After our activation of Mount Bates, Marija and I headed in to town for some dinner. After some take away we decided to head back to Mount Pitt for some more radio action as we had a few planned activities for other nights during the week.
Mount Pitt stands at 320 metres above seal level and is the second highest point on Norfolk Island after Mount Bates. It is located within the Norfolk Island National Park VKFF-0392.
Above:- Map showing our operating spot at Mount Pitt.
Marija and I set up in the Mount Pitt carpark, using the permapine log fence in the carpark as an anchor point for the 6 metre squid pole. I ran the Yaesu FT-757d for this activation, set at 40 watts. The transceiver was powered by a 12 volt car battery which the hire car company had kindly provided to us on request. As it was a cold and wet night, I operated from the passenger sear of the vehicle.
My first contact after calling CQ on 7.130 was with Stef VK5HSX/2 in the Hat Head National Park, VKFF-0230. Not a bad start….a Park to Park contact back to the Australian mainland. I was then called by VK9NT, the Norfolk Island DXpedition team. The call was being used by Chris VK3QB. All of the VK9NT crew then called me using a variety of different calls….nine in total. The boys advised that they would come for a drive to say g’day.
Whilst waiting for them to arrive I continued to call CQ on 7.130 and had a steady flow of callers from the Australian mainland, USA, Japan, and New Zealand. Band conditions appeared to be quite good, with most VK signals being around the strength 9 mark. The few USA and Japan stations who gave me a call were also very strong.
After working 41 stations, the VK9NT crew arrived. They were in a people mover van, so we all crammed in there and shared a beer and a few war stories for abut half an hour. Once the boys had left I went back to 7.130 and called CQ again. This was answered by JR7AMZ in Japan, followed by David VK5PL, Les VK5KLV, and Darren ZL2/2E0UGO mobile in Wellington.
I kept the frequency warm for the 7130 DX Net and worked a number of the usual net participants leading up to the commencement of the Net. This included William FO5JV in French Polynesia who was 5/9 ++. Sadly there were very few stations that booked in to the Net despite band conditions being quite good. As it was very quiet on the Net I decided to go QRT and head back to the Paradise Hotel for a good nights sleep.
I had a total of 56 contacts in the log and had qualified the reference for the World Wide Flora Fauna (WWFF) program. Of the 56 contacts, 34 of those were back to VK, 9 were to Norfolk Island, 1 was to the USA, 8 were to Japan, 1 to French Polynesia, and 6 to Japan.
The following stations were worked:-
- VK5HSX/2 (Hat Head National Park VKFF-0230)
- VK9NT (VKFF-0392)
- VK3QB/p (VKFF-0392)
- VK3YB/p (VKFF-0392)
- VK3HJ/9 (VKFF-0392)
- VK3GK/9 (VKFF-0392)
- VK3SK/p (VKFF-0392)
- VK3VNA/9 (VKFF-0392)
- NE3M/VK9 (VKFF-0392)
- VK2CA/p (VKFF-0392)
- VK4FSTX
- VK2ON
- VK3OHM
- VK2SB mobile
- KB2KDP
- VK2PJF
- VK4FAAS
- ZL1RDK
- ZL4AU
- VK2SK
- VK5TT
- VK3KRH
- VK3MGK
- VK3TJK
- ZL2AIB
- VK4ME
- VK3ZPF
- VK2FSAV
- ZL2LI
- VK3SQ
- VK7CW
- VK2KDP
- JH7PHD
- JA5CIC
- JA5AQC
- VK3GGG
- VK2XXM
- VK3BBB
- VK4LAT
- VK4ZEJ
- JR7AMZ
- VK5PL
- VK5KLV
- ZL2/2E0UGO mobile
- ZL1AAW
- VK2IUW
- VK7ROY
- VK5WG
- FO5JV
- JA5BEN
- VK2FOUZ
- VK1MTS
- VK5KBJ/4
- VK2STO
- VK4FFAB
- VK3OB
VK5PAS 
Great activation mate … pity band was not open to EU … 😦 73 44
Hi Danny,
Sorry I didn’t get you in the log. Propagation to Europe is very different from Norfolk Island than on the Australian mainland. Norfolk is around 1,400 km east of the Australian eastern coast. There was no long path propagation. I worked only 6 or so European stations. Some of the VK’s I was working on 20m were telling me that Europe was calling, but I could not hear a peep from Europe. I suspect they were not actually hearing me. What they were calling, I don’t know.
Cheers,
Paul,
VK5PAS (VK9PAS).