As part of a short family holiday to Sydney and home via Canberra, I was able to fit in one activation. I had dropped the family off at Questacon early on good friday morning, the kids love this place, we spent a whole day at the science centre on wednesday, and they wanted to go back. I was able to grab a couple of hours to get in my activation.
Mt Ainslie is a peak to the north of suburban Canberra, it has a lookout at the top, with parking, a good tourist all the way to the top. The summit is listed as 843m, the sign at the top says 846m.
I parked the car at the top carpark and walked down the road to ensure I was well outside the activation zone. Heading to 800m on the GPS.
Then back to the top to setup and operate. I choose to set up at the lower of the two lookout areas, using the rail to support my squid pole and the ledge as a seat. (better than sitting on the ground at the top of the extra hill)
I connected up the gear on 40m and spotted/called and worked two summit to summit’s before a constant stream of stations over the next 20 mins, before a change to 20m and 3 more contacts, but still no VK6, i need to build my linked dipole, the random wire and Zmatch (essentially vertical isn’t cutting the mustard for vk6), in all, 26 stations worked, the best “worked” count for me on a hill. And as per usual Four Andrews!.. It really is summits of the Andrews! Conditions were good, with everyone an easy contact, my new Mylar ft817 speaker upgrade appeared to make a difference, really helping to lift the voice (and reduce the background noise) it made working stations easy. I had my headphones in the bag, but didn’t need to use them. Worth the $25 i feel. Thanks for all who I worked.
| Time | Call | Band | Mode | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:23z | VK1DI | 7MHz | SSB | s2s Ian |
| 00:25z | VK3EK/P | 7MHz | SSB | s2s Rob |
| 00:29z | VK1MBE | 7MHz | SSB | Andrew!! |
| 00:30z | VK2IO | 7MHz | SSB | gerard |
| 00:32z | VK3FPSR | 7MHz | SSB | Peter |
| 00:34z | VK1EM | 7MHz | SSB | Mark |
| 00:35z | VK1MA | 7MHz | SSB | Andrew!! |
| 00:36z | VK1NAM | 7MHz | SSB | Andrew!! |
| 00:37z | VK3DET | 7MHz | SSB | earnie |
| 00:38z | VK3CAT | 7MHz | SSB | Tony |
| 00:39z | VK3FQSO | 7MHz | SSB | Amanda |
| 00:40z | VK3UBY | 7MHz | SSB | Colin |
| 00:41z | VK2YW | 7MHz | SSB | John |
| 00:41z | VK2UH | 7MHz | SSB | Andrew!! |
| 00:42z | VK2LAX | 7MHz | SSB | Rod |
| 00:43z | VK3AFW | 7MHz | SSB | Ron |
| 00:44z | VK5PS | 7MHz | SSB | Peter |
| 00:45z | VK3MEG | 7MHz | SSB | Steve |
| 00:47z | VK7BO | 7MHz | SSB | allan |
| 00:48z | VK2CCJ | 7MHz | SSB | Clint |
| 00:48z | VK5LY | 7MHz | SSB | larry |
| 00:49z | VK3FOWL | 7MHz | SSB | julie |
| 00:49z | VK3HRA | 7MHz | SSB | allan |
| 00:57z | VK8GM | 14MHz | SSB | Greg |
| 00:58z | VK5NIG | 14MHz | SSB | Nigel |
| 00:59z | VK2MCB | 14MHz | SSB | Phil |
The rest of the short holiday, was all about the food, we lived in Sydney for a number of years, and had a number of favourite restaurant and food places we miss since moving back to Melbourne. So we made sure we took advantage of the trip and visited all our favourite places of old.
Hong Ha Banh Mi Rolls, Mascot
East Ocean Yum Cha
BBQ King Peking Duck
