Talbot Peak and Mt Saint Phillack 2014

Hi all,

Talbot Peak VK3/VT-010

After a BSAR search on Mt Bogong that involved a great deal of snow shoeing, I decided to head off myself to pick up this pair. I have previously activated them in the late season in 2013, as well as in 2012. There was a late season dump in 2012, but there was little snow in 2013. Not so this time. I proceeded first to Talbot Peak and parked the car at the Mt Erica car park. There was patchy snow at the car park and conditions were quite icy. So, with snow shoes in the pack, off I went. The patchy snow continued up to Mushroom rocks and about 100m above them. After that, the coverage was getting up to about 20cm, which is where I put the snow shoes on. The path was still fairly easy to make out, with the trench in the snow, although coverage was complete enough to see little or nothing of the ground.

I proceeded to the trig point at Talbot Peak and activated from there, using some closed cell foam to sit on the snow and a bothy shelter to keep me warm – indeed it does a good job of that.

Operating at Talbot Peak

Here’s the antenna at Talbot Peak:

Antenna at Talbot Peak

Operation was on 20/30/40 using the random wire. The random wire was tuned using the inbuilt tuner of the KX1. I used the shorter 4.7 squid pole, and indeed it is the squid pole I use on most of my activations these days. The whole setup seemed to work fine on the snow.

It was certainly easier getting here compared to 2012 where I was only in boots. Snow shoeing certainly makes more of the high country in winter accessible, although the usual cautions apply – sufficient and appropriate wear to stay warm in cold/snow and high winds, sufficient navigation skills to operate in white out conditions where visibility is 10m or less, etc.

Mt Saint Phillack VK3/VT-006

So with Talbot Peak in the bag, I headed back to the Mt Erica carpark, down to the sealed road and and onto the St Gwinear car park. This car park is higher than the Mt Erica one, but as it is on the northern side of the Baw Baws, it had less snow, with no real snow on the road. There was about 5cm of snow on the toboggan runs, and the ski trails were ski-able to the carpark. I headed off up the main run, noting that access is not permitted without either skis or snowshoes. So in these kind of conditions, walking in boots means no summit access.

The coverage was mostly complete, but remained thin even onto the plateau. I always like the look of the area up here:

Near Mt St Gwinear

Coverage started to build as I hit the AAWT and was about 50cm at the summit rock cairn:

Operating at Mt St Phillack

I used the same setup as Talbot Peak. All in all, a very enjoyable pair of summits, and different to do it on snow.

Regards, Wayne VK3WAM

South west summits – Volcano land tour

Hi all,

I’m quite a bit late in posting this, but hope to gradually catch up on my SOTA activations.

Mt Elephant VK3/VS-047

Mt Elephant is an extinct volcano near Derrinallum. It was the first stop of the day. At time of activation, the summit is generally open on Sundays, but activations on other days are possible through prior arrangement. This can be done at Urquhart Motors service station, phone (03) 5597 6570. It has a web site: here.

Mt Elephant welcome sign

I headed up first thing. It was a bit chancy because I was told that they might be spraying weeds that day, and access would be closed. I was given the all clear, and headed up quite early. The car park is at the base of the hill, and it is mostly climbing on vehicle tracks up to the summit.

Looking east from Mt Elephant summit

I used the KX1 using a “random wire” with a 7 meter squid pole at the summit trig point. Progress was a little slow, but I got 4 contacts in before someone approached with the news that spraying was going to proceed that day and I needed to get off the mountain!

Mt Leura VK3/VS-050

Next stop, Mt Leura. This is located to the south east of Camperdown. You can drive to the summit on a sealed road. I headed down about 30m and then up (noting that it has been since clarified that this is not required for a SOTA activation), and set up at the summit. Again, I was on the “random wire” with the KX1. The random wire is generally very happy on 20 and 30. 40 tunes generally well enough these days, sometimes a little temperamental. I find it sometimes helps using a walking pole to get the wire off the ground near the rig. The height of the squid pole – 7m vs 4.7m does not seem to make much difference.

Operating at Mt Leura

Most of my contacts are on 40m, at 7.032 CW, but it is nice to pick up an occasional 20 or 30 contact, which I did at this summit.

Mt Rouse VK3/VS-048

Third summit of the day, Mt Rouse. Keeping with the extinct volcanoes, this nice little summit is just to the south of Penshurst. There is a car park a short distance down some stairs from the summit. Again, access is via a sealed road. The summit itself has a viewing area looking north to the Grampians, with this view:

Penshurts and the southern Grampians from Mt Rouse

Operation again was on 40/30/20 using the KX1 with the “random” wire. I spent about 40 min on summit operating, about 20 min on 40m, then 10 min on each of 30 and 20.

Mt Napier VK3/VS-046

Final volcano of the day was Mt Napier. Access to this summit is from the north west Murroa Ln, then Coles Track heading south. There is a car park for the Mt Napier track a little over 1km to the north west of the summit. The track is passable in a 2wd with a little care. The track up to the summit is well formed and an enjoyable climb. Good views from the top, and enjoyed the volcano craters up there.

Mt Napier craters

Later in the day meant that I had a bit more action on 30 and 20 than on the previous three summits. It was getting windy and there were a few rain clouds around, so I did not stay too long. Called it quits, headed to Dunkeld for some fish and chips and to position myself for action in the Grampians on the next day.

Operating at Mt Napier

The station setup shown above has the active element taken off the ground using a hiking pole. Find it helps sometimes with tuning 40m on the KX1.

Thanks for reading, Wayne VK3WAM

Pennsylvania Dutch

Hi all,

After activating on the west coast of the States, now I have a look at the east coast. I had been in Philadelphia for a few days and had three spare days before the flight home. On the first of these, I was to focus on W3 summits.

Snowy Mountain W3/PD-007

The first of these summits was Snowy Mountain. I had headed off early from Media, near Philadelphia and made my way along US30 to approach this summit. Access is straight forward, using PA233 Rocky Mountain Rd and then Snowy Mountain Rd to the west of the summit. This reached a junction with Forest Rd, about 1100 yards from the summit. Snowy Mountain Rd is a good quality unpaved forest road. Forest Rd was closed. There had been some recent logging activity. I proceeded on foot to about 600 feet from the summit and activated there.

The forest floor is very open here. I operated using the KX1 powered by 6 NiZn AA cells, the 41ft random wire and the 4.7m squid pole. Here is the operating location:

Operating station at Snowy Mountain

And looking from there towards the squid pole:

Antenna setup at Snowy Mountain

I had no cell phone coverage, so I could not self spot. Looking at the spots after the fact, it appears that I was being picked up reliably by the Reverse Beacon Network and being spotted through the RBNgateway. I worked a series of stations on 40 and 20. My activation times would need to be short given I had five summits on
menu today.

