Happy, healthy and prosperous 2016

de VK2PN

Merry Xmas and HNY

CQWWCW contest 2015

I forgot to add my result from this year contest:

Band	QSOs	Mults
160:
80:	15	9
40:	175	141
20:	163	120
15:	146	93
10:	34	25
Total:	533	388	Total Score	613,816

Been fun. Pity the condx are on decline. Done better years previously. Personally I'm finding the limits of being over 70 yrs old. Thanks everybody for the call. 73 Patrick VK2PN

Laurie G3UML

Had a visit from Laurie G3UML last night.  He, Heidi and I shared a meal at the local Chinese restaurant (first class food BTW) and then we went to the radio club, where he was made a "star".  Laurie is a contester, DXer and DX expeditioner.

Looking forward to  his next visit some time in the future.

CQ WW CW contest 2015

Call: VK2PN

Operating Time (hrs): 21:05

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:                    
   80:    1     1        1
   40:   82    15       26
   20:  189    25       49
   15:  311    21       45
   10:  117    11       10
------------------------------
Total:  700    73      131  Total Score = 409,428

Club: VK Contest Club

Comments:

Started very slow, the condx were not very good.  Next day surprise was 10 m
band.  Very lively and plenty of stations. 15 m was the best band in my QTH. 
Unfortunately we had to attend a wedding, so I was "time limited"


Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/

Had a "little" play in the mighty CQ WW SSB contest

Call: VK2PN
Operator(s): VK2PN
Station: VK2PN
Class: SOAB Classic HP
QTH: Sydney
Operating Time (hrs): 03:43
Location: VK/ZL

Band	QSOs	Zones	Countries
160:
80:
40:	3	2	2
20:	13	7	11
15:	33	12	10
10:	55	5	6
Total:	104	26	29	Total Score	15,895

Club: VK Contest Club

Oceania CW contest October 2015

I forgot to publish early in the week.  Here it is:

Band	QSOs	Mults
160:	0	0
80:	15	9
40:	175	141
20:	163	120
15:	146	93
10:	34	25
Total:	533	388	Total Score	613,816

 

Hex destroyed yet again.

Yesterday morning flock of sulfur-crest cockatoos descended on the Hex and in about seven minutes destroyed the whole antenna.

My SPE 1K has new relays.

After several millions of on/of action the current set got tired and sometimes missed a beat (known problem with these amps).   After planning the job for several weeks I was able to do it today.  Hard work it is too.

The hardest and the most time consuming was desoldering the pins with only simple "sucker".  Managed to do it after all.

Hope all be fine for the Oceania CW test.

Oceania SSB 2105

Had a little play on the weekend:

 Band     QSOs     Pts  Pfx
           7      99     495   32
          14      94      94   69
       Total     193     589  101


            Score : 59,489

Next weekend is the CW section... will take it much more seriously.

Good news was that on forty meters I worked quite a few Foundation license holders.  good on you "F" calls.

Three months in DXers paradise.

Last night I had the privilege to meet Milan E51DWC his wife and daughter.  Milan's home call is OK1DWC and was on the way home after spending three months in Rarotonga having holidays and mainly working DX.  Milan is lively, enthusiastic and a charmer.  Most obviously the whole family had a great time.

We spent few hours in Manly having long chat and exchanging stories.

Have a great trip home Milan and hope to meet you again on your next pass through.

73
P

Russian RTTY contest.

Just for little fun and bit of practice I'm giving out some numbers in the Russian RTTY contest.
The N1MM and fldigi makes it very easy.  It is fun.

I've been in several RTTY tests, however not as serious contester.  One of those days in the near future I may give it real push.

73
Patrick

QSL cards for VK2SSI are printed.

Few days ago Tommy sent me the images of the front and back of the South Solitary card.  Very nice.  No doubt the recipients will be very happy.

73
Patrick

Remembrance Day Contest

Rememberance Day Contest

Few weeks ago I got invitation from Allan VK2GR to join him, Tommy VK2IR and Dave VK2AWD in a team: "wombats of NSW" CW mode only.  Quickly obtained the permission from the great boss to go.

Worked it from home:

As you can see from the above statistics picture it was not very busy contest.  I may ask Alan VK4SN later how many logs were submitted.  Interesting rule in this contest is, that you may make contact with the same station again after three hours.  The program VKCL takes care of this.  Without this logger the test would be impossible.  The big gap in the middle of the graph is my bed time... Mind you there was not much action during the night.  All good people were in bed too.

The conditions weren't very good at all.  Most obviously we are starting to descent on the solar cycle curve now.

However because the contacts for the RD are only between VK, ZL and P29 the condx were adequate.

This is the operation position... The logging program has no provision for macros so I had the important messages programmed in my Winkeyer and the rest was done by paddle.  Easy stuff.  Nobody was running faster than about 22 words per minutes and some were much slower and even using hand key.  Interesting stuff, quite refreshing really.  Comparing to big internationals, where all run macros and run at 27 to 35 words.. That speed makes is VERY exciting and brings the sweaty palms syndrome on. Not in this contest for sure.

