VK2MB Flagpole – Pirate Day Contest

When I lived in sydney, i was a member of the Manly Warringah Radio Society (VK2MB), this is a very active ham club on Sydney’s northern Beach’s, they have weekly meetings at the clubs shack/rooms in Terrey Hills.

The club has recently obtained a stack of portable / quick erect flagpole antenna poles, and have decided to combine this with the international talk like a pirate day to hold a fun Contest, Being run today Saturday 21st September.

The contest is a bit of fun, with extra points for creativity, flagpole mount stations, pirate flags, SSTV pics of the stations, and other extras as judged by the clubs president.

I don’t have a station that can operate portable/flagpole today, but I have acquired a pirate flag and will fly this from my codan mobile antenna for the day of fun. They are floating around 7045khz, give them a call.

A full list of the rules at the clubs website http://www.mwrs.org.au/

**Update, the day was run, and what a success.

I had some family commitments over the morning, but in the afternoon headed towards the beach (and parks for the kids to play in) while I set up my Pirate flag atop my codan antenna and made some contacts. Initially we started at Albert park playground, a favourite for the kids, then headed to Brighton beach playground to take advantage of the ocean.

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I had 10 contacts over 2 hrs at the different locations, I was able to fly my Pirate flag, and got a lot of interesting comments (especially from kids) as they walked past the car! My two boys were also very impressed at the pirate flag, and a little disappointed I wouldn’t drive around town with it attached.

I downloaded an SSTV iPhone app, and using the iPhone held to the microphone, we able to send two photos over SSTV from the two locations to the club station in sydney for extra points. Below are the received photos from sydney over SSTV on 40m.

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And finally, as all good Pirates do, we ended the day with a fish and chip dinner by the bay!

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