I headed back the way I came and made my way north back to US30.

Methodist Hill North W3/PD-006

Crossing US30, I continued on PA233 north and then turned left onto Milesburn Rd. This made its way up to Long Pine Run Reservoir:

Long Pine Run Reservoir

The summit is accessible on good quality forest roads continuing to the north from here. I parked out of the activation zone and walked up, activating at the highest point in the forest near the junction of Milesburn Rd and Ridge Rd. Again, RBNgate acted as my spotter here.

After finishing up, I headed northeast down Milesburn Rd. This gave me easy 2wd access into the next valley into Shipennsburg.

Sherman Mtn South W3/PD-004

From Shipennsburg, I made my way along PA696, turning right onto PA997, which gives access to 3 Square Hollow Rd. Part of this road may have been realigned, the western alignment up the small valley approaching the ridge is not passable in a 2wd, but the alignment further east is easy in a 2wd. There’s a nice view along this road as the ridge is approached:

View from near Sherman Mtn South

From here, I headed South West until the junction with Blue Mountain Rd. I proceeded about 500 yards up this however left the car on the side of the road when it got a bit too rough – and given I was in a hire car, I wanted to take no risks. I continued on foot until well inside the activation zone. It appears the eastern side of the road is private land – and the private land comes quite close to the roadway, so I setup the antenna on the righthand side of the road.

Again, RBNgate was my friend here, with a mix of contacts on 20 and 40. No takers on 30 however.

I headed out the way I came, back to PA997.

Clark Knob W3/PD-002

The next summit of the day was Clark Knob. I continued along PA997 turning left onto PA533. I could have taken Mountain Rd as a shortcut, but this is not my home territory, perhaps not everything is optimal! Upper Strasburg Rd is a bit bumpy for a paved road, take some care along this. The forest road leaves to the south of this, heading up the hill. I parked near the summit, but about 300 feet away from the comms towers and did the walk to ensure final non-motorised access to the summit. The communications gear seemed to have no discernible impact on my noise floor or operating. Again, the forest is very open here:

Operating location at Clark Knob

My operating experience here was similar to the other summits. After wrapping up, I headed back down the hill the way I came, back onto PA533.

Big Mountain W3/PD-001

I may have gone the long way to my final summit, proceeding onto US11, then US30 through Chambersburg. Instead, I could have continued west along PA4004 and then onto PA75. Big Mountain is easily accessed from US30, up Tower Rd, an unpaved forest road. There’s a car park here, and good views up the valley:

Views north east from Big Mountain

I was keen to get a little away from the people coming and going from the views, so I operated in the middle of the loop made by the road at the carpark. It was a bit more secluded in here:

Operating location at Big Mountain

I had to do a bit of jury-rigging on the antenna here. I had done about 30 activations since I used the higher grade wire at the BNC adapter, then soldered the light grade speaker wire onto the short 2 inch long high grade wire. The solder joint was fine, but the thin wire tore near the joint. I used the electrical tape to stick it back on, but the joint was not as good. The activation was still ok, but the KX1 tuner was not as happy on 40, with SWRs lifting to high 1s, low 2s. This is the way it would have to be for the rest of the trip, I can’t resolder a new joint until I return to Australia. I’ll just have to be careful that I don’t put excessive physical strain on the wire from now on.

With the completion of this activation, it was a several hour drive down to the town of Stauton, where I was to stay the night, and that would be the base for some activations in WV (W8V) and VA (W4V) on my final two days.

Regards, Wayne VK3WAM

San Gabriel Mountains activations

Hi all,

Recently, I was in the United States for the HOPE worldwide Global Summit, which for me was four days of about 14 hours a day of constant meetings and sessions. I did not come here for a holiday, but at least I have a few days to get out and have a look around, including doing some SOTA.

Table Mountain W6/CT-067

After the end of the global summit, I had one full free day before catching a plane to the east coast of the US. I planned to use this day and the evening before to grab some summits in the San Gabriel Mountains. I hired a car to get around. Of course as an Australian, it means driving on the other side of the road, but it certainly helps that the drivers seat and steering wheel is on the other side of the car.

First up was Table Mountain. I could have taken the I15 to get there, but instead took LA 2 the Angeles Crest Highway for a more scenic route. Glad I did.

It’s time to leave the smog of LA behind:

LA basin from the San Gabriel range foothills

Great views from the highway as we go along:

San Gabriel range mountains

Access to Table Mountain itself is very straightforward. At Big Pines, intersection, Table Mountain Rd head off to the north. This road is paved (sealed) and makes its way up to a large carpark and hotel/pub that is clearly used a lot during the ski season.

The carpark near Table Mountain summit

The paved road heading to the summit leaves from near the right-hand side of the building. It would be only 100 vertical feet to the summit from here, the car park is not far from the activation zone itself.

I found out that I had no cell phone coverage here. No self spots. I got only one QSO, but that is enough to at least get the summit as a unique. I activated for over 2 hours, so plenty of calling. I was getting cold and the day was late, so time to get out of here. I made my way down to Victorville to stay the night, and hope to do better the next day.

Throop Peak W6/CT-005

The menu for the next day was three summits, with Throop Peak and Mt Baden Powell (of scouts fame) to be done together. I drove back, up into the range and made my way to Dawson Saddle where I parked the car. Note that a Forest Pass is needed to park the car and head into the mountains here. They nominally cost $5, but if you buy it from from other than the Forest Service, they can add a surcharge of a dollar or so.

A trail leaves from the saddle itself to the south, but the official trail leaves from two hundred yards or so to the east of the saddle. I made my way along the unofficial trail to get started. It meets up with the official trail soon enough. Here’s a look at the typical trail formation and terrain:

Trail conditions on the way to Throop Peak

The trail makes its way up to the main ridge, but I noticed that the Forest Service built the trail to try to avoid steep gradients, it would contour up rather than strictly stay on top of the spur line going up. It makes for faster walking, that’s for sure. If only Parks Victoria and fire trail constructors would take notice, but I’ve seen this style of track (trail) construction elsewhere in Australia.

The trail avoids the summit itself, skipping to the north, then the main range trail is met. Turning right, this trail climbs from the junction, but an unoffical trail soon leaves itself to the right, following the ridge up to the summit itself. Great views from up here:

Summit of Throop Peak

For all of my US activations, I was to use the following equipment:

• A Elecraft KX1
• 6 NiZn AA cells inside the KX1 – I brought a charger to keep them topped up at the end of each day throughout the trip
• The “random” 41ft wire with 1/4 wave counterpoises for 20/30/40
• The lightweight 4.7m squid pole

At Mt Throop, I put the squid pole in a nearby pine tree, with the base of the pole about 3 foot off the ground. Here’s a look at the station setup at the KX1 end of the wire:

Station at Throop Peak

I had been encouraged to try 2m on FM by people on the nasota Yahoo Groups reflector, so I brought that along. All I had for that was a 1/4 wave antenna. It still got in around the LA basin, but it helps that I could see if from here – not that I could see buildings as such – I saw the grey layer of smog in that direction.

