This last week the local repeaters here in Brisbane have been rather quiet.
One repeater I used to use a lot has been acting up, and so rather than potentially try to exacerbate a possibly worsening issue, I figured I’d leave it well alone until it was fixed.
Another I lurk on, has been working fine, but many of the people I’d talk to, are away on holidays.
So, I figured I’d dust off my trusty HF whip and give the lower frequencies another crack. This time last week I was getting nowhere on 15m. Maybe wrong place at the wrong time (Aside: is there ever a right time to be in the wrong place?) and so didn’t get anywhere.
40m I knew worked on this particular antenna, so I’ve been lurking there… calling in on the Coral Coast net on 7060kHz in the mornings, and tuning up and down the band on the way home. I make note of my listening frequency via APRS-IS, see my tracker or look for VK4MSL-10 on aprs.fi.
I knew the antenna worked there, not perfect, but it did work. It works particularly well when the other station is equipped to pick up weak stations. Earlier this evening, I set out from my workplace listening on 7060kHz where I was this morning. I noticed it was chock-a-bloc full of stations north of us. Indonesia and surrounds by the sounds of things.
Couldn’t make a head or tail of what they were saying, so I moved up the band, stumbled across a couple of “local” stations chatting around 7175kHz. Turns out one was portable in Barcaldine, didn’t catch the name, but the callsign was VK2DQC, I think. (I didn’t write it down.) We chatted for a short while, but apparently my signal was up and down like a yo-yo.
No surprise, I started the QSO walking up Greer Street, Bardon, continued my next over riding down The Drive, Cecil Road and Bowman Parade then up through Sunset Park. Anyone who knows that stretch knows it goes up then down then up again then down. I finished the chat as I came down Monoplane Street, Ashgrove.
Tuning around, I found another pair talking on 7158kHz. Bob VK6KJ and Bruce VK2??. As they were talking a third station, Joe, W5?? called in from Florida USA. To say I was impressed would be an understatement, all three were coming in Q5, and signal strengths in excess of S6 in most cases. Bob was peaking S9.
Joe mentioned is misfortune of having some equipment destroyed in a storm, and this necessitating the replacement of a computer along with its OS. Apparently he’s not a fan of “Window 8” (as we call it at work). I did try to call Joe but must’ve doubled and wasn’t heard.
I did though, manage to make contact with Bob. He was located in Albany, about 400km south-southeast of Perth, and running 400W into a two-element beam pointed at the US. With my measly 100W and stubby home-made antenna, I apparently was registering a Q5S5 signal with the odd drop-out.
Clearly Bob’s end was doing all the work, but impressive nonetheless. Seeing as the evenings can be particularly quiet, I think I’ve found a new past-time to while away the hour-long trip home, stirring up HF on the deadly-treadly-mobile!
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