Second trip to the north January 2014, activated RF63 and RF65 to VK, the reason for the trip, to take advantage of the duct which appeared to favour the north of ZL, along with activating these two grid squares that are not that commonly operated from, also to have a holiday with some radio fun added. All contacts are with SSB unless noted otherwise.
Day 1 Thursday 16 January 2014; drove to RF63 worked VK2IJM, VK2DVZ, VK2AH, VK2ARA, VK2GKA, VK2BCC, VK2KOL, VK2TK on 144, then carried on north and booked into the Kaitaia motel (The Kaitaia motel BTW is in RF64)
Day 2 Friday 17 January 2014; drove to the top of ZL, RF65 and worked, VK2ARA, VK2DVZ, VK2ZT, VK2NC, VK2MAX, VK2AH, VK2IJM, VK2BXT, VK2BCC, VK7MO, VK2GKA, VK2TK on 144, on 70 cm VK2ZT, and VK7MO and VK7MO with JT65.
Day 3 Saturday 18 January 2014; drove back up to RF65 and this was the best day with a pipe into VK2, worked VK2AMS, VK2DVZ, VK2ZQ, VK2ZT, VK2ARA, VK2AH, VK2KOL, VK2BCC, VK2BLS, VK2MAX, VK2BXT, VK2BZE, VK2NC, VK2FLJD, VK2IJM, VK2TS, VK2TK, VK2BCC, VK2BJ, VK2HLX, VK2GKA on 144, on 432 VK2DVZ, VK2ZT, VK2AH, VK2ARA, VK2BXT, VK2BZE, on 1296 VK2ZT and VK2DVZ, also worked VK2DVZ on 1296 JT65. Of note heard the 1296.420 beacon for a number of hours. The beacon wobbles a bit with the CW but no complaints from this side of the pond because I used it to align my dish on VK2.
Day 4 Sunday 19 January 2014; left the Kaitaia motel and drove back down to RF63, worked VK2ZT, VK2IJM, VK2AH, VK2BCC, VK2NC, VK2BXT, VK2KOL and VK2MAX on 144, on 432 VK2BCC only, of interest while running JT65 towards VK4 was seen by VK4EDD and his report back on the logger confirmed to me that he saw me because he reported back to me what I was sending without anyone knowing beforehand, also worked VK2KOL on JT65.
A good 4 days activity, I’m sure I spent more time driving than operating, but with tropo ducting you can only work so much in so many hours or in one half day and it’s nice to get back to the comforts of home or the motel each evening, because operating many bands out of a car or wagon can be stressful at the best of times and tiring, I had 3.4 and 2.4 GHz just in case but never used, found having WSJT capabilities added the interest of doing something different and have learnt a lot by doing so.
Cheers,
Steve
