Work took me back to western Victoria yesterday, with an early morning meeting in Warrnambool which meant a very early morning trip form Melbourne. Having finished all my tasks by mid-day, I took the opportunity to undertake some RF survey works taking the coast road back to Melbourne, looking at some site options for some things we are doing at the moment, this in turn presented the opportunity to activate Sota on VK3/VC-022 Mt Cowley on my way home, as this is a site i had some survey work at. I had visited Mt Cowley in a similar circumstance last year and this activation was almost an exact copy!

I drove up the summit and parked near the top, grabbed the backpack and pole, and walked down the road to ensure I was outside the activation zone, then back to the gate on the western side of the hill (away from the comms tower) where I set up the 40m dipole (it really does work better than the end fed or random wire antenna and Z match) and managed a quick activation.

Band conditions were good with a mix of vk5, vk1, vk2 and vk3 stations. As usual, a mid week activation provides a different audience with a number of new call signs in the mix. Even one Andrew to Andrew Contact!

As part of my continued optimisation of my setup, i tested with success two new ideas, the first was nothing more complex than some tent pegs to string out the dipole legs, I kept forgetting to buy some, but finally managed, and they worked a treat! (I’m easily impressed)

The second idea that worked well was to use some sticky velcro tape, which i have cut and wrapped around the base section of the squid pole. I have been using double sided velcro strap for attaching the squid pole but on occasion the pole slips, or its hard to get a good base/grip on the pole, this sticky velcro on the pole gives me the starting grip and made the velcro process so much easier!.

One final surprise/treat was working Christine (my wife) VK3FCEK, she had been visiting family in western Victoria and was driving home, a quick call to her to tell her to turn the codan in the car on and she popped up on the activation and I had a chat with her and my kids! Thanks to all who i managed to work in the activation!.

Date:19/Aug/2014 Summit:VK3/VC-022 (Mt Cowley) Call Used:VK3BQ Points: 2 Bonus: 0