RF63 RF65 mid Jan 2014 report

[ZL1TPH]

Second trip to the north January 2014, activated RF63 and RF65 to VK, the reason for the trip, to take advantage of the duct which appeared to favour the north of ZL, along with activating these two grid squares that are not that commonly operated from, also to have a holiday with some radio fun added. All contacts are with SSB unless noted otherwise.

Day 1 Thursday 16 January 2014; drove to RF63 worked VK2IJM, VK2DVZ, VK2AH, VK2ARA, VK2GKA, VK2BCC, VK2KOL, VK2TK on 144, then carried on north and booked into the Kaitaia motel (The Kaitaia motel BTW is in RF64)

Day 2 Friday 17 January 2014; drove to the top of ZL, RF65 and worked, VK2ARA, VK2DVZ, VK2ZT, VK2NC, VK2MAX, VK2AH, VK2IJM, VK2BXT, VK2BCC, VK7MO, VK2GKA, VK2TK on 144, on 70 cm VK2ZT, and VK7MO and VK7MO with JT65.

Day 3 Saturday 18 January 2014, drove back up to RF65 and this was the best day with a pipe into VK2, worked VK2AMS, VK2DVZ, VK2ZQ, VK2ZT, VK2ARA, VK2AH, VK2KOL, VK2BCC, VK2BLS, VK2MAX, VK2BXT, VK2BZE, VK2NC, VK2FLJD, VK2IJM, VK2TS, VK2TK, VK2BCC, VK2BJ, VK2HLX, VK2GKA on 144, on 432 VK2DVZ, VK2ZT, VK2AH, VK2ARA, VK2BXT, VK2BZE, on 1296 VK2ZT and VK2DVZ, also worked VK2DVZ on 1296 JT65. Of note heard the 1296.420 beacon for a number of hours. The beacon wobbles a bit with the CW but no complaints from this side of the pond because I used it to align my dish on VK2.

Day 4 Sunday 19 January 2014, left the Kaitaia motel and drove back down to RF63, worked VK2ZT, VK2IJM, VK2AH, VK2BCC, VK2NC, VK2BXT, VK2KOL and VK2MAX on 144, on 432 VK2BCC only, of interest while running JT65 towards VK4 was seen by VK4EDD and his report back on the logger confirmed to me that he saw me because he reported back to me what I was sending without anyone knowing beforehand, also worked VK2KOL on JT65.

A good 4 days activity, I’m sure I spent more time driving than operating, but with tropo ducting you can only work so much in so many hours or in one half day and it’s nice to get back to the comforts of home or the motel each evening, because operating many bands out of a car or wagon can be stressful at the best of times and tiring, I had 3.4 and 2.4 GHz just in case but never used, found having WSJT capabilities added the interest of doing something different and have learnt a lot by doing so.

Cheers, Steve

[ZL3ADT]

Great report Stephen, lots of effort and it payed off.
We could do with some of that stress down here !

Ross

[VK2DVZ]

A great enthusiastic effort put in again Stephen for which we in VK are very grateful.

Without your splendid effort and dedication to DX together with the time that you sacrifice from your regular work, family and private activities, many a VK-ZL contact may not have occurred on various bands for many 'across the pond' on numerous occasions. Your latest trip north was no exception and yes I too will be looking forward to more opportunities should you choose to go portable again in the future.

From VK2DVZ, thank you Stephen.

[ZL1SWW]

Hi Steve,

Yes good effort. I could hear you sometimes working the DX when I pointed north from the home QTH. Also enjoyed getting out and having some great contacts to VK on 2 and 70 from a portable location today. Amazing what a bit of height does.

Harry ZL1BK was at 100 m ASL, Mark ZL1BNO at 200 and myself at 327 m ASL. Checked the path profile from the site out to 270 degrees and only major bump for me was 122 m out at 40 km away at south head. Harry couldn't hear much at all at 100 m, Mark worked 2 VKs and I worked about 8 - 10 today with 3 on 70 cm. Interesting to note the heights of ducting etc, as Harry was working well at 100 m ASL the previous day (but not today) and also had many contacts. It was a good test with us all working concurrently to see the effects of height and signal levels. It was very hazy today with limited visibility.

Heard Ross VK2DVZ on 1296 51 but I need more power than 15 watts or so. A PA maybe next on the list.

Thanks all you VK guys involved today and the previous days. Without you all, it wouldn't be as much fun. Also noted some of the dedication in VK, getting up at 4 am to catch the ZL DX in the morning. Enjoyed some good rag chews on 120 - thru 150 on 2m. Good to have the conditions holding as long as they did.

Cheers,

Simon.
ZL1SWW

[VK2AMS]

As Ross VK2DVZ succinctly put it , a great time was had by many vk's and zl stations on this troppo opening ,really appreciate the travelling and time you put into
being "there" for the dx Steve and also to the other stations, I have the 3.4 GHz @ 40W system ready steve just looking for the "big red" on hepburn!!well done all!
73 mark VK2AMS

[VK2DVZ]

Steve's 23cm SSB signal into QF68gd on 17-1-2014utc from Cape Reinga RF55jm, after I had worked him.



and for comparison, Steve's cw beacon as captured back in October 2012 from Cape Reinga.



Incidentally, my station setup is an 2.4m solid Andrew dish permanently mounted at about 6.5m above the ground, controlled from the shack. The earlier (2nd) video was taken when I was using my original VE4MA style feed and the most recent (1st) video was using my OK1DFC feed on the dish. Preamp mounted at the feed in each case.

[ZL1TPH]

Picture of my 23 cm set up from RF65 a few days ago, its and old MMT feeding a 10 Watt brick then into a PQL 150 Watt PA.
On the hill or portable its good for a 100 Watts or so, because I use the same 24 volt battery bank to power my 144 PA, volts do drop after a while with most activity on 144.
Has a low noise preamp build by Kevin ZL1UJG, the 4 metres of coax to the dish has 0.9 dB of loss.
Have a 202 on the unit, but setup to use my FT817 also with a quick swap of coax leads if required.
My FT817 can run all bands, but the idea is to have the TS700a run 144, the FT817 run 432 and the 202 run 23 cm.
Encourage anyone to run or operate portable to take advantage of propagation, because I don't have a good home QTH to work VK, so have to operate portable.
Up in the far north of ZL, it is magic for DX to VK, when the prop is in that is.
Cheers, Steve

[VK2KOL]

Thanks for the contacts Steve and as I mentioned on the air we really appreciate your efforts.

I had no Sporadic E contacts this season but the recent tropo opening to ZL was perfect.


Regards,

Colin

VK2KOL