I could not self-spot, and indeed I was unable to self-spot throughout my time in the states, but there was far more action here than the previous evening. It’s pleasing to know that I can get out on this thing, but I’ve worked US stations on this wire from VK.

Mt Baden-Powell W6/CT-004

I headed back the way I came down along the ridge line and joined up with the official trail, which heads east-nor-east along the ridge towards Mt Baden Powell. Walking conditions were ideal with mild temperatures around mid 60s and the gentle gradients on the trail helped as well. Here’s a look to the south east:

The Iron Fork valley from near Throop Peak

I was able to stick to my times, even though I underestimated the effects of altitude. It had been a while since I had walked at altitudes around 9000ft, and these altitudes are not encountered in Australia. I made the summit at about the anticipated time. but first a glance at the Wally Waldron tree, a 1500 year old tree:

The Wally Waldron Tree

And then a look towards Mt San Antonio:

Mt San Antonio from Mt Baden Powell

I operated a little to the south of the main summit, as there were many people around. I again used the trick of mounting my pole with the base wedged in pine trees several feet of the ground. Makes this little squid pole nearly 6m!

Operating station at Mt Baden Powell

I had less success on 2m, but the three HF bands yielded a good number of contacts. After finishing up here, I headed back towards Mt Throop. It’s mostly downhill from here, and then on the side trail back to Dawson Saddle.

Kratka Ridge W6/CT-014

My final W6 summit (was getting used to keying W6/VK3WAM by now) was Kratka Ridge. There is a sign off the Angeles Crest highway closest to the summit saying “keep out” of the area around the ski lift. Less than 1/2 a mile to the east of this is a public picnic area. The saddle here is quite close to the road. I parked the car on the side of the road here and headed up.

I had gotten used to the nice gentle gradients of the trails on the previous summits today, but no such joy here. It did go off to a side line to the right, but then turned around and went straight up. Slower work, but as I approached the ridge line, it backed off and it was more a walk than a climb. The ski lift has clearly not been used for a while, the trail goes to the top of the lift, and it could do with some love:

Ski lift at Kratka Ridge

Only a few hundred feet from this is the summit. I set up here, operated first on 2m, and then on the KX1 with the random wire. It had clouded over and the temperature had dropped to less than 60 with a decent breeze. It was never going to be a case of hanging around too long here. It was good that the three summits today had been easily qualified, after the lonesomeness of Table Mountain the previous day. Hopefully my summits over on the east coast would be more like today.

It was a great day with good walking and good SOTA. I could do with more days here, but the next day a plane to Philadelphia awaited. So back for a shortened sleep and to the airport.

A good introduction to SOTA activating in North America.

73 de Wayne VK3WAM

2014 ANZAC weekend activations Part 2

Hi all,

After activating four summits the previous day in clear, but windy conditions, the task today was to activate four more in the general Mt Hotham area.

The Twins VK3/VE-017

This summit is accessible from The Twins Rd. With care, I got the Prius down this road, from the Great Apline Rd. I parked the car at the saddle immediately to the east of the summit and then headed up. The walking track is not distinct on the way up, so it is a case of find your own way. It’s navigationally easy, just head up, it’s physically not so easy, but it’s not technically difficult.

I reached the first “twin” and took a photo towards the SOTA summit.

The Twins summit from the other twin

Conditions were overcast, and there was some shower activity around. The wind had intensified overnight – at times it was strong enough to make walking difficult. I tried to stay on the lee side of the ridge to decrease the intensity.

Antenna setup at The Twins

Choice of operating location was not straightforward. There were some short snow gums just underneath the summit, but they were on the windward side. I put the squidpole up on the Trig point and operated on the lee side – but it was still very windy. Today, I would again operate the KX1 on 20/30/40 CW using the “random” wire, on the 7m squid pole. It’s proving a pretty reliable and convenient setup.

At the conclusion of operating, the piece of foam that I was sitting on blew away down the hill. I thought about leaving it, and then went to see if I could retrieve it. It was 30m vertical down the southwestern side. Whenever I got near, the wind would take it about 10m further way. It got close to a near cliff, but I got it just in time. Certainly made me work a lot harder than expected to then climb up to get the rest of the gear to go.

I headed down the hill on the western side. It would be easier to access this summit from that side than the eastern side. The road would be passable by 2wd to this side.

VK3/VE-023

My next target was a summit not far to the west of The Twins. The land drops to a saddle between The Twins and the VE-023 summit and then climbs straight up. I decided to use the Twins Rd up to the spur and then use it to access the summit. Might be a bit longer in distance, but much easier and would likely be faster anyway. There is a water tank on the spur, not far from where the road approaches the spurline.

The summit of VE-023 cloudbound

As can be seen, not much could be seen from the summit today.

Due to the wind and shower activity, I operated a little to the south of the high point of the summit. The effect of this was very marginal phone coverage, not even enough to reliably send SMS. Speaking of SMS, I find that using RadioRuckSack to send them is not a great idea – if it can’t send them, it does not tell you, and then it sends them hours later when you do have coverage – and of course then they are worse than useless. I prefer to use the phone’s own SMS facility to send them – at least if it doesn’t work I can decide to retry or not.

Due to the impaired self-spotting, I worked fewer from here. The shower activity was becoming a little more persistent. I made up my mind on this trip that the time had come to get a bothy shelter. It would be ideal for conditions experienced on this summit today.

With that, I returned to the car via the Twins Rd. I decided not to follow the spur down, but make for the road more directly. It was not a mistake, but it would remain easier to simply take the spur until the road is only 30m away, rather than head down the steeper part of the hill.

VK3/VE-030

Next on the menu is this unnamed summit to the west of the Alpine Rd. It had not previously been activated. I proceeded to Buckland Gap and got the car up about 10m vertical from the main road. That was it for the Prius. At least a Awd is needed to proceed further. A high clearance 4wd could make it all the way to the summit, but for me it was typical fire trail up and down walking. Keeps you fit. As mentioned, tracks go all the way to the summit, it is an emergency helipad.

I setup just to the north of the cleared area, just in case the helipad was in need of use.

Operating at VK3/VE-030

I operated starting on 20, then 30 (no takers) to 40 and back to 20. There was no EU pileup today, but I did get OH9XX in at the end, and NS7P for some W action at the start. The random wire is not as good as the vertical for DX, but it appears well ahead of an end fed in inverted V formation.

