3.4 GHz QSO Party

[VK2KYP]

Hi All,
I should be operational, just putting the finishing touches on my panel.
I would like to confirm a NSW liaison frequency and if it is a repeater, what tone access will be required?

looking forward to a great day

73 Gary vk2kyp

[VK2JDS]

Hi Gary,
Looks like its going to be the 146.875 manly radio club repeater at this stage. No tone required.

It would be good if you posted up those sensitivity figures you sent me, into the 3.4 construction article thread. There was quite a diference between using the old tx filter and making a 1 inch pipecap. And removing the rx front end filter.

I will be at the lookout at Kurrajong from 10 am onwards.
73 Dave jds

[VK3ALB]

Hi All,

Just a reminder that the 3.4GHz QSO party is this Sunday from 10:00am to noon AEDST.

Looking around Geelong we have nine definite starters for the day, VK3ACG, VK3ALB, VK3NW, VK3PK, VK3PY, VK3QM, VK3TU, VK3WK, VK3ZPK, Out to the south west I know VK3PP will be on Mt Leura Camperdown, at least three stations on Mt Buninyong Ballarat then we have Bernard VK3AV at Kinglake, Alan VK3XPD from home, Ross VK3MY from home, VK3KQ from Arthurs Seat, Peter VK3APW at Loch, Rod VK3BQJ from home, Gavin VK3HY at ??? and perhaps some others.

I believe there will also be a fair amount of activity in VK2 and VK5.

If I've left anyone out I'm sorry, just reply here so we know to look for you.

[VK3PF]

Hi all,

Just to clarify Lou's post, I believe it is Sunday....

OK, I have been slack - I do not yet have a panel working - still on the 'to do' list. I have started, but have yet to build the interfacing & PS boards.
I will be based at Mt Hotham this weekend with a group that will be activating SOTA summits. Plans will not be decided until Friday evening on the mountain. I will extract the old transverter out of the portable rack and take it with me. Hopefully I will be able to make arrangements to be on a summit during the activation period and will look back toward Melbourne & elsewhere. It would be great to be make some 3.4 GHz contacts. All going well, we may even have some Summit to Summit contacts. For a station to be valid for SOTA, it simply needs to be completely separate from any vehicle and/or motorised power source, and be located on a valid SOTA summit. Arthurs Seat, Mt Buninyong and Mt Leura are all SOTA summits.

So no promises, but I hope to be active.

Peter VK3PF

[VK3XL]

Add Mt Dandenong to the list where I hope to join Rob VK3MQ who will be on 3.4 GHz from the carpark

[ZL1TPH]

Are there any ZL1 ops that would like to participate come this Sunday?

I’m quite prepared to pop up a local hill /p with a TRV and a horn antenna out the window

Just to have one or two contacts on 3.4 GHz to support this VK activity session

I’ll send a PM out in the morning to locals if this is missed

Cheers, Steve – ZL1TPH

[VK3ALB]

Excellent initiative Steve,

Good luck and I hope you get a few takers.

Just a reminder to those participating to help yourself and perhaps increase your chances of someone finding where you are by registering your location on ContestRadar. It's pretty self explanatory. If you know two or more of you will be operating in the same sub-grid (6 characters) try and work out your 8 grid reference so your icons don't overlap.

[ZL1TPH]

Thank Lou,

Have registered with Contest Radar, and have lined a couple of the local ZL1 operators for the test come this Sunday.

If anything this QSO party has got me motivated, today bolted a 28 watt TRV with 144 IF on the back of a new 90 cm dish. Its an old DEM TRV feed with a VK3 PLL. Has a low noise preamp also.

Today, also mounted a 3.4 GHz tuned flange feed. If anyone is interested - the support arms are solid fiberglass 1/4 reflective rods that Mitre 10 currently sell. Real cheap.

Once finished today had a sniff of the Sun and with a rough guess around 3 dB of sun noise. Or put another way a good healthy increase in noise.

I'll be on from 11 am till 1 pm NZST Sunday and liaison will be 144.2 USB beaming South ZL.

New 90 cm dish for 3.4 GHz

144 DEM TRV for 9 cm

[VK3ALB]

The Geelong crew are ready to go and we've posted our locations on ContestRadar.

Don't forget Matt VK3PP out west on Mt Leura, Camperdown.

Geelong is ready

Also worked Bernard VK3AV today, he was a very big signal from Kinglake into the northern suburbs of Melbourne.

