Just a quick write up for this one – this activation was partially opportunistic and partly to try and join the VK/JA/EU S2S party organised by a number of dedicated operators. I was already up at Mt Stirling for an Alpine SAR training day on the Saturday and to support the Mt Buller Sky Run on the Sunday.
The training day completed around 4:15, so I quickly donned my pack and headed up from Razorback hut to the summit of Mt Winstanley which is only 1.5 km and 182 m above the hut.
My primary aim was to try and participate in the S2S party, so I set up for 20m and 40m with my trapped EFHW and my Mini – HF Packer 40W amplifier. I was on air by about 5:30pm. I heard Mike 2E0YYY in the UK with a pileup working him. Unfortunately by the time I could get a word in, he’d faded away into the noise. I think I was just a little too late for the grey line window.
I gave up on working into the EU and spotted on 7.140. I soon had 7 contacts in the log with the best distances being Andre ZL1TM and John VK6NU.
As the sun was setting rapidly, I packed up and headed back to Razorback hut where I was camping for the night. Just a quick activation, but worthwhile and it was a beautiful evening to be on top of a mountain.
Hi David
I wonder how you power you 40 watt amplifier for SOTA work? I could not pick out a battery in your photo. Bad luck about Mike.
Hi John,
I use a 2.2Ah 3S LiPo battery. One battery is usually enough for a single activation, but I always take two for backup. The amp uses a boost regulator as the final is driven at 29V, so the slightly lower LiPo voltage works fine in this case.
73 David VK3IL
How did the new homebrew ultralight touch sensitive key go 8^)
Hi Paul, it worked well, but for some reason the KX2 wasn’t transmitting – I suspect I had knocked it out of VOX mode. I was getting side tone, but no TX! After manually keying the transmitter, I confirmed that there was no RF interference happening to the key, so I’m quite happy with it.