Here’s a picture from the helipad looking back into the Buckland River East Branch valley:

The Twins and the Buckland River East Branch valley

Mt Hotham VK3/VE-006

The final summit, in the twilight, was Mt Hotham. I parked the car on the side of the Alpine Rd and walked up from there. All my other activations were on the 7m pole, but knowing that my US trip is coming up I took the 4.7m pole and activated on it for this summit. I got some contacts on all three bands I tried, including four EU contacts on 20. It’s a great feeling to work people around the world on 2 watts! The interesting thing about some of these contacts is how readable I was to them. It is interesting that I am giving 319 and 419 and some of them are giving 559!

With that – and the fact it was very glum with the fading light, it was time to pack up and start the long trip back to Melbourne. My next planned activations are in the states, something to look forward to.

Regards, Wayne VK3WAM

Three summits near Ballarat

Hi all,

To ensure that the brownie point balance was kept in check, I did not plan a multi-day SOTA adventure this Easter. I did, however, get leave to activate three summits near Ballarat, all which I had activated before.

After my troubles with antennas on the March long weekend, I decided that I would repair the random wire with high grade wire near the BNC adapter. The antenna had failed by the wire simply tearing at the adapter. My solution was to solder about 1cm of the wire on, and use tape to try and give greater physical support to the wire, so that the load is not borne at one particular spot. I also reinforced the counterpoise wires in a similar fashion. The photo below (if you click on it), shows the changes to the random wire (you may need to zoom in on the KX1).

Mt Buninyong VK3/VC-018

I had not activated this summit since 2012. My previous activation used my original setup of the 8 segment aluminium pole vertical. I had not used verticals for a while now, but when I do, I rely on a squid pole to give physical support to a wire going up – a squid pole is more convenient. For this activation, it was the random wire. Here is a look at the setup I used here:

Station at Mt Buninyong

I headed up the road and parked in the activation zone. There is a walking track heading down the hill from the carpark near the lookout tower. I used this to leave the activation zone and reenter it for my final nonmotorised access to the summit.

For these activations, I used the shorter 4.7m squid pole. For local contacts, it makes little difference between using the shorter squid pole or the longer 7m one. I was keen to give the shorter pole a bit of a workout, as I have a trip upcoming to the states. The shorter pole fits in the luggage I plan to take. The larger pole does not, so the shorter pole looks like it will go. I also had an eye on what I might do at the end of the year on the Lord Howe Island trip.

Another eye on the US trip/Lord Howe Island was not to use an external power supply on these three activations. I used only the NiZn internal AA cells, with no LiPOs in the car or anywhere else to go grab if something went cold. My station is simply the KX1 box, the wire and the squid pole. The whole lot is under 1kg. This is my planned US station.

The KX1 has little difficulty tuning the antenna on 20/30/40. The pattern remains that the most amount of power is developed on 20, then 30 then 40, with 40 being generally around 1 watts on a 10.5V supply. The typical report I receive is 559. 40 remains a reliable band for close in contacts. If I can self spot, then getting 4 CW contacts quickly on 40 is just about guaranteed these days.

Getting the good reports on the NiZn batteries shows that this minimal setup works.

As for my broken end-fed, it would appear that the problem there is that the toroid inside has physically broken due to the rumble tumble of many activations (eg hitting the ground when being quickly uncoiled). The matchbox is closed, but looking at people on the internet who sawed it open, the only thing that could make the rattling noise that I experienced is broken pieces of the toroid. I am still working out how to repair it. Considerations are:

• For CW activations on the KX1, I think the random wire does as well or better than a EFHW in an inverted V formation with a 7m squid pole in the middle. The EFHW might perform better on a bigger squid pole, but here I am using a 4.7m squid pole with the random wire. The key advantage of the random wire is that there is no feedline – the antenna itself connects directly onto the BNC connector of the KX1. There will be no feedline losses.
• For the FT-817, I lose the inbuilt KX1 tuner and that is losing a whole lot of convenience. My options are either the EFHW (at least on a 7m pole), or use a vertical if I am after DX. I think dipole based antennas (doublets, etc) are going to be cloud warmers, just like the EFHW, unless I can genuinely get them up higher – eg putting a doublet on two 10m squid poles, one at each end. Ian, VK5CZ introduced me to the SOTAbeams EFHW tuner for 5 watts. I think I would base a new end fed on this matchbox. It gives the option of a counterpoise, which my old end fed did not have. Matchboxes like this are really a convenience thing, as the matchbox itself can be homebrewed without much difficulty.

So, I think I’ll leave the old end-fed for now, and hopefully get around to building a new one based on the SOTAbeams end fed matchbox.

Mt Warrenheip VK3/VC-019

Mt Warrenheip was more of the same. A sealed road goes to the summit area. I parked in the activation zone, but at the eastern end of the road (final turn before the summit) and then walked down the ridge to exit the activation zone, turned around and reentered it.

This activation was again on the short 4.7m squid pole and the random wire. One thing about this setup is that it is quick to put up and tear down.

VK3/VC-032

My final activation for the weekend was at this unnamed summit. Bush Search and Rescue Victoria are having a training day the following month just down the hill from here. My part is to operate a GPS based rogaine training exercise, so I met up with the organisers to do a reccy of the proposed course. After finishing up with them, I headed up the summit, and basically did the same thing as at Mt Warrenheip.

All three of these summits are nice easy summits to get started for those nervous about taking the SOTA activation plunge. Even CW activations on 40m are straightforward these days if you can self spot. If you can’t, its getting a lot easier as well.

I tested the voltage of the NiZn AA cells after the three activations. They started at 1.8V per cell, and were about 1.77V at the end of the day. They can clearly handle these activations and have plenty of left over capacity. Given that NiZn batteries prefer shallow cycles rather than deeper cycles, I would be using them as recommended. Running on these NiZn AA cells gives me most of the developed power I get when I operate using external LiPOs. It would be far ahead of using 1.5V non rechargables – the 1.5V is only when they are full – when they are about 50%, it’s 1.3V (that would be 7.8V total). Stories on the internet about the KX1 suggest that at around 7.5V, the KX1 is typically only generating 300 to 500mW. If I used NiMH, they quickly settle to 1.2V for 7.2V total for 6 cells. This is close to the KX1 low voltage cutoff – Elecraft don’t recommend running the KX1 on 6 NiMH cells, but if I did – it would be true QRPp activating. QRP does interest me, but I perhaps are not so much into the QRPp thing. As it currently stands, the NiZn cells are an excellent internal power solution for the KX1.

So, not too bad getting 3 summits in, although none of them are new uniques for me. Still, it had been a month since my last activation, so you have to take them when they come.

Regards, Wayne VK3WAM

Labour day long weekend part 2

After my activations the previous day, my plan was to activate four mountains along a ridge, starting with VK3/VE-152, then VE-116, then VE-108, finishing up at VE-106.

