VK3ACU
My First POTA Activation at AU-8318:
Sep 14 2024
It was a day I had been looking forward to—my first Parks on the Air (POTA) activation at park AU-8318. Armed with my gear, my dog, and plenty of enthusiasm, I set up and started calling CQ. At 10:24 local time, I made my first contact. However, shortly after, things started to take a turn for the worse.
Band conditions were far from ideal. A strange noise appeared on the frequency, making things difficult. Later, VK6HRC, sent me a screenshot of an SDR showing a massive blast of noise right over the frequency I was operating on. Despite the interference, I pressed on and managed to log 11 contacts—3 on voice and the rest on CW. One of the highlights was a park-to-park contact.
I had brought my dog along, and she was riding in the back of the ute, enjoying the fresh air. But then the weather took a sharp turn, and it started hailing. I quickly moved her into the cab to keep her safe. To add to the chaos, someone nearby started shooting, and my poor dog was petrified. I had to speed up my activation, shifting to voice to hit the 10-contact mark.
By noon, the CW contacts dried up completely. Between the weather, noise on the bands, and the terrified dog, it was an activation full of challenges, but I made it through. VK6HRC’s screenshot of the SDR confirmed the massive interference that had plagued me, but in the end, I got the job done and hit the target.
17/06/2023 QRP DAY
This morning I decided to make one of Peter Parkers (VK3YE) antenna couplers, At that stage I did not realise it was QRP day.
The coupler was a great success and Peter was one of my first contacts for the day. I made over 30 contacts and some DX in to Italy.
IC-705 running 5 watts
25/04/2023 Anzac day - Sharps crossing
Quick portable trip Anzac day close to home 20+ contacts on 40m I should have really done a park activation!
30/03/2023 Great QRP DX again from home
A quick contact from the back of the ute with a squid pole and inverted V 10 watts in to England with G4SEN
29/03/2023 Good DX! On the way home from work
Just decided to stop in a nice place close to home put up some wire and see what the bands where doing.
Running QRP managed a few great contacts including G2YT Peter (England) and IK4GRO Lauro (Italy)
Glad I made the stop on the way home from work Lots of fun.
13/3/2023 Testing out a DIY 2m Yagi
Testing out a 2m Yagi with the IC-705 today from home works well. Big ears testing out her antennas as well!
2/3/2023 A few contacts on the way home from work
On my way home from work. I decided to make a quick stop at the Crossing Picnic Area to set up my Yaesu FT891 radio and my trusty endfed inverted V antenna for a bit of fun on the airwaves.
The setup was super easy, and I was soon making contacts on 40m with other operators. It was great to chat with some new people and unwind after a long day.
I go to this spot often dispite being in a dip, its close to home and on the way home from work
28/1/2023 Testing out the Yaesu FT-891 Portable from The Crossing Picnic Area (Steiglitz Vic)
Went out for a quick drive to Steiglitz just down the road from my QTH to test out the Yaesu FT-891
Made a couple of quick contacts
VK3CJN
VK7HOB
VK5MOS
I started out with 50watts VK5MOS was running 10watts, I then turned down to 20watts then 10, then 1 then 0%power.
I think around 100mw on the Yaesu, Mos was running 0% Power on the IC-7300 as well. I was just peaking in to the red on his receive and he was a solid 5-9 for quite a while on our end.
This is the lowest power SSB contact I have ever made 850kms around 4:30 on 40M.
Cheers again for the contact and video Mos look forward to chatting again soon!
22/2/2023 Camping again at Lal Lal Victoria
Quick overnight stay at Lal Lal band conditions where really bad we did make two contacts quickly in the morning.
VK3YE - Peter operating portable from the water, Thanks for the contact Peter Laurence made his first contact as a second operator.
VK3UAO - Stuart A quick contact with Stuart that quickly ended due to conditions
19/1/2023 Friday's Camp Ground
Made a few contacts, the band conditions have been a bit average lately.