[ZL1TPH]

Four stations active today from ZL1 on 3400.1.
Simon ZL1SWW, Brian ZL1AVZ, Ralph ZL1TBG and myself.
Steve ZL1FS assisted at the ZL1SWW station.
Cheers, Steve

[VK5KK]

Hi All

Six stations active on 3400.2 MHz in the Adelaide area

VK5HP/P Paul PF95ih Medlow Road
VK5ZT/P Tim PF95ig Black Top Hill
VK5NE Paul PF95if Salisbury Hgts, Home QTH using transverter inside his shack!
VK5KBJ/P Barry PF94gq Louds Hill
VK5MH/P Mal PF94gq Louds Hill
VK5KK/P David PF95gf Outer Harbour near the Australian Sub Corp Dock

VK5HP/P & VK5ZT/P had contacts with VK5KK/P on 5760 & 10368 MHz respectfully using transverters with "patch panels"

A good event with a few prospective 3400 onlookers also attending, we should see some more panels going shortly

Cheers

David VK5KK

[VK3TU]

What a great turnout!

I took the opportunity to visit Ken out at Ceres (QF21DT) to see how he was going. 3.4GHz sounded like 20m! There was plenty of good contacts being made.

Too many contributors to thank individually but everyone who participated deserves some credit and especially Team GARC for the 3.4GHz panel project and for conceiving and promoting the 3.4GHz QSO Party idea. Nice to see it had an "international" flavour too with some ZL involvement. Well done all.

Bert
VK3TU

[VK2ZRH]

What a day !

Justin VK2CU picked me up and we went over to Parramatta, where he has access to the roof of what was until recently the highest tower block in the Parramatta CBD (QF56LE).

Justin took his GARC panel, his 9cm EME rig-in-a-box and four panel antennas, ranging from a squirt about 100 mm square (ex-Unwired), up to a 1m x 1m panel.

I took along my 9cm Demi transverter and my 10 GHz rig (as featured on the cover of AR mag this month), from which I could scavenge the 10 MHz output from its Trimble GPSDO to lock the Demi.

We easily worked Dave VK2JDS/P at Kurrajong (QF56HL), trying out the various panel antennas, plus the GARC rig and my Demi hooked up to the 1m panel.

Signals ranged from 59 to 55, depending on which panel was used. The GARC rig acquitted itself very well, as did my jury-rigged Demi.

Attempts to work VK2MB proved too problematic. Likewise with VK2DAG at Mangrove Mountain (who suffered through a downpour ! ).

And again, attempts to work Steve VK2KFJ/P at North Head (QF59PE) were unsuccessful, despite the fact that the Sydney CBD and Harbour Bridge were LOS. Scatter from the Chatswood CBD, likewise. Panning the GARC rig across the Sydney CBD saw a considerable rise in the noise level. We also had some odd QRM working VK2JDS/P. 9cm is not a quiet band around here.

Some sites with more promise will have to be scouted-out before the next event.

Thanks to Lou VK3ALB for organising and promoting the 1st National 3.4 GHz QSO Party.

[VK2AVR]

Great day, despite the rain! Thanks guys, it was a really neat experience playing on a new band

Article on our club website including pics and logfile here: http://www.mwrs.org.au/2016/02/21/3-4ghz-qso-party/

[VK2JDS]

Thanks to all the sydney amateurs who turned out to make the day great. I just got home as its a 7 hour round trip from out here!
With a foggy and drizzly start to the event at my spot portable at kurrajong (near the grass karts) I was able to work every station as the day unfolded. Steve vk2kfj was the strongest early , but when Roger vk2zrh and Justin vk2cu fired up from parramatta i think i saw S meter segments on the ft817 never seen before!
To the north were Matt vk2dag and Gary vk2kyp, then followed by Steve vk2xde operating off his trailer with a gridpack and demi running 120 milliwatts at mangrove mountain area.
The manly radio club team of Geoff vk2avr and Nick vk2fs at vk2mb had solid signals, notably using reflections from buildings to enhance the path from Terrey hills.
Steve vk2kfj at north head and myself then had a successful PSK31 contact before the rain and storms rolled in again over there.
There were 8 active stations in the sydney area today and we proved that 9cm was a workable band even under adverse weather conditions and tree blockage/ non line of sight paths.
73 Dave vk2jds

[ZL1TPH]

Thanks Roger, neat report !