VK3/VE-152

I started off fairly early in the morning from the Granny’s Flat campsite. The track I was planning to use on the map went through private land and was not available. It was not clear on the forest explorer map, but I guessed that there would be access to the spur track from here, and this proved to be the case. First was a river crossing:

Jamieson River crossing at Granny’s Flat

After crossing the Jamieson River, it was steep climbing on foot on a 4wd track up on to the ridge. It was hard going, up and down. I was glad I was off in the early part of the day while it was still cool.

The 4wd track approaches, but does not enter the activation zone, so I headed up to about 10m underneath the summit and set up the 40m end fed on the 7m squid pole. It was a bit temperamental, giving some very high SWR readings, on what is normally a very reliable antenna. I did get it to settle down and activated on 40 and 20 untuned. I used the KX1 tuner on 30, and it had little difficulty – however I got no contacts here. It was nice to at least get 2 DX contacts on the end-fed on 20, N1EU and EA2DT.

VK3/VE-116

This summit is quite a bit higher than VE-152, but first I have to head down to the saddle between them. It was about a 400 vertical metre climb up from there to the summit. About 300m of this was on track, with the last 100m off track, heading up the spur to the summit. This climb was quite difficult, and perhaps my fitness was a little lower than what it used to be. A few bike riders and 4wds went past, amazed that anyone would walk the track – “it’s hard enough to ride/drive” they said.

There were some moderate views between the trees on the summit. It is not heavily forested but no clear views. I again set up the end fed, but it only presented high SWR. Lucky I brought the random wire, but then I found that the wire had broken off the BNC adapter. The wire is quite thin and thus fragile. I held it in place with a finger to ensure that I could actually activate the summit. I went off the air a few times during the activation while doing this, and the squid pole also came down a few times. Not my most pleasurable activation! I at least got it done with 5 contacts on 40. Not too much time to do other bands so I could try to stay on schedule.

VK3/VE-108

Again, this summit was higher, but first I have to descend from VE-116 to the saddle. I headed north east down the spur and met the road about halfway down to the saddle. The climb took some time – the previous climb up VE-116 had taken a lot out of me. The 4wd track goes right through the activation zone on this summit, so that was a bonus. Once up the top, I decided that the fourth summit for the day: VE-106 was beyond me for today. I would not have had enough food or water to get there comfortably, plus I was tired.

I ended up operating mainly on 40, with only token efforts on the other bands. I could not spot, so I relied on chasers being able to pick me up. I held the random wire in here by using a rubber band! It worked much better than trying to manually hold the wire onto the BNC adapter terminal, like what I did at the previous summit. One shame here was heavy QRM on my VK1SV contact. Another station would transmit over him (he was fairly weak to me). The QRM station was about 579. They would time their transmissions only at the time when he was sending his report (and trying to zero beat him as well – so there was no doubt it was deliberate QRM specifically targeting our QSO) and then stop. When I asked for a resend a couple of times, they kept doing the same. I don’t get what the point of it is. Anyway, I had enough confidence in what report VK1SV had sent to log his report, so Mr QRM missed out on scrubbing the contact.

With that, it was time for about a 4 hour walk back to the campsite and a good overnight snooze.

VK3/VE-191

My next summit was a hill to the south of Jamieson. A track heads up from the town, approaching from the Northwest. It was a moderate grade, with only a few short steep sections. A softroader could have got up here with care. I enjoyed walking this track after the previous day’s work. I made my way up to the summit, just a little off the road. The road itself goes through the activation zone.

I took a photo of my jury-rigged random wire antenna at the KX1:

Jury-rigged antenna on the KX1 at VK3/VE-191

I had no takers on 20/30, so with enough contacts, I headed back down the hill.

Mt Terrible Sput VK3/VE-134

My two final summits of the trip were summits that I had activated before. The first was Mt Terrible Spur. First, on the way up was a nice view of the Goulburn arm of Lake Eildon.

Lake Eildon near Jamieson

Last time I was here, I drove the Prius, and could not get it up the hill. This time I was driving the Camry, and I got this 2wd up the Mt Terrible Road to the VE-134 summit area and parked a little out of the activation zone. It was another straightforward activation, using the random wire antenna on the 7m squid pole. The 1/4 wave counterpoises I have for 20/30/40 all seem to work well, and the KX1 can generally tune the antenna comfortably down the bottom of the 40m band. I am still getting about 1-1.2 watts output on an input voltage of about 12.3V from LiPOs and 0.8-1w on 10.4V from the NiZn batteries. There is some power being lost across the tuner on 40. The effect is less on 20 and 30.

Bald Hill VK3/VE-137

The final summit was Bald Hill. I was not able to get the Prius up last time, but the Camry made it with relative ease. I had to stroll out of the activation zone and back in again and setup at the highest point I could find. My rubber band jury rig antenna connection was still working, and I worked a number of stations on 40, and VK6NU on 20.

My plan to fix the random wire antenna was to use a higher grade wire for the connection to the BNC adapter, and solder on the thin wire to the higher grade wire (perhaps about 5cm of thick wire). This should help, because the highest level of stress on the wire is at the connector. It is twisted and turned as the radio is moved about.

All in all, it was a great long weekend, with 13 summits activated, 11 new uniques for me and 5 summits first time SOTA activated.

Regards, Wayne VK3WAM

Labour day long weekend Part 1

Hi all,

On the recent Labour Day long weekend, I aimed to get away and have a look at a few new summits that I had not activated before, with some of them not activated yet at all. The plan was to activate 12 over the long weekend – we’ll see how we go.

Mt Lookout VK3/VT-030

Proceedings started with Mt Lookout, near Aberfeldy. I drove up on the Friday night and activated in the dark. The plan was to use the random wire on 20 and 40. Access to this summit is quite easy. Aberfeldy can be accessed via the Thompson Dam. The good quality road crosses the dam, and then climbs steeply. At the top of the ridge, it meets the Walhalla Rd and then goes gravel. The road is then a little narrow at times, but is easy going to Aberfeldy. There is a road that goes to the Aberfeldy cemetery and this is well within the activation zone.

I brought both a 7m and 4.7m squid pole, but decided on using the longer pole. Operation was on the KX1 and the random wire. I had Nickel Zinc batteries inside the KX1, but brought a 3S LiPO for operation – this helps boost up the wattages a little.

I had been using this random wire for some time, but only prepared a counterpoise for 20 and 30. This time, I upgraded the antenna for two counterpoises for 40. It takes a little longer to role out the extra counterpoises, but not too long. I decided to stay at 7.283 on 40 as that was what I had alerted. It tuned it with an SWR of 1 and I obtained higher wattage on 40, around 2, compared to what I have previously been able to obtain.

