Last Saturday morning I attended the Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Club (AHARS) ‘shack’ at Blackwood for the regular monthly tech morning. With the help of Chris VK4FR, I delivered a power point presentation with some tips for operating portable.
Chris and I also had a display of portable equipment with us including: Yaesu FT-857d, Yaesu FT817nd, Elecraft KX3, various power sources including SLAB, LiFePo, etc, bothy bag, hand held GPS gear, antennas and a variety of other equipment.
The session which lasted about 90 minutes, was attended by 12 keen amateurs from AHARS.
On Friday afternoon (22nd May 2015) I headed over to the Mylor Conservation Park (CP). I had activated the park twice before, but this would be my first activation under the World Wide Flora Fauna (WWFF) program. The Mylor CP was recently added to the WWFF program.
For information on my previous activations, have a look at…..
I set up in my normal spot, just inside the gate off Whitehead Road, which runs off the Strathalbyn Road. The park is very well signposted on the Strathalbyn Road so there are no problems in locating the park.
Above:- My operating spot. Image courtesy of mapcarta.com
I started off on 40m and called CQ on 7.144. It took a few minutes before some of the regulars found me. First up was Mick VK3PMG in western Victoria (5/9 both ways), followed by Paul VK3DBP (5/9 both ways), Peter VK3PF (5/9 both ways), and then Amanda VK3FQSO running just 500 milliwatts (5/8 sent and 5/9 received).
I worked a total of 16 stations on 40m from VK1, VK2, VK3, and VK5, before QSYing to 20m. I could not get on my nominated operating frequency of 14.244 as there were stations either side from Europe. So I headed up to 14.310 and called CQ. After a few calls, I was called by Baden VK7BRY, followed by John VK2EJP and then Adam VK2YK. My fourth contact on 20m was John VK5BJE.
Thanks to Adam VK2YK who spotted me on the DX cluster, as this resulted in the European park hunters finding me. After working John, I was called by a number of European and UK callers. First taker was Danny ON4VT, followed by Axel DL1EBR and then Luciano I5FLN.
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After working a total of 36 stations, things slowed down. So I took the opportunity of tuning around the band. I found a very rare DXCC working a pile up on 14.225. It was Bruce ZD7VC on St Helena Island. I had worked Bruce before, from home and also whilst out portable, but I was determined to get Bruce in the log from another park. I persevered for about 20 minutes and finally made contact (5/8 sent and 5/6 received).
Below is a video of how well Bruce was coming in to Mylor CP…..
After working Bruce I quickly went back to 40m to hopefully get Adrian VK5FANA in the log. Adrian had sent me an SMS message asking me if I was going to go back to 40m. I could not get back onto 7.144 as it was occupied by some other stations, so I called CQ a few times on 7.140 and I was very pleasantly surprised to receive a call from the man himself, Adrian. This was followed by another park stalwart, Rob VK4FFAB. Peter VK2NEO who was mobile then called me, followed by another dedicated park hunter, Doug VK2FMIA. My last caller was Leo VK3FLMR mobile.
At 5.30 p.m. (0800 UTC) I packed up my gear and headed home. My son was coming up for tea and to watch the Aussie Rules football with me. This was another successful activation with a total of 58 stations in my log.
On Thursday night (21st May 2015) I gave a quick presentation on the World Wide Flora Fauna (WWFF) program and the VK5 National and Conservation Parks Award. It was just a quick 30 minute presentation to introduce the group to these 2 great park portable programs.
There were about 50 people in attendance including quite a few park activators and hunters, including John VK5BJE, David VK5KC, David VK5LSB, Doc VK5BUG, Greg VK5GJ, Norm VK5GI and David VK5AAH.
I took along my Yaesu FT857d, Yaesu FT817nd, a few antennas, a variety of power sources including SLAB battery, LiFePo, and 44 hour power pack, and also some certificates.
Photos above courtesy of John VK5EMI.
Hopefully it inspired a few more hams to get involved in portable activity.
Following the presentation, myself, John VK5BJE, David VK5KC, and Trevor VK5ATQ answered questions from the floor re our attendance at the recent 2015 WIA AGM in Canberra.
But prior to my presentation I was called up by Barry VK5BW, the AHARS President, who gave me a very nice surprise. It was a ‘Certificate of Excellence’ from the WWFF Council.
Photo courtesy of John VK5EMI.
I learnt that the certificate had been sent all the way from Pit YO3JW in Romania, to Nick VK3ANL in Victoria and in turn it had been forwarded on to AHARS here in South Australia. It came as a great surprise.
I would like to thank Pit and the rest of the WWFF Committee. It was take great pride in my shack, along with my recent WIA Presidents certificate for my involvement in the WWFF program.
Here’s what appeared on the WWFF ‘global’ website……
I was very pleased to receive in the mail the other day, my certificate for the 2015 John Moyle Field Day (JMMFD). I came first in the Single Operator, Phone Only, HF Band 6 hour operation (PORTABLE).
I headed down to the Coorong National Park for the JMMFD. For information on the activation, please see…..
A few months ago, I announced that I would send out some participation certificates to the 41 amateurs who ventured out to activate a National and/or Conservation Park during the 2nd year anniversary of the VK5 National and Conservation Parks Award. I started doing that today and they should all be emailed by tomorrow morning.
Here is what they look like…..
Again, thanks to all of the activators and hunters who participated.
There were a total of 111 park activations, and of those 81 were unique parks. Not a bad effort. And more than 3,000 QSOs were made.
Looking forward to next years event (the 3rd anniversary weekend). The dates have not yet been finalised.
I received a couple of new QSL cards today from Doug VK2FMIA re his recent activations at the Couradda National Park and the Mount Kaputar National Park.
For information on Doug’s activations, have a look at…..
Whilst operating a few weeks ago in the Murray Sunset National Park I spoke with Andrew VK1DA who was portable on SOTA summit Mount Majura, VK1/ AC-034. As a result of Andrew working me, Andrew has qualified for the Merit Award for the Keith Roget Memorial National Parks Award (KRMNPA), by working all 45 Victorian National Parks.
Other than the great certificate & plaque that Andrew will receive from Tony VK3VTH, I have also sent Andrew the certificate below to add to his ‘wallpaper’ collection.
