19-03-2017, 07:55 AM
Well I chickened out of going portable at 8AM Saturday morning after watching very dark clouds come in from the SSE / South/ SSW direction. My portable destination had about 80mm of rain logged the Friday afternoon while we had 36mm (in about 15 minutes) at home, and it was considered all too chancy to go. In hindsight, I should have braved the elements like so many others and gone and done the portable bit. It was all ready to load into the vehicle too, maybe half an hour to get it all loaded, half an hours travel, probably the same to set up.
It was good to hear and work so many portable stations during my 6 hour activity period though, from all over VK and even one ZL, on 80, 40 and 20M. Some commented that it was raining heavily at the time and at least one wondered whether their party would be able to leave their site due to the rain. What was disappointing was that there was only ONE station operating on VHF/UHF from South East VK4 in a portable capacity (Grant VK4JAZ on Tamborine on 2FM) yet there was a bunch in Northern NSW and I managed to work Graham VK2QJ/p on 6, 2 and 70 SSB at a distance of 280Km once in each 3 hour block. I worked only one other VK4 callsign on VHF/UHF - a very poor showing from SE VK4.
I was all ready to start operating from the home QTH at 0100UTC but VKCL reminded me of the 3 hour block arrangement so I deferred my start until after an early lunch to 0200UTC. I then worked until 0800UTC giving me the requisite 6 hours. Sometimes it is worthwhile reviewing the rules to maximise the scoring options - in my case it meant 2 hours in the first block, then three and finally one hour into a third block.
I hope others post details of their outings..... and also remember to get their logs uploaded.
It was good to hear and work so many portable stations during my 6 hour activity period though, from all over VK and even one ZL, on 80, 40 and 20M. Some commented that it was raining heavily at the time and at least one wondered whether their party would be able to leave their site due to the rain. What was disappointing was that there was only ONE station operating on VHF/UHF from South East VK4 in a portable capacity (Grant VK4JAZ on Tamborine on 2FM) yet there was a bunch in Northern NSW and I managed to work Graham VK2QJ/p on 6, 2 and 70 SSB at a distance of 280Km once in each 3 hour block. I worked only one other VK4 callsign on VHF/UHF - a very poor showing from SE VK4.
I was all ready to start operating from the home QTH at 0100UTC but VKCL reminded me of the 3 hour block arrangement so I deferred my start until after an early lunch to 0200UTC. I then worked until 0800UTC giving me the requisite 6 hours. Sometimes it is worthwhile reviewing the rules to maximise the scoring options - in my case it meant 2 hours in the first block, then three and finally one hour into a third block.
I hope others post details of their outings..... and also remember to get their logs uploaded.
Doug VK4ADC @ QG62LG51
http://www.vk4adc.com
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http://www.vk4adc.com
This Forum is only going to be as interesting as the posts it contains.
If you have a comment or question, post it as it may trigger or answer the query in someone else's mind.