The activation went quite quickly, which was good because it had started to rain.

The next planned summit was Mt Selma, and I thought it best to see if I could get the car through on Walhalla Rd to access it. I was in a Camry 2WD. The road was of poorer quality north of Aberfeldy, but it was still passable with some care. It was not steep, but there were some large potholes in the road. I proceeded to the junction with the Selma Track. From here, the road was much better through to near the summit, which is where I slept that night.

Mt Selma VK3/VT-013

Next up, next morning (Saturday), Mt Selma. Access can be via Aberfeldy as described above. Easy 2WD access can be had from the Jamieson Licola Rd, taking South Rd and then Mt Selma Rd. I was parked outside the activation zone and then followed 4wd tracks for about 400m to get well within the zone. I setup using the random wire on the 7m pole again and worked on 20 and 40. The action this time was on 40. The KX1 is enjoying the extra conterpoises with the antenna.

Conner Plain VK3/VT-22

My second summit for the day (third for the trip) was Conner Plain. It had rained a moderate amount overnight, but this had started to clear up, however it was still quite foggy:

Foggy conditions on approach to Conner Plain

The Jamieson Licola Rd proceeds to the east and north of the summit. There is a bit of a track heading off which gains a few metres, but the fairly short climb is mostly off track. It is pretty easy going. There is an old dozer track coming in from the north north east towards the summit. I headed up to the east of this, and got into a bog which was caused by cattle grazing nearby. The cattle really tear up the bogs and it stank. I managed to avoid the worst of it and got up to the top, which is quite flat.

Here’s the operating location at Conner Plain:

Rig at Conner Plain

I was operating on the 7m squid pole. The radiating element (random wire) rises directly from the rig to the top of the squid pole:

Antenna and squid pole at Conner Plain

Mt Shillinglaw VK3/VE-068

My third summit for the day was Mt Shillinglaw. Access is via the Jamieson Licola Rd. The Australian Alpine Walking Track leaves the road almost due north from the summit and is quite well marked. It is a climb of about 100 vertical metres up to the flattish area of the top.

I still operated up at 7.283 due to having my alerts on sotawatch set at that frequency. I was developing about 2w on very low tuned SWR on about 12.4v from the LiPo pack.

Here’s a look at the setup there:

Setup at Mt Shillinglaw

Mt Skene VK3/VE-031

Mt Skene was the fourth summit of the day, and 5th of the trip. Access is again via the Jamieson Licola Rd. The road goes within a few hundred metres to the top and a sign points towards the summit. The track is quite indistinct, but it is not too hard to find the trig point at the top.

I operated with the same setup as the previous summits. Here, I found ants to be quite a problem. There was no where really to sit down without causing a swarm. I ended up hanging up the backpack on a tree and standing to operate! Before that, there were a number of pauses as I sent CW, as I needed to brush the ants away!

There are two lookouts near the summit, and both are on the road. The one south of the summit gives better views:

Looking NE from lookout on Mt Skene

Looking SE from lookout near Mt Skene

VK3/VE-091

The last planned summit of the day was this one, to the SW of Mt Skene. I backtracked a few kms to where Lazarini Spur Track meets the Jamieson Licola Rd, and started heading down. I expected a long walk, however the road quality remained acceptable for a 2wd. I continued to make my way to the saddle at point 431511. The road quality lessened somewhat, but I remained able to continue in the 2wd. There is a junction at 422502, I turned right, taking the track that passes to the north of VE-091, making my way to about 417502. This is about 200m to the north of the summit, about 80m down. I climed, but headed to the west of the summit and then SE in. The scrub had its moments – its not fast going, but I’ve seen far worse. At least its not too far.

I operated with a similar setup to previously, however the ants were even worse here that at Mt Skene. They were crawling up the conterpoise wires that were on the ground to the radio, the rig was covered with them. I tried to use the times when I was not sending to keep clearing the ants off the antenna wires and off the rig. Again, I operated standing up, there was nowhere safe to sit!

VK3/VE-158

For the last summit of the day, VE-158 was on the menu. As I had made good time in not needing to walk 8km each way to VE-091, I could squeeze in this summit. I parked the car at Ferguson Saddle (332675). I tried getting the Camry up the 4wd track climbing steeply out, and I nearly made it, but I had to concede defeat as it was simply too steep, and I did not feel it worth it to continue to try or reverse the car up – perhaps I could have got the car up reversing with great effort, but it gets a bit silly after awhile. Clearly the Camry is much more capable than the Prius on these roads. A AWD could be gotten up with car, and a high clearance low range 4wd with ease.

I walked to point 326682 and headed west to the high point and then south. I would have been better off staying on the track to about 321683 and heading up from there. On top, the going is easier, as there has been a recent control burn. It’s about 1.1km to the summit from the high point, which is about he same height. This summit appears to be in the wrong place, however, so VE-198 is going to be delisted at some point with a new summit at 313684.

Here’s a look at the terrain at dusk:

Recently burnt forest near VE-158 summit

With that, the day was done. I went to Granny’s Flat to sleep the night. There was quite a crowd there, so I thought I might sleep in the car, with the windows closed to keep down the noise. It was too hot, however and I also can’t stretch out properly in the back seat, so up went the tent. The noise had died down and I was able to get a reasonable sleep for the next big day ahead, which is continued in Part 2.

73 and regards,
Wayne VK3WAM

Mt Eaglehawk, Mt Barranhet, Mt Strathbogie and VE-203

Hi all,

Mt Eaglehawk VK3/VN-022

Rik Head VK3EQ mentioned that he would attempt to activate Mt Eaglehawk before the summit is no longer valid for SOTA activations. I was also keen for the same, so Rik kindly gave me a heads up when he was heading up.

Rik was heading up with a friend, Russ, up to Bogong and Mt Eaglehawk was an on the way stop. I headed up myself to join them, and then planned other activations afterwards.

Mt Eaglehawk is on private land, so if anyone else plans an activation, they would need to get information from Rik first. It turns out that Rik grew up in the area and therefore knows a lot of people.

We were able to get up the whole way to the summit in Rik’s Subaru. We needed to pile out of the car for one steep bit, where the wheels were slipping on the loose gravel, otherwise it was armchair ride. Both Rik and I don’t care for easy summit access interpretations for able bodied people, so we duly headed down 30 vertical metres with all our gear and headed back up and operated away from the car.

Rik quickly got his contacts, while I operated the FT-817 on CW. It’s interesting using the touch keyer again after using the KX1 key over the last month. The touch keyer just needs to be touched – so to speak, so it is ultra responsive. I’m not sure how it would go if trying to key CW with gloves on, but I know the KX1 keyer can do that.