QRM at times was atrocious.  The above pics shows somebody's TV QRM on 40 m.  Good part was, that the QRM was not there at all times.

The photos are not very good quality.. being taken by mere mobile phone.

I was lucky to clock 147 contacts for 294 points.  Allan and Tommy score was much higher, because they had the fortune of having 160 antenna and QSO on 160 yields 6 points per QSO...
One of there days I'll figure how to put 160 m (some sort of) antenna on my roof.

So that is RD for yet another year.

73 to all

many thanks to Allan, Tommy and Dave

P

It is Tuesday and I've imported the ADIF from VKCL to N1MM for further analysis. 

Here are the Max Rates:

2015-08-15 1005Z - 2.0 per minute  (1 minute(s)), 120 per hour
2015-08-15 2236Z - 0.8 per minute  (10 minute(s)), 48 per hour  
2015-08-15 0402Z - 0.4 per minute  (60 minute(s)), 21 per hour

And here are the runs:

2015-08-15 0338 - 0602Z,    7000 kHz, 27 Qs, 11.3/hr 
2015-08-15 0637 - 0721Z,    7013 kHz, 13 Qs, 17.6/hr 
2015-08-15 0959 - 1038Z,    3524 kHz, 14 Qs, 21.7/hr 
2015-08-15 2227 - 2252Z,    7020 kHz, 14 Qs, 33.3/hr

Nothing impressive huh?




PS
I had made several attempts to erect 160 m antenna on my roof, but the effect was that I got QRM gathering device only.

Another piece of wallpaper.

Very pleasing piece of wallpaper appeared in my letterbox this afternoon:

They (the HQ) made mistake... Not Mulitoperator..  I was single op.

Expedition to South Solitary island VK2SSI OC-194

I almost had fallen of my chair when couple of months ago Tommy VK2IR called and asked me if I'd want to join them for activation of the South Solitary island off Coffs Harbour.

After checking my bank balance I quickly agreed.  The island can be reached only by helicopter from the mainland.  The company Precision Helicopters is the only company which provides the service.

Tommy had been working on this project for the last few years.  No doubt is was long and tedious process to clear it all through the National Parks.

The expedition was organized by the HARAOA radio club.
Helenic Amateur Radio Association Of Australia is very
active in actions of similar kind and I feel proud to be part of it.







Finally it happened last weekend.

Adding a few photos:

Just about to depart.

Here it is the great South Solitary island.

The main feature of the island... Lighthouse.

Just landed and Garry is unloading.

The building is in top nick... freshly painted.

Tommy (foreground) and Nick operating.

Nick, Tommy and Raffy in a full flight.

Please note the concentration.

Alan and Jason.

One of the views.

Little time off. Guided tour by Garry.

 The second from left is Garry the ranger helping us.

Jason, Garry, Tommy Allan and Raffy.

Patrick and Tommy.

The operators:

• Tommy VK2IR
• Alan VK2KAM
• Raffy VK2RF
• Jason VK2FMAD
• Nick VK2DX
• And me VK2PN

Tommy, Nick and me were working CW (mainly) and Alan, Raffy and Jason were on SSB.
We finished with over 5600 QSOs during available approx 36 hours on the air.
The National Parks allowed us 48 hours on the island.  Setting up and breaking down the stations and antennas had taken the rest of the time.  We managed to have four stations  on the air most of that 36 hours..  The CONDX were not the best, however none of us called CQ more than few times to get a pile up going.

 

We were extremely lucky with the weather. Sunny windless days, but cool nights.  I was wearing my ski merino underwear and "just" managed .

I want to express my personal thanks to the rangers: Garry and Geoff.... thanks guys for looking after us.

The staff of Precision helicopters... nothing was too difficult for them.

I have only one complaint to make:  On Tuesday after sunrise on 30 m I was running rate about 90 qso per hour.  Then the central European stations (the so called European ZOO) started.  My rate dropped to 30 qso per hour.  Those guys just don't know how to behave.  Constant calling (even when I was transmitting, Transmitting during a contact with other station and not observing the fact that I was asking for one particular callsign. It is so upsetting when that happens.  We the expedition are there to give them the QSO, but they make it so difficult.  It is such a pleasure to work JA and US stations.  They are gentlemen.

This is the first version of the blog.  I will add some more as time will allow.  I'm putting most of the photos on picasa so you may be able to see some more.  Here is your link.

Visiting Liz and Bruce VK4MQ

Passing through their QTH. We had to stop and have nice dinner and lots of chats.

Thanks Bruce and Liz..... till next time and have a great trip yourselves.

Visiting Pete VK4LAT in St. George.

Trent VK4TS suggested to give a call to Pete and pay him friendly visit.

Pete was working hard to get to this position:

Pete's secret weapon is his youth and determination.  Second in importance is great antenna farm still being built:

Here is a beauty being created. Aluminium mast:

Several antennas waiting to be added to the farm:

Great looking vertical:

One of the two beverages:

Over all impression is:  Makings of great contest station.  Congrats Pete and Good luck for the contests. Thanks for being kind and showing me around.  Ah... Thanks Amy for the coffee and cake.