I decided to use my IC703, partly because it has a CW filter and I know how useful that is even in a quiet cw contest.  (I should get one for my FT817).  The other advantage the IC703 has over the FT817 is that it has a speech compressor which improves the average power output on SSB.  But as a test and a self imposed handicap I decided to cut the IC703 power level down from its nominal 10 watts to 2 watts for this event.

First an hour on CW, where I made 11 contacts.  As you can tell this is not a hard paced, highly pressured event.

Then an hour on SSB where I made 17 contacts, a few more than I did last year.  I recognised some of the callsigns from last year and also made contacts with friends such as  Mike VK2IG, Murray VK1MDP, Waldis VK1WJ and Peter Vk3YE.

I don’t think running 2 watts instead of 5 or 10 made any difference to the number of contacts made.  While 10 watts is 5 times higher, which translates to 7 decibels, 80m generally provides good propagation and there is more than enough “head room” in the available signal levels for QRP signals to be easily readable.  80m can be a noisy band on SSB especially late at night.  There was some electrical storm noise but it wasn’t too bad.  Another time those 7db might have been quite important.

A few interstate stations gave me good signal strength reports so the old 80m dipole at 6 metres above ground was doing its usual job.

The low dipole isn’t any use for dx though.  I have heard some US and JA signals on the CW end of the band but even the strong ones rarely even return a QRZ? to my call.  Have to get a decent vertical going on that band to work dx.

Here is a link to the rules on the QRP club site.
http://www.vkqrpclub.org/qrp_hours_contest_2012.php

Summary:
1000 UTC to 1059: CW section 3500-3530 khz

1100 to 1200 UTC: SSB 3550-3590

QRP stations can work any station whether QRP or not.

Exchange is signal report plus serial number starting at 001. No repeat contacts.

QRP = output power no more than 10 watts.

Participation of higher power stations is appreciated as it warms up a contest to have more in it giving contacts.

I wasn’t sure I would have an opportunity to operate in this contest but at about 6:30pm on Saturday 2nd April I decided I should put up an 80m antenna and have a go.  At 6:40 I had identified a two section telomast and was measuring out some guy ropes for it.  Having found some stakes, guying ring and found the wire antenna cross-boom with the attached halyards and pulleys, I was able to assemble the mast, attach the cross-boom, lay out the guy ropes and do a trial setup to get the guys set to the right lengths.  Once that was done I hammered in three stakes and attached the guy ropes to two of them.  Walking the mast up to vertical showed I had set one guy at an impossibly long length so it all had to come down.  Next time was ok so I could walk the third guy out to the stake and tie it off.  One 20 ft feedpoint suspender ready for action. Time about 7:15.

I had a 80/40m dipole assembly last used two years ago at a rental property in Canberra.  I attached the centre conductor to one of the halyards and hauled it up to the dizzy 20ft height of the mast.  Then I attached some light cords to the antenna ends and tied it to the fence at one end, and to some ground stakes at the other end of both dipole wires.  This work was completed in the dark as the sun set at about 6pm local time.

The two dipoles are joined at the centre.  This works because the 80m antenna is a very high impedance on 40m, so is virtually “not there at all”. The 40m dipole detunes the 80m one slightly but I went through the adjustment process with this antenna about 20 years ago and have simply rolled it up when I finished using it each time.

Then I got out the FT817 and found a suitable keyer cable, microphone, power supply.  On 80m the dipole presented a 1:1 match on the CW end of the band so that was fine.  On 3690 it was about 1.3 but my Emtron tuner handled that mismatch with a fairly broad dip.  The time now was about 19:45 local and the contest started in 15 minutes, or so I thought.

At 20:00 local time I heard a station calling CQ TEST so I answered, received a number, gave a number, signed off.  Good start to the contest, I thought. Then I called CQ TEST myself.  No replies.  Tuning around showed nil activity.  Called CQ again.  This time I got a reply from an operator who kindly advised me that the contest was not due to start until 2100 local time.  I opened up the computer and checked the contest rules.  Start time 1000 UTC, which was 9pm local, but somehow I had reverted to non DST in my calculations due to daylight saving ending later that night.  1000 UTC was almost an hour away.  So I had time for some dinner!

About 45 minutes later I went back to the radio and started the contest again at the right time.  Signals were strong and most stations were in the vk2, 3 and 4 areas though there were some vk5, vk7 and ZL stations worked too at signal reports of 559 or so.  I made 10 cw contacts in this hour.  A slow contest compared with the DX contests but it was also quite relaxed and unrushed.

At 1100 UTC the SSB section commenced, operating between 3550 and 3590. Signals were very strong from some stations.  Again a few names were exchanged as well as the contest numbers.  15 contacts on SSB, and I got the impression the antenna was working well, as mostly my replies were answered after only one call.  Quite good for a 5 watt signal.

I have sent in my log and I don’t think this is the only QRP event I will operate in.  This was a very enjoyable process and quite rewarding for the minimal effort required to get on the air.  Next time: antenna up another 10 feet.  And the ends should be higher too!  Should be no problem.  I might even do most of the work in the daylight next time.

Contacts were made on all these bands.

Performance of the station on 1296 MHz was not as good as in previous years.  This may be due to conditions, or to a problem with my antenna or my location on Mt Ginini.  It is becoming increasingly more difficult to find suitable places where even two required directions are not partly blocked by the trees on that mountain.

Some pictures are already on http://www.flickr.com/photos/exposite/sets and I’ll be putting some also onto the vk1da.net photo pages.

IMG_7032 A feral pig disturbed on the Mt Franklin road between Bulls Head and Mt Ginini. He ran quite fast to get away from the intruding car, leaving the road after a hundred metres or so and disappearing into the bush downhill. There is a 500m drop on the right side of the road. IMG_7034 Varying foliage along Mt Franklin road. The 8ft road markers are necessary, or were, in winter when this road is covered in snow. IMG_7037 Varying foliage along Mt Franklin road IMG_7039 Varying foliage along Mt Franklin road IMG_7041 Varying foliage along Mt Franklin road IMG_7042 Varying foliage along Mt Franklin road IMG_7054 Starting the final 1.x km climb up to the top of Mt Ginini. IMG_7055 Travelling very slowly, about 5km/h and finding a safe route around the rocks on the road for my soft walled radial tyres. IMG_7057 Still travelling very slowly. A flat tyre at this point would be quite unfortunate and inconvenient. The final slope up to Mt Ginini This is an uphill view, not the flat surface it may appear to be. One of the towers on the top of the hill is just visible above the trees on the right. That tower is about 120ft high. Photo taken from the driver's seat through the windscreen, hence a few reflections on the glass.  « prev      1   2   3   4      next »   (32 Photos) Powered by AFG