For people unfamiliar with CW and what I’m talking about, these keyers are used with an electronic keyer to generate the dits and dahs of morse code. By touching one paddle of the keyer, dits are generated, the other generates dahs. Touching nothing generates nothing. As most morse characters have various combinations of dits and dahs, the two paddles are touched as required. The touch keyer needs only to have touch by a finger. No force is necessary. The KX1 keyer needs only light force.

These paddles allow for morse to be generated much more cleanly than a “straight keyer”, which is the old style morse keys from the first half of the 20th century. Some feel, that true CW is only on a straight key, but I do beg to differ.

As I had a FT-817, I also brought a microphone, and operated voice so a number of people absent from the log over the last month with me using the KX1 found their way in this time.

I feel that the KX1 receiver is significantly better than the FT-817, and for operating CW, it is a much better radio. I do have a narrow filter in the FT-817 for morse, but the variable filter of the KX1 is a nice feature. The KX1 could resolve signals that the FT-817 could not. Of course my own signal is up using the 817, as I can send a full 5 watts, rather than the variable 1 to 3 or so watts on the KX1 based on input voltage, band and antenna.

There are some nice views on the approach to the summit:

Looking towards Mt Hickey from near Mt Eaglehawk

Looking south east from near Mt Eaglehawk

Mt Barranhet VK3/VU-001

With Eaglehawk done, I said farewell to Rik and Russ, and headed towards Barranhet. Peter VK3PF had activated this summit, so I intended to follow what he had done. I used Bonnie Doon Rd and Mt Piper Track to get within about 1.5km of the summit. The road enterers a pine plantation and there is a no entry sign at 972212. The edge of the plantation is on the edge of state forest, however and state forest is fair game. I don’t think it would be right to use the parameter road as this tends to go onto pine plantation land, but using the edge of the road clearing seemed ok to me. On the way up, I proceed to point 971215 and then bushbashed up the side of the mountain, drifting a little to the north and came to the summit from there. On the way back, I used a road cut into the mountain, which skirts the summit to the north. It heads southwards to the plantation at point 962211. This would be the easiest way to access the summit, to proceed on the parameter of the plantation from 971215 to 962211 and then use this road northwards in the state forest up to close to the summit.

I used the KX1 on CW 20/30/40, while the FT-817 on SSB. There is a growing audience of CW chasers (although nearly all of them also will chase on SSB, given no CW). A few are willing to chase CW even though they knew for this activation they would likely pick it up a little later on SSB. That was pleasing.

One decision I have made is that I will adjust the “random wire” with a proper 1/4 wave counterpoise on 40m. I already have one for 20/30 and the KX1 can tune the wire no problems on those bands, but 40 is always a bit of a problem. SWR tends to be 1.7+, but often low 2s, even high 2s. Not really good enough. On the other bands, it generates higher power and SWR is generally below 1.5. It is time to get similar performance on 40, and also be able to use 7.027 and 7.032 as I wish, rather than having to retreat up to 7.287 sometimes.

Got a shot towards my net destination from point 962211:

Mt Strathbogie from near Mt Barranhet

Mt Strathbogie VK3/VE-132

This summit can be accessed from Ferraris Rd, which passes about 500m to the west of the summit. A 4wd track heads up from there, with a branch going to the summit itself.

I operated here using the KX1 on CW and the FT-817 on SSB. I used only the endfed from this summit on 20 and 40 only. VK6NU was trying to get me, and we heard each other, but not enough to get the contact.

The summit has some large rocks but it is still all under tree cover. There is an installation on the summit, with a CCD camera for those who want to get up to trouble.

Mt Strathbogie summit

VK3/VE-203

My final summit of the day was just down from Mt Strathbogie. I accessed it using Ferraris Rd down to Glen Creek Rd. Good going in a 2wd. Older maps show a track going to the summit from the saddle, and this road exists, although is gated. It’s steep in places but not too hard going up to the summit. I finished the day operating only on the FT-817, for both CW and SSB. VK6NU appreciated the higher power, and we completed the contact here on 20m.

A nice day out for some SOTA, but now it’s back to work!

Regards, Wayne VK3WAM

Mt Buller and 4 other summits CW only

Hi all,

After building a “random” wire antenna, it was time to take the new configuration on activations and see how it works in the real world. I decided to leave the FT-817 at home and go cold turkey on real CW only activations, with no capacity to fall back on SSB to ensure I got four contacts.

I don’t have a great deal of spare time these days, so I thought about going up on a Sunday afternoon and pull a flexi time off day on the Monday. If I’m going to jump in the deep end CW only, this is a way to do it when there are fewer SOTA chasers available during the week.

VK3-VE123

This is an unnamed summit accessible from Timbertop saddle on the Howqua Track. Three Chain Track heads off to the west. I was able to get the Prius up part of this and called stumps (a cricket term meaning the end of play) about 1.5km from the summit. From there, I headed on foot.

The track would be easy going in a proper 4wd.

For this activation, I still took a bit of a safety net, with the end-fed antenna on board and I took up the 7m squid pole. I decided to employ the “random” wire on the 7m squid pole.

The KX1 was able to tune on 20/30/40 with a very dodgy tune on 80 for interests sake. The rig reports the power after the tune. Compared to home, I was using a set of 18650 LiIon cells which develop 12.6V fully charged, but quickly drop down to mid 11’s. At this voltage, 2.5W would be the best I could hope for. Practical KX1 activations are lower powered than FT-817 activations where 5W is easily obtainable.

Power is lost across the tuner, depending on how difficult the match is. I was developing 2.2W on 20, about 1.7W on 30 and about 1.3W on 40. The tuner was effectively losing about 3dB on 40, but less on the other bands. SWR was 1.5 or less.

There’s no real risk of a CW pile up on a SOTA activation in VK at this stage. I had a range of contacts from local to DX and across all three bands.

One thing cropped up. The KX1 paddles are a little loose in their socket. I would tighten the hand screw to help, but even so, there would be some movement on the paddle base and this affected my keying. Ian VK5CZ got the worst of it, so much so I noticed after I got home that he suggested going down to 12wpm. Slower keying would not have helped in this case, it would have actually made it worse.

I found the solution to this problem would be to hold the base of the paddles with my thumb of my non keying hand. This seemed to make keying much more reliable, with only the occasional missed formed character.

Its not the same as my touch keyer, which does not lose a beat. However, the touch keyer needs its own battery and is liable to be turned on in a backpack. This can flatten it over time (takes several days). I think I will learn to live with the KX1’s paddles.

The activation was at dusk, so it was too dark to take photos of the setup. It was a nice sunset to look at though.

Mt Timbertop VK3/VE-073

It was back to Timbertop saddle where I slept. Next morning, I took the walking track from here which goes up the mountain. This track has been upgraded from going straight up to a track that does some zig zagging. Makes the track more pleasant to walk on. In a few places, walkers are trying to use the closed track, but I don’t think it would save them much time – apart from being harder.

