After breakfast, Marija and I travelled back out to Farina from Lyndhurst.  It was another beautiful morning, with relatively clear skies and thankfully no rain.  We set up again at the rear of the old Post Office.  Sadly, this was to be an exceptionally slow day on the radio.

I was set up and ready to go by 8.50 a.m. and headed to 7.073 and the morning South Aussie net, where I spoke with Gary VK5ZK, Rick VK5BGN, and Ian VK5IS.  All with great signals.

I then went up to 7.095 where I called CQ and this was answered by Ivan VK5HS in the Riverland with a good 5/9 signal, followed by Jeff VK5JK at Victor Habor (also 5/9), and then Allan in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, followed by Al VK7AN portable on the east coast of Tasmania.

But it was very slow going, with long periods of calling CQ with no takers.  After working just 15 stations on 40m, I headed up to 20m.  I called CQ on 14.250 and this was answered by Norm VK4ANB (5/8 sent and 5/7 received), then Bill VK5MBD, followed by Karl VK2GKA.  During this time I had a number of visitors to the station again, including some members of the Farina Restoration Group, and a lady whose brother was a ham.

I worked just 3 stations on 20m and decided to take the opportunity of having a look around historic Farina with Marija.  Many of the tourists had either left or were leaving.  But the Farina Restoration Group volunteers were still busy manning the underground bakery and restoring some of the buildings.  And yes, I did pay the bakery a visit again.  The underground wood fired baked pasties and apple/cinnamon scrolls were extremely yummy.

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After a 2 and 1/2 break from the radio, I went back to 20m and called CQ again.  But nothing much had changed.  It was very slow going with just 4 takers in VK1, VK3, VK4, and VK5.  So I headed back to 40m and worked Larry VK5LY in the Riverland, Adrian VK5FANA on the Yorke Peninsula, and Brian VK5FMID in Mount Gambier.

So I tried my luck on 15m and called CQ on 21.250 but sadly had no takers.  So it was back to 20m again where I found the band to be almost dead and very flat.  I booked in to the ANZA DX Net and worked VK2, VK3, VK4, VK4, USA, New Zealand, and the Marshall Islands.  At the end of the net I called CQ on 14.250 and this was responded to by John VK3JLS, followed by Ian VK6DW, and then Noel VK3NDX.

The 20m band was clearly down (now I know why, because of the solar flares & CME’s).  Peter G2YT called me and he was only a 5/7.  Peter is normally an exceptionally strong signal on 20m and to my great disapointment Peter gave me a 2/1 signal report.  Other than Peter, the only other DX stations I worked on 20m was Joe EA8DAJ in the Canary Islands, and Jim KA3UNQ in Maryland USA.

So after working just 14 stations on 20m I tried 15m and called CQ on 21.250.  This was answered by Geoff VK6FNLW and then JR6BF in Japan.  But it was time to pack up.  It was approaching 5.00 p.m. and we had planned to travel into Lyndhurst that night for a meal at the pub.

So at the end of a rather disapointing day I had a total of 54 contacts in the log.

Making my total contacts from Farina……….162.

I was rewarded with an amazing sunset at Farina as I was packing up.

On Thursday I worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-

1. VK5ZK
2. VK5BGN
3. VK5IS
4. VK5HS
5. VK5JK
6. VK5FD
7. VK7AN/p
8. VK5FMJC
9. VK5VGC
10. VK5TW
11. VK3YW/m
12. VK5KLD
13. VK5DC/p
14. VK5KPR
15. VK5MBD
16. VK5LY
17. VK5FANA
18. VK5FMID

I worked the following stations on 20m SSB:-

1. VK4ANB
2. VK5MBD
3. VK2GKA
4. VK4VI
5. VK5HS
6. VK1MCK
7. VK3VIN
8. VK4CC
9. K7INA
10. VK4SWE
11. VK7XX
12. VK4TD
13. ZL2BAQ
14. VK3IDM
15. VK4NH/8
16. VK2CV
17. ZL1PWD
18. K5KT
19. V73/WW6RG
20. ZL1ANF
21. VK4EU
22. AE7KI
23. VK3JLS
24. VK6DW
25. VK3NDX
26. VK2VU
27. VK6TDF/m
28. G2YT
29. VK3GH
30. VK4WM
31. EA8DAJ
32. VK2MI
33. VK3JL
34. KA3UNQ
35. VK1TX
36. VK1UU

I worked the following stations on 15m SSB:-

1. VK6FNLW
2. JR6BF

Here is a short video of our activation at Farina…..