Including a nice long chat with Tom VK3EO who also has a IC-705
13/1/2023 Testing the AH-705 vs UNUN
Ended up with a AH-705 and wanted to compare this to my home made 49:1
This would allow me to have more than the 40m band while portable.
I Had a contact with VK5MOS who was kind enough to have the time to test out a few different configurations with me.
I first tried 20m of wire with the AH-705 then the 49:1 UNUN and wire then the AH-705 to the UNUN then the wire.
The end result was the AH-705 was the best.
You can just see the AH-705 tuner tied to the tree in the top right.
6/1/2023 Quick portable from Bert Boardman Recreation Reserve
Went out early today band conditions where not great, only stayed for around 30mins
All the same made 2 contacts VK3EO AND VK3BEZ
5/1/2023 Portable from The Crossing Picnic Area (Steiglitz Vic)
The little end fed again down at the Picnic Crossing Area
Had a great afternoon with the IC-705 with its internal battery, I was able to operate for around 2.5hours although it was not compleatly charged when I started.
I called CQ for a long time and managed 6 contacts from 3:30pm Local time to around 5:40 when the battery went flat mid contact.
The battery on the IC705 shows full for a long time then drops off fast. Once it goes red you want to wrap up your convo because its about to die!
I now wonder if I should put that little SLA back in the case...
I managed 6 contacts for the afternoon.
VK3XL , VK2TRL , VK3KMA (with a second operator on the side Nick who is going for his foundation good luck Nick!) , VK3MIJ , VK3ZLT , VK3UCD
4/1/2023 Stay over at Lal Lal Vic
I decided to do an overnight stay, I threw the endfed back up in the tree.
I find the easiest way to get the wire in the tree is tie some string to a pine cone. I've tried lots of things sticks rocks etc but quite often found that stuff would get stuck in the tree and take a lot of jiggeling to get it back down, the pine cone has some weight and being roundish seems to always throw well and fall through the branches.
40m conditions were great in the afternoon with almost no noise, I only made one quick contact with Malcom VK3OAK POTA .
Being a friend came along for the camping trip I thought I best not be rude and stay on the radio all day!
I'm really liking the IC-705 portable and I originaly had a 7ah gel battery in my case but I'm not sure the extra weight is worth the extra 5 watts.
I'm thinking I will scale down the case smaller again soon maybe in to a soft camera bag, A length of wire UNUN and the 705 is all I really need.
I need to investigate POTA as well but I'll have to get out of the habit of using my tail gate for a table :D
3/1/2023 5 Watts from Lal Lal Victoria
Wound up a little 49:1 unun that will become my camping unun.
Roughly 20m of cheap thin wire attached.
Called CQ and made a few contacts for around a hour and to my surprise the internal battery on the IC705 was still showing 2/3 full.
After about a hour I decided to call it quits because I was being eaten alive by a ridiculous amount of mosquitos!
My YouTube channel link.
Channel is dedicated to electronics repairs and projects a few samples below.
Free CrowBar Circuit and PCB for your radio power supply below.
13/6/22 Portable from Mount Buninyong with the IC-705 40m
The rain had eased and I was itching to try out the IC-705 I had recently purchased.
I had 3D printed a 49:1 UNUN holder / winder the night before but managed to break it before setting up fully.
Originally I setup in the picnic area close to the fire look out.
When I first arrived it was slightly raining with no one else around.
Not long after throwing my wire in to a tree (being public holiday) quite a few people showed up some deciding to stop for lunch.
As my antenna was quite low (picture to the right) and with all the young kids running around I thought it would be best to move.
The next spot was slightly down from the top near a muddy boggy turn off. I pulled over threw the wire in a tree and gave it another shot.
I made two contacts for the morning before the condition changed. One with VK3MJ for close to a hour in Geelong, great chat!
I started off with the internal battery and 5 watts I ended up plugging in external power to boost the power output as I was a tad faint to VK3MJ in Geelong.
As mentioned I used a 49:1 UNUN with a bit of old speaker wire with a few joins in it.
The SWR was just flicking on the IC-705's meter during transmit.
I have also setup an email address if you wish to email me you can at VK3ACU@gmail.com
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