There are some great views looking west.

Northwest from Mt Timbertop’s slops

The summit is reached quite comfortably. This climb is easy if one is fit. If you are not, you need only take your time. A walking pole is of great assistance.

The summit itself has some snow gums (Timbertop suggests there should be some timber on top). I decided to put the KX1 in a tree so that the base of the wire is not near the ground. This seems to help 40, but does not necessarily help, perhaps hinders on 30.

Summit area of Mt Timbertop

For this activation, the 7m squid pole was left in the car and my 4.7m squid pole was brought along instead. This pole, discussed in this post, is very lightweight. 20m and 30m worked fine, but I found I had better tuning results on 40m if I tuned for near the top of the band, around 7.28 to 7.3 In VK, operating CW here is fine, although somewhat unusual. To get some contacts, I operated down the bottom of the band, but with SWR around two. The power was around 0.8W verses 1.2W at the top of the band.

I was wondering if the squid pole would be strong enough at my chosen mounting point about midway on the second highest segment. The squidpole looks like it does fine at this point for the sloping wire of the antenna. I’m not sure about mounting my HW end fed on it because that wire is much heavier.

Mt Buller VK3/VE-008

Most local readers would be aware that Mt Buller is the location of a significant winter ski resort and has also developed into a summer mountain bike park. The development of this mountain means that there is a sealed road most of the way to the top, then a short gravel road. There is only a 50m vertical climb to the top. I operated a little down from the actual summit, about 30m horizontal or so from the top.

I operated with the lightweight setup again on this summit. The KX1 was reporting about 11.4V from the battery. It seems it takes about 0.5V off the input voltage. I tried this at home with really fat cables on a 13.V supply and the KX1 reported 13.0V. I tried it at home with same thinner supply cable and it still reported 13.0V (alternating a little to 12.9V)

The setup is shown below. The lightweight squid pole can be wedged in some rock with tension on the cable holding it in place. It was windy up there – the picture shows some wind load on the cable.

VK3WAM station at Mt Bullder Vk3/VE-008

The KX1 developed about 2W on 20, 1.6W on 30 and 1.1W on 40. 40 needed to be at the top of the band for an acceptable SWR. Down the bottom was a SWR of well over 2 and a power of only 0.7W.

All contacts at this summit were on 40. Peter VK3PF tried his hand at some CW, which was certainly good enough to read his reports, with some initial confusion on his call sign. Given that he, along with Gerard VK2IO had not done CW for extended periods, SOTA is having an impact on use of this mode. Perhaps motivated by wanting to work the summit and knowing that CW was needed to active this, helped them dust off those long unused keys!

The operating spot gave a good look down the steep NW face of Mt Buller. Apparently some people have tried skiing down here. There was a sign nearby with two sets of double black diamonds reminding skiers that the area was unpatrolled.

NW face of Mt Buller

Mt Stirling VK3/VE-011

From Mt Buller, there is a road that goes to Howqua gap, but I was not prepared to drive down that in a Prius. Instead I drove down the mountain and then up the Stirling Rd. Mt Stirling is surrounded by a circuit road, but this does not approach the summit closely. I decided to use the River Spur track. Its a walk of a little over 3km, with a climb of about 400m up to the summit. It can be accessed by using the southern side of the Circuit Rd – the first track heading up is Bluff Spur track (over 4km) with River Spur track being the second track heading up.

The summit is above the tree line. I used the trig point to mount the squid pole.

Operating at Mt Stirling VK3/VE-011

The trend of 20 and 30 tuning quickly and 40 being better at the top of the band continued here. The battery voltage was reported about 11V, and power levels were 2W, 1.5W and 1.1W on 20, 30 and 40 respectively.

Even though the KX1 is only developing 6dB less power, with the tuner, on this configuration on 40, it is enough to get contacts. The setup is very lightweight and very fast to put up and take down. If I was to take the larger squid pole, with the end fed on a FT-817, that might give me another 12dB with everything, but it is significantly more gear to take. The nicest thing about the KX1 is it is a complete station, with the antenna. I’m using it with an external battery, but it does have the capacity to put some internal AA batteries inside.

I was able to activate with a mix of 20 and 30 contacts. I saw later on SOTA spots that N7SP was trying to get me on 20, but looking at messages others try to send using SOTA spots is not always easy on summit.

Most of these mountains have great views on top and Mt Stirling is no exception. Here’s a view back to Mt Buller:

Mt Buller from Mt Stirling

And a look north towards Mt Buffalo and Mt Cobbler (right of centre)

Mt Cobbler from Mt Stirling

Mt Winstanley VK3/VE-036

The last summit on the menu was Mt Winstanley. This summit is to the north west of Stirling, so I used Circuit Rd and then No 3 rd to access it. Here’s a screenshot of the tracklog:

Tracklog of access to Winstanley

There is a track going along the ridge – and this is shown in opencyclemap. It is not in the Forest Explorer or the OziExplorer maps that I have. I used the track for the last 500m. Opencyclemap does not show RazorBack Trail correctly, but this track departs near the junction of No 3 Rd and Circuit Rd. Going up RazorBack and taking the walking track, I presume, from there is likely the easiest route to access this summit.

Spot the station – including the squid pole – in this photo:

Operating at Mt Winstanley

The KX1 reported a battery voltage of 10.7V. This would be around 11.2V out of the battery. This would be a little less than half a cycle on these batteries. They are fake Ultrafires, branded for 2400mAh capacity, but actually give about 1200mAh. It would appear that the KX1 drew about 500mAh to 550mAh, for around 7 hours of operating, including lots of CQ calls.

At this lower voltage level, I was getting about 1.8W on 20, 1.4W on 30, and 1.1W on 40. Interestingly, 30 did not like the KX1 a metre and half off the ground, I got a much lower SWR on the ground – power levels were similar. 40m liked the rig off the ground, but again, tuning was better at the top of the band, where tunes were getting an SWR of 1.1 and power of 1.1W, compared to SWRs of 3 or higher and power of less than 0.7W on the ground.

Can I improve the performance of this antenna – undoubtedly yes, but why bother. If I want something better on 40, I’ll carry the half wave end fed, with its matchbox. If I improve this “random” wire antenna for 40, it will come at cost of lower convenience, because the improvement would need to be a 1/4 wavelength counterpoise for 40m. As it stands, the two counterpoises do a good enough job for the very lightweight and portable objectives of this wire antenna. 40m is an important band for local contacts, but I think 30m will rise in importance as nearby states become more accustomed to SOTA. I think, in time, that 30m will be an important band for SOTA in VK.

Regards, Wayne VK3WAM