Us ZL1's, well 4 of us activated the Auckland area, Brian ZL1AVZ was out at Muriwai, Simon ZL1SWW was up a high hill south of Auckland, Ralph ZL1TBG was home QTH Walkworth and Steve ZL1FS assisted Simon. I drove an hour north to a high spot.

Us Kiwis were a little slow on the uptake but when we heard it was the first national QSO party, well we had to join in.

I had a few problems with my DEM transverter, I must admit knocked it together with all the bells and whistles a few years back. It became stable on TX once the MMIC were warmed up ..Hi

But have my gold standard and that is the VK3XDK TRV with a 432 IF and that is a beaut. The stations above have been chatting for a number of years now re working VK on 9 cm. We have worked out it is possible.

Today was neat, a bit of fresh air, out in the field and played a bit of 9 cm in support of the VK initiative to promote these panels and the band itself. Over here in ZL we have a noisy 2.4 GHz band and 5.7 GHz is not much better - but the band of 3.4 GHz is in between, is nice and quiet and I personally think it is the best band of the lot.

Thanks also to Lou for spear heading this along...it was a test rather than a contest and that was the neat thing about it....

Cheers, Steve

[VK3AXH]

3.4G Activity Day.

Five amateurs from the Ballarat area namely VK3KG, VK3IDL, VK3BNC, VK3KQT and VK3AXH went to Mt Buninyong with 3 setups to tryout. Overall we contacted around 15 stations each from
Mt Leura near Camperdown, the broader Geelong area and East of Melbourne. The greatest distance for us was VK3MQ on Mt Dandenong a distance of approx 135km which is not bad for around
700mW from the patch antenna and looking though fairly dense trees.

I'd like to thank Lou VK3ALB and the many others from the Geelong Amateur Radio Club for organising this event and distributing the panels for modification.

Great days fun. 73 Ian - VK3AXH

[VK5ZT]

Hi all

I was out with my converted panel and some other kit as part of the VK5 effort.

Dave 5KK was near the coast and line of site from my location on a hill north of Adelaide (pf95iq)

Signals to/from Dave were naturally 59++ on 3.4 and 10 Ghz. There were stations on the same range of hills both north and south of my location but well shielded by hills, trees, houses etc. from my location. Despite this, signals were heard. Paul 5HP north of me heard me and I worked him.
Another Paul, 5NE, was at his house on the hills face south of me and easily worked Dave 5KK and I could hear him as well. In both these instances the antenna was pointed out over the plains more or less at Dave. Pointing towards these stations resulted in less or no signal!

Clearly I was hearing reflections coming back from structures out on the plains. I also attempted to work the South Coast radio club team south of Adelaide. I could hear their (FM) signals on SSB and again the strongest signal was out on the plains and not in their direction. They were nowhere near line of site to me, being so far away with many intervening hills. We did not work each other successfully but more power and antenna gain may have fixed that! We have rarely had successful contacts to them from my location.

On the hill with gear deployed, 3.4 & 10 GHz

Equipment on lightweight tripod

An interesting few hours and more 3.4 gear on air in Adelaide....

Cheers

Tim VK5ZT

[VK3MAT]

What a great day!

I went to Mt Leura in Camperdown in Victoria's west

I made 5 qso's over the morning working vk3py before the 10am start time and finishing up with an almost completed contact with vk3mq at 12:15
i feel a preamp will help these panels just push the limits even further so i don't have so many almost completed qso's, unfortunately the barrabool hills limited the number of contacts i could make into the Geelong area. was still a great morning and a lot of fun.

special thanks must go to Lou and the GARC

Matt VK3PP

[VK3PY]

What a great day this turned out to be. I took my 20W transverter with 1.2m dish to my usual field day site (QTH of the VK3UHF team) as my converted panel transverter was borrowed by Peter VK3WK who took it to Mt. Anakie.

My very first contact was with Rod VK3BQJ in Bairnsdale, a distance of about 310km. Conditions were not as good as we've experienced on other occasions. Nevertheless, we exchanged 4x1 reports both ways with relative ease.

In all I made 22 contacts into 6 grids, not a bad morning's work on 3.4GHz! Afterwards I joined the GARC after-party BBQ at the You Yangs picnic area and exchanged tall tales with some of the other participants who attended. Thanks to all those who participated and made this event a resounding success.

Chas
VK3PY