian Bight DX path.

I purchased the RemoteRig system (http://www.remoterig.com/wp/) from a company called Microbit.se, which is owned & operated by a few boffins that happen to be hams about 6 months ago and interfaced it with an Icom IC706MK2G. After some toying around with the system for a month or 2, I realised how versatile & powerful the system was and the large number of possibilities it could be used for.

I was able to go mobile around Perth & country WA using a 3G/4G mobile connection & high gain 850/900MHZ antenna in my car, working stations on HF & VHF/UHF from my home antennas.

My thinking and aim was to also get back to working some DX across the Bight and secondary to that was also to work locals on FM, a secondary HF station for local contacts and something to operate when I visit back to Albany.

Fortunately, I still own a property in Albany, so I had somewhere to site the equipment and I needed to install an antenna system from scratch, an internet connection and a secure area to install all the equipment. This was to include 2M & 70CM yagis to point east, the 2M/70CM collinear for FM contacts and a Codan 9350 auto tune mobile antenna for HF operations.

Fast forward a few months and I have gathered all the requisite pieces and scheduled a trip to Albany to install. The installation of the antennas, pole & brackets, running cables neatly, constructing a secure cupboard, relocating the TV antenna to minimise an potential for TVI, setting up a 3G mobile broadband connection & reconfiguring the RemoteRig hardware & software to suit all took me the best part of 2 weeks work - Much to the XYL's displeasure!

In all my careful checklists & packing, I managed to leave behind an all important cable the connected the RemoteRig box to the main radio body of the IC706MK2G. As the connection to the IC706MK2G, is a special proprietary connector, I wasn't able to source a replacement locally to get the system up and running on air. Without the cable lead, I was stuffed.

Not content to leave turning on the system until my next visit in Feb 2014, I made an 800km round trip back to Perth one day to collect the forgotten lead - The XYL thought I was mad!

Anyway, with the cable in hand, the system was hooked up on the last night I was in town before returning to Perth. I finally got everything running on the local network (LAN) by about 11.30pm, but was having issues getting connected via the internet by going through a second 3G/4G modem on a different provider. After about 1.5 hours the problem was tracked to an incorrect stored password in one of the stored 3G/4G modem profiles.

I crawled into bed around 1.30am but had to be up early the next morning to prepare to head back to Perth. Bleary eyed, I got up earlyish the next morning and made some more tests/checks of the system. Everything seemed OK and touch wood it is still working for me.

So far, the Optus 3G is holding up, but can be a bit laggy at night - for the price I can live with it. As there is no phone line into the house, a wireless broadband connection is the only way to get internet into the house. The Optus 3G mobile broadband connection costs me $15 per month for 2GB peak & 2GB off peak data. By comparison, something wireless (4G) from Telstra would cost me around $50/mth for 1GB of data and to get ADSL installed at the house would cost me $299 connection fee, plus around $60 - $70 for a phone line & basic ADSL service.

Anyway, that's the story with the RemoteRig setup. Plenty of other stories I could tell about my experience with the RemoteRig, but don't want to bore you all to death!

I'm happy to answer any questions you mioght have.

Cheers,

Rob...
VK6LD

[VK2KRR]

Hey Rob, looks like those trees aren't going to affect the 2m yagi a great deal
Congrats for this morning being able to hear 144 MHz signals from VK5AKK, VK5BC, VK6DZ and VK2KRR on WSPR.
The conditions I would class as relatively poor for a Bight path so there is a lot of scope for improvement in signal strength, dependant upon what mother nature can provide for us.
There is also a lot of scope for spreading of signals to other areas, it appeared quite confined to Adelaide and this direction today. I know there are a couple of Melbournian stations itching to hear a VK6 signal come through. No doubt many others also.
I noticed a brief peak at my sunrise when I first heard Derek VK6DZ signal, and then it faded, then another peak around your sunrise, which tapered off again maybe 20 mins later.
No signal noticed at all from the Albany beacons here either. Although Esperance was up to 4/1.

VK6LD/p 2m WSPR paths morning Sat 14.12.13

[VK6DZ]

That,s interesting Leigh as I could hear your signal quite well, but no sign of any beacons from Adelaide and VK6REP was down in the noise.

[VK6LD]

Hello All,

Last Saturday, I made a one day 800km round trip from Perth - Albany - Perth to make some adjustments to the Remote Rig, the 3G modem/router and some software updates to the devices. It was a long day, awake at 4.40am, on the road by 5.30am and back home to Perth at 6.30pm. Hopefully the system is now more reliable in rebooting itself when the internet connection is lost and returning to service.

Whilst on site, I remembered to take a photo of the installation inside the cupboard. I still have a bit of work to do improving the 3G signal and some tidying up of all the wiring & interconnecting cables.

First photo is a pic of the install cupboard (which is actually the top shelf of a laundry linen cupboard which has been enclosed), the second gives a description of the different components that make up the system and the third is what someone would see if they were looking in the linen cupboard.

Remote Rig installation

Description of system parts.

Cupboard closed - Ready to go home.

[VK2ZRH]

Neat ! (As in "cool" )

[VK3BQ]

Rob

hepburn suggests saturday day / night and early sunday might be possible from vk3/vk5 this weekend given many will be in the field with the contest on.

i wonder if we could entice you to have a listen when the contest is going

http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo_aus.html